SULLY ERNA Names Three Moments From GODSMACK's Career That Were Particularly Rewarding

During a recent appearance on "Whiplash", the KLOS radio show hosted by Full Metal Jackie, GODSMACK frontman Sully Erna was asked if there was an album cycle that was the most rewarding to him personally, where everything fell into place with the band, with his life and everything that surrounded the span of the album cycle and left him with just a great feeling about it. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Man, that's a great question, by the way. But it's really hard to answer as one album, because there was three different moments that I remember, really. I could tell you a story about every record and where we were in that point in my career, whether we were in a great place or whether we were horrible to each other and we were just in a bad place, but there was three moments, really. And the first one was [getting] the first gold record. When that happened, we were in the grind still. We were still street kids, we were still working regular jobs. We put the band together, we were starting to pick up some steam, playing the clubs, playing on the radio stations. We were the buzz that was in Boston at that point. But we still didn't realize it until one day after we were touring for six months in the clubs around the country, and then, all of a sudden, we get back to Boston and there's the record label and our manager waiting there with a gold record for us. And that's when we're, like, 'Oh, [expletive]. This thing is really happening.' Like we're established now and solidified here as a band. The second one happened for me during the '[When] Legends [Rise]' album, because we noticed that when we took a little bit of a chance and wrote songs like 'Bulletproof' and 'Under Your Scars' and 'Unforgettable' and brought a little bit more of this mainstream kind of rock, we were attracting a lot more younger kids, moms and dads. It really opened up to the masses more, especially 'Under Your Scars', which now is over a hundred million views on YouTube. I think there was a content there that touched people very deeply and something that everybody connects to somehow or knows someone who has severe depression or PTSD or got bullied or addiction, which is what The Scars Foundation all kind of covers. And that song is really what spawned The Scars Foundation to be a charity. So that was a really cool moment, too, that I noticed — just seeing a new audience, seeing that next generation come in and living it live. As you hear about it as an artist, like, 'Oh, [LED] ZEPPELIN's gone through four generations of people,' but when you're in it, man, and you're watching a new generation step into the arena, like live, it's pretty cool. And then, of course, this record [2023's 'Lighting Up The Sky'] — this record was another moment for us because it's been emotional. Even when we were writing and recording this record, man, there was a bunch of tears that fell during that process, and the guys just kind of realizing that, wow, here we are. We've been a band for almost 30 years. We were celebrating our 25th-year anniversary since the first record came out, and now like life flies by and we're going, like, 'Oh my God, is this happening? Are we hanging up recording music and we're just gonna kind of gracefully ride into our sunset years and just play shows?' It's a big moment for us. And so it's been a very emotional, emotional time for us, and the songs became very emotional."

GODSMACK has just kicked off the "Vibez Tour". The trek sees Erna and his bandmates deliver a series of intimate evenings featuring acoustic/electric performances and untold stories in theatres across North America. The second leg will launch April 9 in Valley Center, California.

When GODSMACK last embarked on "An Evening With" tour 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.

GODSMACK's eighth studio album, "Lighting Up The Sky" was released in February 2023 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.