What Happened to Trapt? New Album and Anniversary Tour in 2026

For a few years in the early 2000s, you could not turn on a rock radio station without hearing Trapt’s “Headstrong” — a chugging, defiant anthem that turned the California band into platinum-selling stars almost overnight. Since then, the group’s story has taken a much stranger path than most of their nu-metal-era peers: a revolving lineup, a loyal but shrinking fanbase, and, in recent years, a series of canceled shows tied directly to frontman Chris Taylor Brown’s public political statements. So what actually happened to Trapt, and what are they doing now? Here’s the full picture.

01Profile

Brown is the constant through every version of this band — he’s the only member left from the lineup that recorded “Headstrong,” and he’s also the reason Trapt keeps making headlines for reasons that have nothing to do with music.

02The Rise: Headstrong and a Platinum Debut

From Days of the New West to a major-label deal

Trapt started in the small town of Los Gatos, California, in the early-to-mid 1990s, going through a few names and lineup shuffles before settling on “Trapt.” Chris Taylor Brown was the songwriting engine from the start, and after years of grinding on the local scene, the band caught the attention of Warner Bros. Records subsidiary Reprise, who signed them around 2002.

”Headstrong” becomes a rock-radio staple

The self-titled album “Trapt,” released in November 2002, produced the single that would define the band forever: “Headstrong.” Built around a tense, riff-driven verse and a shout-along chorus, the song became a genuine crossover hit — it climbed into the top five of Billboard’s Mainstream Rock and Mainstream Top 40 charts and turned Trapt into one of the more recognizable rock acts of the post-grunge, nu-metal-adjacent wave that dominated early-2000s radio. The album itself went on to be certified platinum by the RIAA, and follow-up singles like “Still Frame” kept the band in rotation for a couple more years.

Riding the wave — then watching it recede

Trapt released a string of albums through the 2000s and 2010s — “Someone in Control” (2005), “Only Through the Pain” (2008), and several more — but none came close to replicating the commercial peak of the debut. As rock radio’s format shifted and the nu-metal wave receded, Trapt settled into the working-band tier of the rock world: steady touring, a dedicated fanbase, and diminishing mainstream visibility. By the 2010s, Brown had become the sole holdover from the “Headstrong” era, cycling through bassists, guitarists, and drummers over the years while keeping the Trapt name alive.

03Turning Point: Controversy and Canceled Shows

Unlike many of his rock-radio peers, Brown didn’t fade quietly into legacy-act status. Starting in the early 2020s, he became known almost as much for his outspoken, pro-Trump political commentary and combative social media presence as for his music — and it began to directly affect the band’s ability to book shows.

2020Brown draws widespread backlash and is temporarily suspended from Twitter over comments related to statutory rape that critics called indefensible; he later said the remarks were intended as a joke and apologized for how they landed.
2020A public feud with Texas thrash band Power Trip escalates after Brown reportedly invites members of the Proud Boys to a Trapt show in Dallas, further cementing his reputation as one of rock's most polarizing frontmen.
2021Brown says a series of transphobic comments posted from Trapt's Facebook page were not his doing, blaming a "fake" profile — a claim met with skepticism from some fans and outlets covering the story.
March 2025Trapt is announced as a support act on Powerman 5000 and Ill Niño's "Taste of Armageddon" package tour; within days, amid public backlash over Brown's history, the announcement is scrubbed and Trapt is replaced on the bill by the band Priest.
April 2025Several venues drop Trapt from a separate acoustic tour, forcing at least one Pittsburgh-area show to relocate to a different, smaller venue on short notice.

04The Cancel Culture Fight of 2025

The April 2025 wave of cancellations became the most-covered Trapt story in years — not because of the music, but because of how Brown responded to it.

According to multiple music outlets, at least four venues pulled out of hosting Trapt’s acoustic tour dates that spring, with organizers reportedly citing pressure over Brown’s past statements. When a scheduled stop at SideQuest on 44th in Pittsburgh fell through, the show was reportedly relocated on short notice to The Building for Arts and Culture in nearby North Versailles, Pennsylvania, with help from the local promoter.

Brown addressed the situation directly in a video posted to fans, which was later taken down. In it, he framed the cancellations as evidence of a broader problem rather than a response to his own past comments.

“Trapt is in Pittsburgh tonight, and we had a couple venues cave to cancel culture in the last few weeks, and it was going to be really hard to do the show. And I want to thank all the venues out there — it’s probably about 35 out of like 39 shows that didn’t cave to cancel culture.” — Chris Taylor Brown, fan video, April 2025

He also addressed the older controversy that critics kept raising, offering what he characterized as an apology while pushing back on how it was being described:

“The couple venues that did in Pittsburgh… you know, they, trolls, they say… they lie about things I said five years ago and the joke I made — I did apologize for that, for my insensitivity, for anybody who was who’s hurt by that.” — Chris Taylor Brown, fan video, April 2025

Coverage of the episode was largely skeptical of Brown’s framing — several outlets noted that the cancellations tracked with specific, documented past comments rather than a vague cultural mood, and that ticket sales for the tour had reportedly been soft even before the venue drops began. Brown and the band, for their part, have continued to describe the fallout as unfair and politically motivated, and have kept touring on the dates that remained on the calendar.

It’s worth being clear about what is and isn’t disputed here: the venue cancellations themselves were reported by numerous outlets and are not in question. Brown’s characterization of why they happened — “cancel culture” versus accountability for specific past remarks — is his own interpretation, and it’s one that reporters covering the story have generally treated with skepticism rather than taken at face value.

05What They Are Doing Now

Despite the booking troubles, Trapt has not stopped working. If anything, 2026 looks like the band’s busiest stretch in years.

A new album, “Resurrection”

In March 2026, Trapt officially announced their ninth studio album, titled “Resurrection,” with three songs — “Bend So Much,” “I Did My Time,” and “No One Home” — made available through pre-order in April. Brown has described it as one of the heavier records in the band’s catalog, telling fans it would include “some of the heaviest Trapt songs we have done.” The band had already been previewing new material live, debuting the track “Bandages” at a show and performing “I Did My Time” for the first time in concert months before the album’s formal announcement.

The “Then Til Now” anniversary tour

“Resurrection” is scheduled for release on September 11, 2026 — the same day Trapt kicks off the “Then Til Now” tour, billed as a celebration of the 25th anniversary of the band signing its original record deal and of the self-titled album that produced “Headstrong.” The tour suggests a band still very much oriented around its early-2000s breakthrough, even as it tries to push new material.

Still playing, still polarizing

Between the controversies and the new music, Trapt has continued to book club and festival dates through 2025 and into 2026, largely on the rock and hard-rock circuit that has sustained the band for two decades. Show sizes have shrunk considerably from the arena-adjacent tours of the “Headstrong” era, and some outlets covering the band’s current run have noted sparse crowds at certain stops — a reminder that, commercially, Trapt now operates several tiers below where it once was. Brown has not signaled any change in his public political voice, and it remains a recurring flashpoint whenever new tour dates are announced.

06Summary

Trapt’s arc is a familiar one for a certain generation of early-2000s rock bands — a platinum peak, a long tail of diminishing commercial returns, and a frontman who has held the group together largely through sheer persistence. What sets Trapt apart from most of its peers, though, is how much Chris Taylor Brown’s off-stage politics have become part of the band’s ongoing story, actively shaping which venues will book them and how new tours get covered in the press. As of 2026, the band is pushing forward anyway, betting a new album and an anniversary tour can pull focus back toward the music.

Trapt in 2026: Quick Facts

Chris Taylor Brown remains the only original member and continues to front the band.
Current lineup: Brown, Pete Charell, Shawn Sonnenschein, and Mitch Moore.
Multiple venues canceled Trapt shows in 2025, reportedly over Brown's past controversial comments.
Trapt was dropped from the 2025 Powerman 5000 / Ill Niño "Taste of Armageddon" tour before it launched.
Brown publicly blamed "cancel culture," a characterization media coverage has treated skeptically.
Ninth studio album "Resurrection" is set for release on September 11, 2026.
The "Then Til Now" anniversary tour launches the same day, marking 25 years since the band's original record deal.

Whether “Resurrection” and the anniversary tour can shift the conversation back to the music remains to be seen. For now, Trapt’s 2026 story is really two stories running in parallel: a band trying to celebrate a quarter-century milestone, and a frontman whose off-stage statements keep landing that milestone in headlines it didn’t ask for.