Smackin’ with Sully
An Interview with Sully Erna of Godsmack
By Troy Schmidt
Should music tell it the way it is or the way it should be?
I think music should tell it the way it is…It speaks for itself
most of the time. You either like it or don’t like it.
What’s your favorite horror/vampire movie?
I would have to say Interview with a Vampire. It’s a part of
the novels that Anne Rice put out.
Have you read those?
Yeah.
Anything else you’re reading?
Actually I just got the Al Pacino autobiography. I’m going
to dip into that.
Do you want to be an actor?
I don’t know. Maybe some day. Something I’ve thought about.
Any other actors that are your heroes?
I like Pacino a lot. I like DeNiro. Love Jack Nicholson. Joe Pesci.
Clint Eastwood. The manly men.
What was your feeling at Woodstock ’99?
It was great. Very overwhelming for us. We just finished Ozzfest
and flew in on the red-eye. I don’t think we expected what
we had seen. It was people as far as the eye could see. It woke
our asses up. Before that we couldn’t have told you what it
was going to be about.
It was quite a contrast to the original and in retrospect it’s
gotten a lot of bad press.
It’s too bad. People need to learn to relax and have a good
time without destroying ****. I don’t agree with any of that
stuff. I think it’s about the music and people getting together
to enjoy themselves. It’s ridiculous to me.
Do you think it’s a sign of our times?
I don’t know. They riot over everything nowadays. Rodney King
gets a beating, they riot over that. That’s understandable.
The LA Lakers win the National Championship, they riot over that.
They riot whether it’s good or bad.
What do your parents do?
My mom’s been a nurse her whole life. My father worked with
computers and stuff like that.
What do they think of their son?
They’re proud. My mom’s been with me since day one. She’s
always supported me. Never discouraged me. Shipped my drums all
over the country. She’s always been there for me. We have a
really good relationship.
How did Alice in Chains feel about you borrowing a lyric for
your band name?
I don’t know. I never borrowed it from them.
That’s what I had read.
No. We were well aware it was an Alice in Chains song.
You want to set the record straight?
The last drummer we had in the band. His name was Joe Darko. He
came into rehearsal one day before we were signed. We had to do
a photo shoot for some press photos. We had paid for it out of our
own pockets. He had this big cold sore on his lip and I was making
fun of him. The next day I came into rehearsal with a big cold sore
on my lip. The guitar player said, “You see. God just smacked
you for making fun.” That’s how it came up.
You say on your website that maybe the lyrics are harsh, but
they’re not negative. What’s the difference?
Some people want to misinterpret rough for like suicidal tendencies.
I don’t preach any of that and we don’t write any of that.
The intent with my lyrics is feelings I go through, and emotions
I go through, and getting stuff off my chest. It’s really just
me stomping my feet and jumping up and down and crying about it.
It has nothing to do with promoting hard to anyone.
Do you think music is an outlet or a catalyst for anger?
I think it’s an outlet for me. It’s a way for me to vent
my emotions. I use it as sort of therapy.
What about for the crowds?
I think they use it in a different way. I think they want to release
a lot of energy. I think it’s harmless. They jump around all
night in the pit. Yell and scream and clap their hands. Whatever
they can do to enjoy the show. And when they get home they’re
too tired to want to go and rob a convenience store or beat someone
up. It’s a way for them to release their own energy.
What were you like in high school?
I was a terror. I was awful. I wasn’t there that often. When
I was there, I was usually in trouble.
You were one of those that everyone thought was never going to
make it.
I was going to jail for sure. As far as they knew. I like to bump
into them every now and then and match up salaries.
Think you’ll go to the reunion?
I never graduated.
You talk a lot about the Wiccan religion, which you’re a
part of. How do you find hope in your faith?
It was just a religion I found that I was really in tune with when
it came to karma. Being nature based. It’s something I use
on a personal level to keep me balanced, center myself when I’m
stressed out. Like any religion, people turn to something at some
point to mediate to or pray to or something to say thanks to. That
happens to work for me.
It gets a bad rap. When you say “Wiccan” people stiffen
up…
It’s because it’s pre-Christianity. When Catholicism came
around, it was shot down as satanic, whatever they didn’t understand,
whatever they didn’t want to use in their churches. I think
they took a bunch of stuff from Wicca, whether it was the chalice,
the frankincense and myrrh. They use now in funerals. It’s
stuff witches used hundreds and hundreds of years before Christianity
existed…After the witch hunts, it was pegged as demonic. People
grew up with Hollywood witches and Halloween and that kind of stuff.
It’s really not about that. When most kids find out what it’s
really about, they’re really disappointed. They think they
can levitate or change people into frogs.
It’s just like a lot of religions that get a bad rap. When
people don’t know what it is.
It’s just like Buddhism or Native Americanism…
Christianity. Catholicism…
Whatever works. We don’t preach and tell you what to do. I
know that Christianity is the only religion that doesn’t allow
you to educate yourself and learn about other religions. It’s
this way or no way. Every other religion isn’t like that. I
don’t like feeling I have a ball and chain on me.
The school shooting that happened at Santana High School…the
shooter, they say, was influenced by a Linkin Park song (called
In the End). He was also tied into Wicca.
So now it’s Linkin Park’s fault. It’s Marilyn Manson’s
fault that all those people in Colorado got shot…people never
want to point the finger at themselves. They just want to use whatever
it is as an excuse. Oh well. It’s too bad.
Do you think it’s possible that a kid like that can find
something in a song that’s not really there?
I don’t think it had anything to do with the song. I think
the kid had issues and people just didn’t see the signs. People
don’t just pull out a gun and start shooting people after listening
to a CD. I don’t buy that.
One of your songs is called “Sick of Life” but things
are going so well for you. How can those two go together?
How would you know what’s going well for me? You see what you
see on stage for an hour. People get fooled by that. We still live
normal lives and we still have our own problems that we deal with—people
that want to stab you in the back, people that want to betray you.
There’s a lot that goes on besides that one hour on stage.
There’s a lot of reality left in a day. Ultimately it comes
down to that I never found myself in the mood to write when I was
feeling good. I’m out enjoying myself and doing stuff. When
I feel depressed or I am bummed out about something or I’m
mad is when I go into a hovel and write lyrics and spend time by
myself. That’s when I get stuff off my chest.
None of your songs Pat Boone’s going to cover.
I don’t know. He may.
Do you think success has been good?
It’s been awesome. We’ve had a great time. I have nothing
to complain about when it comes to the band’s career and where
we’re going…What I write in my lyrics is a combination
of what I’ve felt in the past. I feel I’ve cleansed a
lot of that out of me in the last two records. Who knows what the
new Godsmack will sound like? I don’t think it will be all
flowers and poems. It may not be as dark either.