GODSMACK Releases Behind-The-Scenes Video From Making Of Deeply Personal New Single 'Truth'

GODSMACK has released behind-the-scenes footage from the making of the song "Truth". Also available is the "Truth" music video, which was directed by GODSMACK frontman Sully Erna and Francesca Ludikar.

"Truth" is taken from GODSMACK's latest album, "Lighting Up The Sky", which was released in February 2023 via BMG. The LP was co-produced by Erna and Andrew "Mudrock" Murdock (AVENGED SEVENFOLD, ALICE COOPER).

Erna commented: "Today I've made a choice to share with all of you an emotional event that happened to me three years ago. Sometimes my dearest friends and family will ask me why I would want to expose such a personal story to the public, and normally I wouldn't. However, I would also be a hypocrite if what I preach all the time is how people should expose their scars, emotionally or physically, and wear them loudly and proudly on their sleeves to remind us of what we survived. Rather than carry that weight internally and sink into dark places, always wondering what we did wrong, what we could've done better, and never forgiving the other person or ourselves.

"If we are going to truly heal and live our best lives free of guilt, pain and suffering, then I feel we have to share our stories, expose our vulnerabilities and move past them with forgiveness. As I have with my ex, who chose to make this mistake and betray our love some time ago. It is also how I choose to create my art. Not only does it help heal me, but it also allows me to share my gift of music with all of you. Although it can be very painful to create under these circumstances, the reward has ALWAYS been much greater than the risk.

"As you watch this behind the scenes of the making of our new single 'Truth', I hope you see it more as a celebration of a rebirth, than a trauma endured. I truly hope it helps ALL OF YOU who may have suffered a betrayal of some kind find your peace too."

This past February, Sully told the I-Rock 93.5 radio station about "Truth": "If anyone knows anything about me, they know that I always write about real-life events that have affected me on an emotional level, good or bad. And, unfortunately, this wasn't one of the better ones in my life, but it was about as real as it gets. And, ironically, this event happened to me in my life right when I was recording and writing this last record. So we were already in the studio for a month or two, and we were writing and tracking some of these songs. And then this happens to me in my life, where a seven-year relationship gets betrayed. It shut me down, it broke me for a minute. I had to shut down the whole project. The guys were very understanding, but I had to leave at that point."

He continued: "I had built a life there. I had relocated to Florida, living near the [other] guys [in GODSMACK]. We built a recording studio. I was building a life with this person who betrayed me. And then, unfortunately, I had to go and heal. So we took about six or seven months, and I went home to New Hampshire and just kind of processed everything and did my best to get past it. But in that interval, this song came to me. And whenever something like this passes through me, I have to capture it when it's happening or it'll go away very quickly. And I just knew it was gonna be a painful one — it was gonna be raw, it was gonna be emotional, it was gonna be really vulnerable. And I'm sitting there going, like, 'Oh, do I wanna expose this to the public?' But it's such a beautiful song, and I'm thinking, like, 'What do I do?' I wanted to play it for the guys, but I couldn't really even sing it for them, sitting at a piano and trying to perform it for them so they got a sense of what it was. And it was just hard, man. It was hard. I was breaking down a lot because I was still processing this shit. They say that the people that can hurt you the most are the ones that you love the most. So it was that kind of situation.

"But anyways, long story short, man, the song gets done," Erna added. "We track it, and we're just sitting there listening to it. We're going, like, 'Oh, this is a really big, beautiful rock ballad. We have to put this on the record.' And I'm thinking, 'Man, you know what's gonna happen. This song is gonna end up being a Number One [single]. I'll have to sing it for the rest of my life' [laughs] 'and it'll always be that painful moment.' But it is what it is. And it's part of the sacrifice that we give to you people as artists, is baring our souls and allowing ourselves to be vulnerable at times to let you on the inside to let you see that we're no different than anyone else out there. We're humans and human things happen to us just like anyone else, but in the end, we all know that beautiful art sometimes comes from a dark place."

Asked if writing "Truth" was difficult considering that he had just gone through a betrayal or if it was part of the healing process for him, Sully said: "Well, both. I mean, certainly difficult. And everybody, I'm sure, can relate to this 'cause everybody's experienced some kind of betrayal in one form or another in their life, whether it was from a parent or a relationship or a friend. But you sit in that hole sometimes and you've just gotta let time go by. There's nothing you can really do. People can give you the best advice, they can console you, they can try to drag you out — there's nothing you can do. You can't move past it until you move past it. So when you sit in that hole, for an artist, there's just times where you don't wanna get up and go to the kitchen, you don't wanna go to the bedroom, you don't wanna go to the bathroom, you don't wanna eat, you don't wanna watch TV. You're just sitting on a couch thinking and thinking and thinking. A lot of times I'll have an acoustic in my hand and I'm just kind of pedaling and noodling around. So the song comes and I'm, like, 'Ugh, here we go.' But I was just, like, 'Oh, my god. It's so pretty.' In the back of my mind, I'm all upset and bummed out, but I'm thinking, 'Oh, this is really nice. I love these chords. They're dark, they're beautiful, they're heavy, emotional.' And so it just came out. So, yeah, it was hard to write because I was really raw. It was so raw at the time. But then it happens, and you're just happy that it happened. So, it's just both."

Nine of GODSMACK's releases have been certified gold or better and two (1998's "Godsmack" and 2000's "Awake") are multi-platinum. The group has also been nominated for three Grammy Awards and has won 16 of its hometown Boston Music Awards as well as a Billboard Music Award for rock artist of the year in 2001.

Two months ago, GODSMACK embarked on the "Vibez Tour". The band is delivering a series of intimate evenings featuring acoustic/electric performances and untold stories in theatres across North America. The first leg kicked off on February 15 in Catoosa, Oklahoma, while the second leg will launch April 9 in Valley Center, California.

The first single from "Lighting Up The Sky", "Surrender", which arrived in September 2022, marked the first release from GODSMACK in four years, following their globally acclaimed and gold-certified 2018 album "When Legends Rise", which earned the Erna-fronted outfit a No. 1 spot across U.S. Hard Rock, Rock, and Alternative album charts.