Godsmack
Too Much of a Good Thing

True to their blue-collar roots, Massachusetts’s Godsmack has been metal’s workhorse band for the last three years. Singer Sully Erna, guitarist Tony Rombola, bassist Robbie Merrill and drummer Tommy Stewart make good use of the time recording two album -- Godsmack and Awake -- selling almost five million albums and performing more than 400 shows.

The workaholic-pace steadily earned Godsmack a devoted following, but it also took its toll on the band. When Godsmack played its last show in Atlanta at the end of summer, the band and its crew were burnt to a crisp by the road.

”I literally couldn’t get on stage one more time,” says Erna.

Although he’s disappointed the band cancelled the last few dates of its tour; Erna hopes fans will understand he was in no condition to give them 100 percent.

Godsmack embarked on its nomadic journey in 1998 when Republic/Universal Records signed the band after hearing its demo. The record label liked the demo so much it mastered the songs – along with a few new songs – changed the artwork and released it as the band’s self-titled debut.

”We signed in June 1998 and four months later we were on the road,” says Erna. “Except for taking six weeks off to record “Awake,” we haven’t had more than two weeks off at a time since we started touring.”

Playing for and meeting fans was a mind-blowing experience, but too much of a good thing, Erna admits, is always a bad idea. The pressure of constant touring eventually strained the band to the breaking point. But instead of calling it quits, the group hired a band therapist to help re-open the lines of communication and save Godsmack from self-destructing.

Circus Magazine recently spoke with Sully Erna and Tony Rombola about Godsmack’s brush with musical divorce, how they’re spending their well-earned vacations and what they hope to accomplish when the band returns to the studio this January to record their third album.

CIRCUS MAGAZINE:  How did touring change the way the band members get along?
ERNA:  Things got a little tense. At first we tried to keep out of each other’s hair, but we ended up so far apart we weren’t dealing with each other at all. Instead of falling to pieces, we reached out and got some help. We hired a band therapist because we have a good band and we didn’t want to throw it away because of hangovers, attitudes and tour fatigue.

We have been working with the therapist for almost a year and she’s worked wonders for the band. Today this band is tighter than ever.

CIRCUS MAGAZINE:  When did you realize the band needed help?
ERNA:  I was falling into a pattern of heaving drinking. I only weigh 135 pounds but I was going through six or seven bottles of wine a night. That’s not good. There were times I woke up and my face was swollen and my skin was yellow; also not good. One day I woke up and thought to myself = ‘How much more will my body be able to take before I don’t wake up one morning?’ It really scared me when I realized that I’m only five-feet five-inches tall but I can drink a six-foot guy under the table. I knew I was getting close to my breaking point so I asked for help.

At the same time, the band was dealing with a lot of internal problems because of road fatigue. We were worn out and that led to arguments over business decisions. So instead of quitting, we all decided to get some help. That’s when Nancy – our therapist- came out on the road and helped us out. She’s been our guardian angel.

An ex-girlfriend once told me it’s a strong person who asks for help and a weak person who is afraid to ask for help. I didn’t understand how right she was until I had to ask for help myself.

ROMBOLA:  The change was so gradual there really isn’t time I can point to when things were at their worst. When you work and live with the same people for three years, a band becomes a family, but most of all, it becomes a complicated relationship. We got to a point where we needed an impartial party to come in and help us sort through some issues and clear up our communication problems. I was skeptical at first, but it’s really been a good thing for the band.

CIRCUS MAGAZINE:  What made you decide to stop the tour after the Atlanta show and cancel the last few shows?
ERNA:  I remember getting off stage and telling the band I didn’t have one more show in me. I love being out on the road so much, but I couldn’t get on the stage one more time because I was totally fried. Everyone opened up and said they felt the same way. The road crew started cheering because they were finally going home. I don’t think I’ve ever seen them load up so quickly.

ROMBOLA:  We had had it. We pushed ourselves to the limit, and it showed. We were not in good shape physically and we were not in a great state of mind. We knew we had to stop or something was going to break.

CIRCUS MAGAZINE:  What was the first thing you did when you got home?
ERNA:  I stopped thinking about the band for the first time in three years. I didn’t have to deal with: playing live, the band, bad food, dressing rooms or tour buses. I came home and turned everything off. I didn’t want to hear the radio, the phone or even birds chirping. I just want to sit and do yoga (laughs).

ROMBOLA:  I went for a ride on my 1999 Fatboy Harley. I bummed around all the familiar roads by my house and sucked in all the home air I could. I take the bike on tour sometimes, but I don’t get a chance to enjoy it because I’m always lost riding around on strange roads.

CIRCUS MAGAZINE:  The band didn’t have much time to think about the first two albums. The first album was your demo with a few songs added in and the second was written on the road and recorded in six weeks. Are you looking forward to having the time to think about what you want to accomplish with the third album?
ERNA:  Absolutely. We’ll actually get a chance to reflect on where we’ve been and where we’re going. The second record was a rush-job and none of us got a chance to go home and reflect on what we had accomplished and findout who we are now as opposed to who we were when we first went on the road.

The other day I threw on an old home video of the band and it really opened my eyes to how much we’ve changed. When you’re on the road you don’t notice how you’re changing because it happens so slowly. When you come home, it gives you some perspective.

The trick for us now is to figure out the next step. Godsmack is really at a crossroads. We’re at that stage where we could start going downhill or we could put out a good record and plant our feet solidly on the ground and have a career like Metallica.

ROMBOLA:  We’ve been under the gun with everything we’ve done. It will be nice to take our time with the third album. Instead of rush, rush, rush, I’m able to write at my leisure. If an ideal comes up, I record it. If not, I hang out with my family or go play golf.

CIRCUS MAGAZINE:  What to you think the tone of the third album will be?
ERNA:  Since I started writing, I’ve cleansed a lot of the B.S. out of my system – a lot of the negative feelings from my childhood and relationships. I feel the next record will be more positive. I don’t think it will be as depressed as the first two.

ROMBOLA:  We’re at a point now where we’re ready to make some changes and grow. I think the new album will be different. Early on, we used to play some acoustic songs live, but we stopped. I wouldn’t mind revisiting that sound and take the new album in different sonic directions. I think we’ll experiment a little more with styles of music on the next album too. So far, our music’s been pretty straight-ahead-stop-and-go riffs – but I expect we’ll mix it up on the new album.