Earlier this year, multiplatinum rockers Godsmack released their latest album, Lighting Up the Sky, while also declaring that it would be their final LP ever.
While Godsmack assured fans they’d continue to tour, dispelling any rumors of a breakup, drummer Shannon Larkin and frontman Sully Erna recently explained to Heavy Consequence why they were compelled to make Lighting Up the Sky their final album.
“We have so many hit songs now… and all of our fans expect to hear certain songs,” drummer Larkin told us before the band’s set at the Louder Than Life festival in Louisville. “As musicians, we like to play new music. We wish we could play this whole new album right now, but we have 10 other songs we have to play for our crowd. So, when do you get to the point where you have this perfect set?”
For Godsmack, it seems like they have hit that point of curating a perfect set that will, as Larkin puts it, “spin you right back to nostalgia world.” As for going out with Lighting Up the Sky, the band members couldn’t be prouder.
“It feels complete,” frontman Sully Erna explains. “The way it’s sequenced is really about the whole journey of what got me to start this band in the first place.”
The record calling back to the band’s past is particularly fitting in 2023, as Godsmack’s breakthrough self-titled LP celebrated its 25th anniversary in August. Though the album has since gone four-times platinum, Erna remarked that the hit-filled effort was released as the band was on the cusp of throwing in the towel, convinced the experiment of Godsmack had failed. A quarter century later, it’s safe to say the band has experienced enormous success.
Godsmack recently announced an intimate, stripped-down 2024 North American theater tour that runs from mid February through early May. Tickets are available here.
Check out our full conversation with Godsmack’s Sully Erna and Shannon Larkin above, where the two touch on ending their catalog with Lighting Up the Sky, the 25th anniversary of their self-titled effort, the moment Larkin felt like a “rock star,” and more.
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