On the latest episode of Kylie Olsson‘s “Life In Six Strings”, Kylie heads to Lawrence, Massachusetts — the hometown of GODSMACK frontman Sully Erna — where he reflects on his early days and the roots that shaped his career. Sully opens the doors to his self-described “music house” in New Hampshire, offering a look inside his creative world before the journey wraps up at GODSMACK headquarters. Guitars come out, stories are shared, and Sully shows Kylie how to play “Something Different” while walking through his personal guitar collection.
Asked if there will be another GODSMACK album at some point, Sully told Kylie (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “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,” referring to the fact that GODSMACK‘s longtime drummer Shannon Larkin and guitarist Tony Rombola announced their exit from the group in April.
“[Shannon and Tony] have [officially retired], and very honorably,” Sully explained. “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.”
Earlier this month, GODSMACK announced around a dozen European shows for the summer of 2026, including headlining appearances at various festivals, such as Leyendas Del Rock in Spain and Dynamo Metal Fest in the Netherlands.
When GODSMACK confirmed Shannon and Tony‘s departures from the band eight months ago, Sully said that Rombola and Larkin “decided to retire from the band permanently, on good terms, but for no other reason than to fulfill their desire to live a more simple and quiet life away from touring.”
He added: “Their departure marks the end of an era, but it also opens the door for new and exciting possibilities. We want to assure you that Shannon and Tony will always be part of our family, and their contributions will forever echo in our music. We respect their decisions and support them wholeheartedly as they pursue their own individual paths.
“Robbie [Merrill, GODSMACK bassist] and I are also excited to explore new directions, and although we have not made any permanent decisions about who may replace Tony and Shannon, we will be continuing this journey together, and we look forward to sharing the decisions we make with all of you as they happen.
GODSMACK kicked off its 2025 European tour on March 22 at Arena 8888 in Sofia, Bulgaria.
The day before the Sofia concert, Erna told Elena Rozberg of Bulgaria’s Z-Rock radio station that “personal things” were preventing Tony and Shannon from taking part in the trek and explained that “a couple of guest musicians” — drummer Will Hunt of EVANESCENCE and guitarist Sam Koltun of DOROTHY — were playing with GODSMACK while he and Merrill were ” trying to figure out exactly what’s happening”.
In a since-deleted video shared on Facebook, Larkin addressed his absence from GODSMACK‘s 2025 tour, saying: ”Well, there’s been lots of speculation about [why Tony and I are not on the road].
“First of all, I just wanna thank everybody for the outpouring of texts, all my family and friends. I’m okay. Tony‘s okay. But we did quit the band last year, after lots of talking to Sully and Robbie. And they understood that we didn’t wanna tour anymore — that’s the reason — and we understood that they wanted to tour. And so we understood each other. And in the end, GODSMACK‘s out there touring and we are happily here living our lives.
“Tony turned 60. I’m 58. Look, it’s not a physical thing. We wanna be home with everything that we love.
“[It’s been] 40 years — think of that; 40 years I’ve been touring. 28 years for Rombola. And we’re getting a little older, so we decided to quit it. And that’s it.
“But thanks. And we love you all, the fans and everything.
“This wasn’t a bad thing, and I know it looks like it, but I will talk more about it in the future. But it’s all love. We’re brothers for life with Sully and Robbie, and we wish Will and Sam the best. And all the fans, keep going [to the shows]. They’re kicking fucking ass.
“As Sully said at the very end, all good things must come to an end. So GODSMACK didn’t come to an end — it’s just a new chapter for them — and it’s certainly a new chapter for Tony and I. And we’re already making music, and everybody’s happy. So be happy, people.”
Larkin joined GODSMACK in 2002 after cutting his teeth with WRATHCHILD (later WRATCHILD AMERICA and SOULS AT ZERO) before getting picked up by UGLY KID JOE in time for a taste of their zenith.
Tony had been the lead guitarist and backing vocalist for GODSMACK since the mid-1990s following the departure of Lee Richards.
GODSMACK‘s spring 2025 European tour featured support from P.O.D. and DROWNING POOL.
The 14-date trek ended on April 12, 2025 in Oberhausen, Germany.
GODSMACK‘s latest album, “Lighting Up The Sky”, was released in February 2023 via BMG. The LP was co-produced by Erna and Andrew “Mudrock” Murdock (AVENGED SEVENFOLD, ALICE COOPER).
The first single from “Lighting Up The Sky”, “Surrender”, which arrived in September 2022, marked the first release from GODSMACK in four years, following their globally acclaimed and gold-certified 2018 album “When Legends Rise”, which earned the Erna-fronted outfit a No. 1 spot across U.S. Hard Rock, Rock, and Alternative album charts.
In an October 2024 interview with Meltdown of Detroit’s WRIF radio station, Sully spoke about GODSMACK‘s announcement that “Lighting Up The Sky” would likely be its final collection of new material. Asked if he and his bandmates were working on any new music, Sully said: “No. There’ll be no more new GODSMACK… I mean, you can never predict the future, but the decision that was made was that we’re gonna go out now and start honoring the catalog of music that we created over the last 30 years and just enjoy kind of the greatest-hits moments.”
When Meltdown noted that a lot of artists have “gone away from the album thing” and are focusing on releasing singles, Erna said: “I mean, it sounds like the smart thing to do these days. Nobody’s really buying full albums anymore. And they make playlists of their favorite songs. So it just seems appropriate for this day and age. But again, [that’s] another argument for us to kind of dip out while we’re still in the world that we enjoyed growing up in, which was doing full-length albums and having artwork and lyrics and give the fans a whole experience through that body of work that you create. And I just no longer wanna put a year, year and a half of my time and effort and blood, sweat and tears into a piece of art for someone to just tear it apart, grab a couple of singles and move on. So, there’s that. And then there’s just the fact that we have a lot of singles right now. I mean, 27 Top Tens is a lot. That means we can’t even play them all in one night, ’cause we usually average about 15 songs a night. So for us, I just think it’s time that we start honoring the music and the catalog and giving the fans what they wanna hear.”
Sully went on to say that he is “not complaining” about having so many hit songs to choose from for a GODSMACK live set. “I am very grateful,” he clarified. “So it’s not a complaint. It’s just reality. And when I go to see my favorite bands, like AEROSMITH or METALLICA or whoever, I don’t know. Do I really wanna hear their new album? Probably not. I wanna hear ‘Dream On’ and ‘Same Old Song And Dance’ and ‘Walk This Way’, and if I leave there and they’re not playing those songs, I’m gonna be pretty mad. So, for our fanbase, I think we’re at that level where we have to honor that.”
Photo by Chris Bradshaw
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source blabbermouth.net ’
