After Hiatus, Godsmack Returns

On Friday, Sept. 12 at 10 p.m. PT/1 a.m. ET, Yahoo Live will live stream Godsmack’s concert from the White River Amphitheatrein Auburn, WA Tune in LIVE to watch!

When Godsmack reconvened early this year for the first time since April 2013, frontman Sully Erna didn’t know what to expect. The band members hadn’t been in the studio together since they worked on their 2010 studio album The Oracle, and when Godsmack released the concert album Live & Inspired two years later, the title was somewhat misleading.

“At that point, I needed to get away from Godsmack and the relentless touring we were doing,” Erna tells Yahoo Music. “When you do seven shows in a row for so many years, you start to become a machine. You don’t even know how to socialize anymore. People talk to you and you look right through them. All you know is how to entertain and perform. We all needed to be apart from each other, go home and spend some time with our families and friends.”

While the official hiatus lasted less than a year, during that time Godsmack became fragmented. Erna worked on some solo material, while drummer Shannon Larkin worked with bassist Robbie Merrill and guitarist Tony Rombola in Another Animal and formed the side group Blue Cross Band with Rombola.

“It got tricky, because when you’re not together and you’re in that hole, you start to question whether you want to come back or not, and whether the work is worth it,” Erna says. “Because sometimes when things aren’t going in your direction and the system is spiraling downward, it’s easy to be resentful and feel you’re doing all this work and not getting the payoff.

“You’re not getting to the next level you want to be at, or you’re not getting where you want to be financially. But when we talked, we realized that we have something really special, and we’re lucky to have had a career this long and a fanbase that continues to stay loyal to us and support us. Ultimately, after that we decided we’re musicians and we love to play and write music. Sometimes you just get lost and forget about that part.”

When Godsmack decided to work on a new album, the members started writing new material for what would be their new album 1000hp. Rombola and Merrill came to the table with 15 rough songs and Erna had ideas for another 12. Despite the volume of material, Erna felt unsure the band could recapture the exuberance and vitality it thrived on for more than a decade.

“It was a little bit awkward at first,” he admits. “We laid everything on the table and started carving the songs up and seeing what was strong and what wasn’t so great. But I felt really detached. So I wasn’t super-psyched about working on the record because it didn’t feel like a band effort. It felt like a business.”

Instead of going into the rehearsal room and trying to cobble their demos into complete songs, Godsmack plugged in and just started jamming from scratch. The band locked into a fast, simple groove and immediately the adrenaline and excitement that was missing returned with a vengeance. Ninety minutes later, they finished writing the title track of the album.”

Erna viewed the incident as flashback of the band’s career and strived to capture the idea in the song’s lyrics: “Time to rewind back to 1995 when we were nothing/Walking through the streets of Boston no one listening/No one caring about the empty rooms we played/Until they all showed up one day and then we took the stage and everything changed.”

“It was like we were reliving the history of the band right there and it felt right,” Erna says. “We extended that feeling beyond the music, going right back to the streets of Boston and doing our photo shoots in the album in the city itself, right back where everything started for us.”

For Erna, Beantown is more than home to the Freedom Trail and the Boston Red Sox. It’s a place where rugged, working-class sincerity, passion, and attitude dominate the streets. “I’m really proud to be from Boston,” Erna says. “It’s a city that builds a lot of character, and it’s so filled with integrity and pride. Growing up there taught me a lot, and it reflects in the music. People in Boston beat the s— out of each other for fun. It’s one of those places that’s very confrontational and no one takes any s— or gives a s—.”

Once Godsmack finished “1000hp,” they quickly banged out “Something Different.” The song starts as a soft ballad, but builds from a ring to a roar, featuring counterpoint guitars, cello, and vocal harmonies along the way.

“‘Something Different’ just flew out of us in five or 10 minutes. Finished, complete, done,” Erna says. “It’s my favorite song on the record. It’s so full of melody and texture and colors. And it’s really almost as close as we’ve gotten to writing a commercial-style song without losing the power and integrity of Godsmack.”

Lyrically, “Something Different” is about the challenges Erna and others around him have faced in relationships over the years. “It’s about not being heard and always feeling like you’re the punching bag,” he explains. “You see black, they see white. There’s always a problem no matter what you do. No matter how good you are, you’re the a–hole. Sometimes I reflect on things that are still stuck inside of me that I need to release, and music has always been my therapy.”

Once Godsmack had two songs they were happy with, they returned to the material they wrote during 2013. Only this time they approached it from a new perspective. No longer were they individuals looking at songs written by “the other guys”; now they were a united front assembling the best songs possible.

“We could see there was some really great stuff there,” Erna says. “So we extracted the stuff that was super-strong and used that to make the rest of the album.”

Godsmack is currently touring on the Rockstar Energy Drink Uproar festival, which runs through October 5 in Minneapolis. But when that’s over, don’t expect them to keep kicking out the jams night after night. Before they hit the road, they agreed to take lengthy breaks between tours.

“These days it’s about going out for six or seven weeks, taking a few weeks off in between, and then starting again,” Erna says. “We need that little bit of downtime so we can balance our lives. Also, we’re all in our mid-to-late forties now and we get worn-out. We’re not that 20-year-old young little buck anymore. And you can get in real trouble when you overexert yourself, because when you’re out there and you’re exhausted, the first thing you do is medicate with alcohol or drugs. This band isn’t about that. We’ve been there and done that and moved on.”