Sully Erna says Godsmack’s next album “Might Be The Last Record For Us”, speaks of his past battle with COVID-19

The upcoming eighth studio album from multi-platinum alternative metal band Godsmack may wind up being its last, according to the band’s vocalist/guitarist Sully Erna. In a recent interview with 101.1 WJRR (see below,) Erna said of it:

The first thing to do is these shows. We have six of ’em to do, last night [being] one of ’em and tonight another one. We have four more to do over the next two weekends. And then it’s pretty loose until October.- ADVERTISEMENT –

Then we start ‘touring touring’ in Europe, we do South America, we [play] some international [shows]. We’ll be back first quarter of ’23 with a new record. The record’s finished; we’re done recording it. You should probably be hearing new music by summertime — mid to late summer — and then following it up with a second single and the full record by the top of ’23. That’s the plan.

And then we’re just gonna hit it one more time hard and heavy. And I’ve gotta tell you, this might be the last one for us — it might be the last record for us.Sully Erna of Godsmack

In the same interview, Erna, who has previously questioned the lethality of COVID-19, spoke of his own battle with it, having apparently contracted it around the Christmas holidays this past year. He said of that:

…I take really good care of myself. I’m a runner. I’ve boxed for over 20 years. And I’m onstage two hours a night. I have pretty big lungs, so even thinking if I was gonna get it, I figured I’d get sick like the normal flu get sick and then you push through it, but I definitely didn’t expect for it to knock me down the way it did. I just got some bad luck and bad timing. Part of it was I got hit during the Christmas holidays, so all my doctors were on vacation; there was only substitutes. They were kind of guiding me over the phone.

And what happened was the COVID left my body within seven to 10 days, but then pneumonia developed, and that’s what got me [really sick]. I ended up getting blood clots in my lungs and stuff like that. That’s when everything went down. It was pretty gnarly for a while because my oxygen had dipped to 76. And if anyone knows anything about oxygen levels, you’re not supposed to go below 95. If you go below, you go to the hospital and 70 is, like, [when they put you on a] ventilator.

So I was pretty emotional, pretty nervous about wondering if I was coming out of this. But thankfully I was in the shape that I was in, and my doctor thinks, like, that proved to him… He goes, ‘I know exactly how good of a shape you’re in now, because,’ he goes, ‘I’ve gotta tell you, man, when you came in, I was really nervous for you. And most people that come in in that condition, they don’t leave with a happy ending.’Sully Erna of Godsmack

Godsmack are presently out playing a string of festival shows, they include:

04/28 Newark, NJ – Prudential Center (WDHA’s Rock The Rock Fest)
04/30 Worcester, MA – DCU Center (Big Gig)
05/06 Milwaukee, WI – Fiserv Forum (HOG Fest)
05/07 Minneapolis, MN – Target Center (93x Twin City Takeover)