Godsmack frontman Sully Erna recently spoke with an Orlando rock station after playing a radio festival about his recent hospitalization from COVID-19 and during the chat he revealed the bombshell that the band may be done making new music.
Erna was talking with Pat Lynch and Taco Bob of 101.1 WJRR (as seen below) when he offered an update on the band’s current album plans. He said that Godsmack first and foremost was going to concentrate on upcoming radio festivals and live international gigs. “The first thing to do is these shows,” stated Erna, adding. “We have four more to do over the next two weekends. And then it’s pretty loose until October. Then we start ‘touring touring’ in Europe, we do South America, we [play] some international [shows].”
He tells Pat and Taco Bob that the new record is in the can and we’ll hear some of it, most likely, in a few months. Then, he offered a dire statement. “We’ll be back first quarter of ’23 with a new record. The record’s finished; we’re done recording it. You should probably be hearing new music by summertime — mid-to-late summer — and then following it up with a second single and the full record by the top of ’23. That’s the plan. And then we’re just gonna hit it one more time hard and heavy. And I’ve gotta tell you, this might be the last one for us — it might be the last record for us.”
Within the chat, Erna also spoke more in depth about a recent bout with COVID, adding that he was surprised that complications from the virus really laid him out after the Christmas holiday.
“I take really good care of myself. I’m a runner. I’ve boxed for over 20 years. And I’m onstage two hours a night. I have pretty big lungs, so even thinking if I was gonna get it, I figured I’d get sick like the normal flu get sick and then you push through it, but I definitely didn’t expect for it to knock me down the way it did,” explained the singer. “I got very sick. I was sick for five-and-a-half weeks, but I was in the hospital for four days.”
He says that because he got hit over the holiday, his doctors were on vacation and he had substitutes docs guiding him over the phone. “What happened was the COVID left my body within seven to 10 days, but then pneumonia developed, and that’s what got me (really sick),” explained Erna. “I ended up getting blood clots in my lungs and stuff like that. That’s when everything went down. It was pretty gnarly for a while because my oxygen had dipped to 76. And if anyone knows anything about oxygen levels, you’re not supposed to go below 95… I was pretty emotional, pretty nervous about wondering if I was coming out of this. (My doctor in the hospital goes), ‘I’ve gotta tell you, man, when you came in, I was really nervous for you. And most people that come in in that condition, they don’t leave with a happy ending.'”
During another radio interview in 2021, Erna said that the coronavirus wasn’t a “global killer.” Per Blabbermouth, “It’s doing damage, and it’s certainly affecting the elderly, and we pray for them, and we are really sympathetic towards that, and that’s why we’re all wearing masks, that’s why we’re all doing our job. Because there’s a lot of us that aren’t afraid of COVID, and we know that we’re probably gonna blow right through it. But we don’t wanna roll the dice with our loved ones, so we’re being responsible. But at the same time, the reality is this isn’t a global killer. It’s gonna pass, we’re gonna get past it, and we need to get back to normal.”
Erna said at the time that the official government-reported death count from COVID-19 was inflated. He also came out against preachy celebrities telling people how to live their lives during COVID.
Watch the whole radio station interview below.
Godsmack’s Sully Erna talks w/ 101.1 WFRR in Orlando About COVID and Final Album
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