GODSMACK's SHANNON LARKIN Reflects On The Moment He Realized He Had 'Made It' As A 'Rock Star'

In a recent interview with Heavy Consequence, Shannon Larkin spoke about his early days as a member of GODSMACK and reflected on the moment when he realized he had "made it." The drummer said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "My story would take forever to tell, but I went through a lot of bands on major labels even, and by the time Sully [Erna, GODSMACK frontman] called me and gave me this gift of GODSMACK, I had already written off rock and roll as something I'd be successful at. I had already completed what I felt was success by that point. I just never really attained any kind of business success as far as selling records, playing these huge concerts, being in a band that sells… I got a gold record. In fact, I wasn't gonna get a gold record because our, our first record with me was 'Faceless'. It was our first No. 1. And it came out and sold 250,000 copies in like a week. And so I went to Sully and I said, 'Oh my God. I'm gonna get my first gold record.' And he said, 'No, you're not gonna get a gold record. It's going platinum. And these things cost money. So we'll just get platinum.' And I said, 'Well, no. I want a gold record.' And he said, 'Well, no. Platinum is better. It's more. It's a million.' And I said, 'Yeah, but the old-school [way of doing is to have] an office [with] gold records on the wall and all that.' And he said, 'Well, it's just not the way the business works.' And I said, 'Oh, okay, I guess.'"

He continued: "So we get to Europe and we're opening for METALLICA on 'Madly In Anger With The World' tour, man. It was a big tour, and it's METALLICA — idols of ours, obviously. And it was my birthday, April 24th, and [Sully] blindfolded me. He said, 'Just trust me. I'm not gonna do anything crazy.' He blindfolded me. So he takes me into this room. He takes the blindfold off and walks over there and it's him, Tony [Rombola, guitar], Robbie [Merrill, bass] and all four [members] of METALLICA with this gold record that he had special-made for me. It's the only one, the frame and everything, and so I got a gold record. So, obviously, that was the height of my 'making it' moment, like, 'Oh my God. I made it. I'm a rock star.'"

GODSMACK will embark on the "Vibez Tour" in early 2024. The trek will see Erna and his bandmates deliver a series of intimate evenings featuring acoustic/electric performances and untold stories in theatres across North America. The first leg is scheduled to begin on February 15 in Catoosa, Oklahoma, while the second leg will kick off April 9 in Valley Center, California.

GODSMACK kicked off its 2023 U.S. tour on May 4 at the 107.9 KBPI Birthday Bash at Fiddler's Green Amphitheatre in Denver, Colorado.

GODSMACK's eighth studio album, "Lighting Up The Sky" was released in February via BMG. The LP was co-produced by Erna and Andrew "Mudrock" Murdock (AVENGED SEVENFOLD, ALICE COOPER).

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.

Photo credit: Chris Bradshaw