GODSMACK's SULLY ERNA: 'We're Relieving Ourselves From Doing Any More New Music'

Rock 100.5 The KATT's Cameron Buchholtz conducted an interview with the four members of GODSMACK at this year's Kattfest, which was held this past Friday, May 12 at the Zoo Amphitheatre in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Speaking about GODSMACK's recent announcement that the band's latest album, "Lighting Up The Sky", would be its last, frontman Sully Erna said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "It's just time. We've been running for a while. And I think we all had a good talk while we were making this record and we realized where we're at in our career. We've accomplished a lot of things — far beyond what we thought we would when we started the band. And I've just learned that there's other things in life that I'd like to do with my life besides just always tour. But it's not like we're announcing a break-up or anything; we're just basically relieving ourselves from doing any more new music because we have a strong catalog and we're proud of it and we have a lot of Top 10s. And honestly, we can't even play 'em all in one show, so at what point do you say you've arrived and start enjoying it instead of just continuing the grind and work yourself down to the bone and burn yourself out. So we're just trying to set up the sunset years now and enjoy the rest of our career traveling and playing shows instead of always having to be in the studio."

Asked by Buchholtz if that means that he doesn't really like making new music, Sully replied: "Nah. It's just that what we do we do and there's a certain enjoyment that we have from writing and recording songs, but, really, the big reward is to come out and play the stuff live and work with the fans and have a big fun party. That's what we enjoy the most. So we wanna just kind of create the greatest-hits show now and just be able to have that live on."

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 kicks 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 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.