GODSMACK's SULLY ERNA Hints At 'An Evening With'-Style Tour For Early 2024

In a new interview with Jay Ramone of the Rock 100.5 The KATT radio station conducted at this past weekend's Rocklahoma festival in Pryor, Oklahoma, GODSMACK frontman Sully Erna was asked about the band's touring plans for 2024. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "It's a little too soon to say, but we have a couple of announcements we'll be making soon on Godsmack.com, which could include 'An Evening With' theater, stripped down, vibey kind of show in the late January, February months."

After Ramone asked Erna if he means that the tour will be "somewhat acoustic-based", Sully responded: "Not necessarily. Just a different vibe. We haven't done it since '04. So it's been a while. But it's a cool, different whole look at the band and what we do; it's a whole different thing."

When GODSMACK last embarked on "An Evening With" tour nearly 20 years ago, the stripped down acoustic-based performance was aimed at showing the group in a different light and offering it the opportunity to play its music with different arrangements. The show featured the GODSMACK members performing while seated on stools, a la "MTV Unplugged", and included some creative staging and lighting, dim candles and a few spooky props, Times Leader reported at the time.

This past July, GODSMACK announced additional North American dates in continued support of its eighth studio album, "Lighting Up The Sky" (BMG). The band kicked off its headlining summer/fall tour, produced by Live Nation and FPC Live, on September 3 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The trek features direct support from ATREYU September 3-10 and I PREVAIL September 24-October 4, and October 10-22. Also appearing on the bill is FLAT BLACK, the new band featuring former FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH guitarist Jason Hook.

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.

"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.

In a recent interview with Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette, GODSMACK drummer Shannon Larkin was asked which kind of show — arena or smaller theater — is more challenging, more rewarding, more fun. He responded: "Each one of us has a fave environment, and the different energies from, say, 50,000 people at a festival as opposed to 2,000 in a theater are two different highs, each bringing unique feelings to us individually, but both just as satisfying as a performer. I personally prefer amphitheaters; my fave venue ever is Red Rocks Amphitheater."

Photo credit: Chris Bradshaw