GODSMACK's SULLY ERNA: 'If This All Came To An End Tomorrow, I Would Be Able To Call It A Pretty Good Run'

In a new interview with Australia's Heavy, GODSMACK frontman Sully Erna was asked if he will miss the creative process now that his band has revealed that GODSMACK's eighth album, "Lighting Up The Sky", will likely be its final collection of new material. Sully said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "It's such a good question because if there's one thing I've learned about life, it's that I don't know shit. You think you've got it figured out, and then just when you do, it humbles you very quickly and throws a curveball at you. So you could never say never, but right now, where I am in this time and place in my life, I feel like I've done just about everything I've ever wanted to do in music, and it's left me with a very satisfying feeling of being complete. And so I don't know what I'm gonna do after this. But I do know that music is in my blood and I always feel like I will play my piano and a guitar, and if that leads me to writing songs and I just release some stuff on my own, then so be it. But if I never did again, I can't say I have any regrets. If this all came to an end tomorrow, I would be able to call it a pretty good run and be happy."

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."

"Lighting Up The Sky" was released last month 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.

GODSMACK will embark on a spring 2023 U.S. tour with special guests I PREVAIL.