GODSMACK's SULLY ERNA Doesn't Rule Out Putting Out A Standalone Single 'Here Or There' In The Future

On July 18, GODSMACK frontman Sully Erna spoke to the 105.7 The Point radio station about the announcement that the band's eight album, "Lighting Up The Sky", will likely be its final collection of new material. Regarding the bandmembers' mindset in focusing on performing the band's hits for the remainder of GODSMACK's touring career, Erna said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "We love each other. It's not even a 'like'; it's like a deep love. We really do love and respect each other. We've jumped over so many mountains and climbed so many hills, and there's been a lot of complications along the way, so it wasn't a walk in the park by no means. But it's something to celebrate, because here we are; we get along better than ever. The music is still relevant [and] we're still doing big shows. It's really a blessing. And now we're even at an age, our daughters, we can hang out with them now as humans, as adults. And it's cool. Maybe we missed a big chunk of the beginning, but the moms were there to nurture them and help with that. We were the providers, but now it's like coming around where they really enjoy coming to see us and coming to see the shows and that kind of thing. My daughter actually is living with me right now. So it's really cool, man. And I love this stage of the career that we're at."

He continued: "Listen, you can never say never. We don't know if we're gonna put out a single here or there we don't know if we're gonna do a collaboration here or there. We just know that right now, what feels right for this moment, and it's why we took the steps to announce it, was that we really do believe this will probably be the last full body of work from GODSMACK… But we're not going anywhere either. We're still coming out. We're gonna be doing live shows and we're gonna tour and honor the career and do kind of a greatest-hits show."

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.

This past March, GODSMACK and STAIND announced a 25-city co-headlining 2023 tour, produced by Live Nation. The trek kicked off on July 18 at Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre in St. Louis, Missouri, with stops across the U.S. before wrapping up in Austin, Texas at Germania Insurance Amphitheatre on August 31.

"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, 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.

Erna previously addressed GODSMACK's decision to no longer release new music last fall in an interview with Pablo of the Minneapolis, Minnesota radio station 93X. Speaking about "Lighting Up The Sky", he said: "I've never been that artist who says, 'Oh, this record is our newest record. It's our best work ever.' You can read any interview you want over my whole career, and you've never heard me say it," he continued. "I've always loved our records [and] I always knew there would be some good singles on it and hoped it did well, but I was never the guy that said, 'This is our best fucking work ever.' And I'm telling you right now this is our best fucking work ever. And it's because it's emotional, man. This is the last record we're ever gonna do. This is the last run around the mill for us. We put every single ounce of energy and emotion into this album. Especially for me, when I wrote a lot of these songs, it was about my life journey. That's really what the sequence of this album becomes about. Not that it was planned that way, but this really kind of mystical thing happened where I felt like the universe wrote this record."

Photo by Chris Bradshaw