Metal, Hardcore, Indie, Rock
In 2022, Sully Erna, the vocalist and guitarist of Godsmack, expressed the view that their eighth studio album, “Lighting Up The Sky,” would be their final release, as per theprp. He appeared quite confident that the band was transitioning into a legacy act, as conveyed in an interview with 93x.
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.
During that discussion, Erna acknowledged the possibility of change, leaving some ambiguity regarding the band’s future direction.
I wanna make sure people are clear about what we’re saying here. I’m not saying that the band may be breaking up. What I’m saying is I think this may be the last body of work you get musically from the band. And it’s because we’re in this place in our lives right now where we’ve done a lot of work over the last three decades.
Without sounding egotistical, which we’re not trying to do, we’re at 27 Top 10 singles, 11 number ones. We could literally do back-to-back nights in an arena and play 15 songs a night and never play the same single twice, let alone the ‘B’ cuts. And we started thinking, when we were in that thought process, why are we in here grinding all the time and doing this new music when we wanna just also know that we’ve never stopped in the 25 years we’ve been touring.
We’d like to be able to enjoy our lives, our family, our houses, the things that we’ve earned over the years that we’ve sacrificed. So I think the balance for that, the happy medium, is to be able to just go out there now and continue to do live shows and put the greatest-hits show together.
I don’t know what we’re gonna do after this record. And it doesn’t make sense to continue to do music. It really feels complete in a good way, in a positive way. We feel like we’ve honored our career, our relationships with our fans, and we’re always gonna be there for them; we’re gonna do shows. But as far as to continue this, after this [album], unless we just decide one day, ‘Yeah, one more for the road,’ I think this could be it for us with new music.
Since then, significant alterations have occurred, notably the departures of key members Tony Rombola and Shannon Larkin earlier this year. These lineup changes may have opened new opportunities for the band, suggesting that “Lighting Up The Sky” might not represent the definitive conclusion of their musical endeavors. Recently, on Kylie Olsson’s ‘Life In Six Strings,’ Erna spoke with less certainty about the band’s creative trajectory.
When asked whether a tenth Godsmack album might eventually be produced, Erna responded in a manner that indicated uncertainty about the band’s future plans.
I think there will. I said there wasn’t going to be, and at least I know there won’t be with the original members. [Shannon and Tony] have [officially retired], and very honorably, and we’re still really good friends. There’s no drama there. I’m putting some new people in place. I’m still in some trial periods, but we have some plans coming in 2026 that we’re excited about. And it’s gonna be good. I mean, the band’s coming into the height of our career. All these years later we’re hitting another moment where we’re doing our best attendance. And it’s kind of come full circle.
Upcoming shows:
July 23 – Athens, Greece – Lycabettus Hill
July 25 – Plovdiv, Bulgaria – Hills Of Rock Festival
July 26 – Belgrade, Serbia – Novi Hangar Luka Beograd
July 27 – Ghimbav, Romania – Rockstadt Extreme Fest
August 06 – Villena, Spain – Leyendas Del Rock
August 07 – Vagos, Portugal – Vagos Metal Festival
August 09 – Madrid, Spain – Sala Riviera (with Nothing More and Thundermother)
August 11 – Barcelona, Spain – Razzmatazz 1 (with Nothing More)
August 13 – Carhaix-Plouguer, France – Motocultor Festival
August 14-15 – Sulingen, Germany – Reload Festival
August 16 – Eindhoven, Netherlands – Dynamo Metal Fest
