GODSMACK Releases Music Video For 'Emotional' And 'Raw' Power Ballad 'Truth'

GODSMACK has released the official music video for the song "Truth". The clip, which was directed by GODSMACK frontman Sully Erna and Francesca Ludikar, can be seen below.

"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).

Earlier this month, Sully told the I-Rock 93.5 radio station about "Truth" (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "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.

Last month, Erna spoke about GODSMACK's announcement that "Lighting Up The Sky" will likely be its final collection of new material. Asked by SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk" if there is a chance that he will change his mind about releasing new music in the future, Sully said: "It's funny. I just had this talk with my record label yesterday. We had a meeting about some other stuff, and I told them that, like, listen… 'Cause they're a little bummed out. They're, like, 'Ah, is this the last [album]?' And I said, 'Listen, you can never say never.' But I do know this: [late RUSH drummer] Neil Peart said this to me once — all great things must come to an end eventually. It doesn't matter how great you are, who you are. But all great things are gonna come to an end at some point. And I just never forgot that. And I'm, like, at what point do you just start living your life for you and not always be on a schedule, not always be in a recording studio, not always be signing autographs, taking pictures, touring, playing shows, doing podcasts, doing videos. It's a lot, man. It consumes your life, and it's what I've always wanted, and I'm so proud of it, and I'm so grateful for this career. I have nothing to complain about. But am I gonna do this forever, until I'm in my grave? I don't know. I know right now I'm still good, and I like it. And I'm enjoying it. I'm getting tired. And there is more things I wanna do with my life. Music's not everything I wanna do with my life."

Erna continued: "So, I don't know. I know right now we're gonna finish this album cycle. We'll take a break. I have a feeling I'll end up doing some solo stuff. I don't even know what that's gonna sound like yet, but I may want to do a little bit more of a rock album on the solo side. But I don't know.

"I have a feeling that in time, I'm just gonna be writing," he added. "And I'm gonna do what I've always done. I'll finish a song and it'll go in one folder 'cause it sounds like solo music to me. And I'll finish another song and it'll be banging and heavy and I'll be, like, 'It's going in that folder 'cause that's a GODSMACK song.' And then eventually I'm gonna have a record. And, of course, I'm gonna release it. [Laughs] And then here we go again."

Regarding how he and his GODSMACK bandmates arrived at the decision to make "Lighting Up The Sky" their final album, Sully said: "It's just what we feel at the moment. We tripped across this conversation. The more we thought about it, the more we were like… We're starting to bum out a little bit live because there's a lot more songs that we wanna play. And again, I'm not complaining. We've been very blessed to have a good career and a good run of Top 10 singles — we're at, I think, 27 Top 10 singles with 13 Number Ones. So that means — I don't know — if we get two or three off this record, we're gonna be at 30 Top 10 singles. That means we could do 15 songs a night, play back-to-back nights in the same venue and never play the same single twice, let alone the deep cuts. So we're going, like, 'Fuck, at what point do we honor the catalog and do what we want as fans when we go to see our favorite bands, like AEROSMITH or METALLICA, whatever? Are we really going to see their new record? Hmmm, no. I'm just being honest. I'm glad you put it out. I'm gonna check it out, but am I gonna love it as much as 'Train Kept A-Rollin'' and 'Dream On' and 'Same Old Song And Dance' and 'Walk This Way'? No. That's the shit I'm going to see. I wanna see it. Play those songs. Don't spend 45 minutes playing your new record because that's not the nostalgia of why you've been around for 40, 50 years."

He continued: "So we're just trying to like set ourselves up to at least give our fans what I think they expect us to do. And with this many singles, we're, like, man, how many more things are we gonna pile on our plate here before we can't even get to all of them, which is now. And that's kind of part of the reasoning behind it. So we were, like, 'Yeah, maybe it's the right time. Maybe we just go out and honor the catalog and go play live shows,' which is what we love to do, what the people love to see us do. And, again, if we write some new music, we write some new music. I don't know what's gonna happen with that right now. But we do love playing shows, and that's what we're gonna do for now."

Earlier this month, 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.