{"id":375038,"date":"2025-12-29T00:54:06","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T00:54:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/375038\/"},"modified":"2025-12-29T00:54:06","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T00:54:06","slug":"why-sully-erna-says-there-could-be-a-new-godsmack-album-after-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/375038\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Sully Erna Says There Could Be a New Godsmack Album After All"},"content":{"rendered":"

Several years ago,\u00a0Godsmack<\/a> frontman Sully Erna<\/a>\u00a0mentioned that\u00a02023\u2019s Lighting Up the Sky might be the group\u2019s last album<\/a>. The 2024 departures<\/a> of guitarist\/vocalist Tony Rombola<\/a> and drummer Shannon Larkin<\/a> solidified such speculation, yet during his recent appearance on Kylie Olsson\u2019s Life in Six Strings podcast<\/a>, Erna shifted his stance to discuss why there could be a new Godsmack album after all.<\/p>\n

What Did Erna Say About Godsmack\u2019s Potential New Album?<\/p>\n

The episode (which was uploaded to YouTube on Dec. 22) sees Olsson touring Erna\u2019s \u201chouse of music\u201d as they discuss his career, influences, interests and the like.<\/p>\n

About halfway into the 35-minute clip, Olsson asks Erna: \u201cDo you think there\u2019ll be another Godsmack record,\u201d to which he replies: \u201cI think there will. I said there wasn’t going to be, and at least I know there won’t be with the original members.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continues\u00a0by specifying that Rombola and Larkin have officially retired \u201cvery honorably\u201d from Godsmack, adding:<\/p>\n

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 there\u2019s really like \u2013 it\u2019s kinda come full circle.<\/p>\n

To be fair, this isn\u2019t the first time Erna changed his tune regarding the finality of Godsmack\u2019s studio work.<\/p>\n

For instance, he appeared on Loudwire Nights<\/a> back in February of 2024 and told<\/a> host Chuck Armstrong<\/a> that \u201cyou can never say never\u201d when it comes to the group doing a follow-up to Lighting Up the Sky.<\/p>\n

He elaborated [via Loudwire]:<\/p>\n

We don’t know what the future holds. We just feel like right now, it feels right to kind of honor the catalog and go out and play the live shows because \u2014 and I say this egoless \u2014 when you find yourself at a point in your career where we now have 27 Top 10 singles, we have 13 No. 1 songs…it’s like, at what point do you honor the music and start thinking of the fans? . . . In the future, will we ever write another song? It could happen. Will I ever do a collaboration? Of course, it could happen.<\/p>\n

That said, his most recent comments imply not only that a new Godsmack album might happen but that it will happen, and that Erna\u2019s already thinking about how to do it.<\/p>\n

Would you like a new Godsmack album, though? What do you think of Lighting Up the Sky and\/or the band\u2019s recent lineup changes? Let us know!<\/p>\n

Also, you can watch Erna\u2019s full episode of Life in Six Strings below:<\/p>\n

Sully Erna Discusses Godsmack\u2019s Past\u00a0+ Future on Kylie Olsson\u2019s Life in Six Strings\u00a0Podcast<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Rockers Tell Their Wildest Tattoo Stories<\/a><\/p>\n

More About Godsmack\u2019s Studio Retirement + Recent Lineup Changes <\/p>\n

To dive a bit deeper into why Lighting Up the Sky was positioned as Godsmack\u2019s last record, Erna said in late 2022<\/a> that the band \u201cput every single ounce of energy and emotion into [it]\u201d and that it represented his \u201clife journey.\u201d<\/p>\n

He expounded:<\/p>\n

I wanna make sure people are clear about what we’re saying here. I’m not saying that the band may be breaking up. What I’m saying is I think this may be the last body of work you get musically from the band. And it’s because we’re in this place in our lives right now where we’ve done a lot of work over the last three decades. Without sounding egotistical, which we’re not trying to do, we’re at 27 Top 10 singles, 11 Number Ones. We could literally do back-to-back nights in an arena and play 15 songs a night and never play the same single twice, let alone the ‘B’ cuts.<\/p>\n

We started thinking, when we were in that thought process, why are we in here grinding all the time and doing this new music when we wanna just also know that we’ve never stopped in the 25 years we’ve been touring. We’d like to be able to enjoy our lives, our family, our houses, the things that we’ve earned over the years that we’ve sacrificed. So I think the balance for that, the happy medium, is to be able to just go out there now and continue to do live shows and put the greatest-hits show together.<\/p>\n

I don’t know what we’re gonna do after this record. And it doesn’t make sense to continue to do music. It really feels complete in a good way, in a positive way. We feel like we’ve honored our career, our relationships with our fans, and we’re always gonna be there for them; we’re gonna do shows. But as far as to continue this, after this [album], unless we just decide one day, ‘Yeah, one more for the road,’ I think this could be it for us with new music.<\/p>\n

As mentioned before, his February 2024 Loudwire Nights appearance saw him reconsidering \u2013 or at least rephrasing \u2013 his intentions with Godsmack.<\/p>\n

This past April, both Larkin and Rombola revealed that they\u2019d quit Godsmack in 2024<\/a> because they \u201cdidn\u2019t want to tour anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

Godsmack uploaded a statement to social media regarding the matter, too (which you can see below).<\/p>\n

In it, they shared the \u201cbittersweet news\u201d that following \u201calmost 3 incredible decades, two of our most cherished members, . . . have 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

The message also stipulated:<\/p>\n

Their departure marks the end of an era, but it also opens the door for new and exciting possibilities. . . . Robbie [Merrill, bass] and I [Sully Erna] are also excited to explore new directions, and although we have not made any permanent decisions about who may replace [them], we will be continuing this journey together, and we look forward to sharing the decisions we make with all of you as they happen. . . . Let\u2019s celebrate the memories we\u2019ve made together while we all look forward to our future together.<\/p>\n

Subsequently, Erna and Merrill\u00a0welcomed\u00a0Evanescence<\/a> drummer Will Hunt<\/a> and lead guitarist Sam Bam Koltun as live fill-ins<\/a>. Neither musician has been named an official member of Godsmack, of course, and following the end of their 2025 European tour, Erna confirmed<\/a> that the group would take a \u201cfull year off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, and per setlist.fm<\/a>, their last concert was in Germany on April 12.<\/p>\n

Other Godsmack News<\/p>\n

It looks like Erna was 100% correct about Godsmack\u2019s year-long break, as they won\u2019t be returning to the road until May of 2026.<\/p>\n

In fact, they\u2019ve got a whole bunch of shows scheduled between the start of May and the end of August, with stops across the globe as they play festivals such as Welcome to Rockville<\/a> and Sonic Temple<\/a>.<\/p>\n

You can see all of their upcoming dates \u2013 and grab tickets \u2013 here<\/a>!<\/p>\n

The Songs 30 Huge Rock + Metal Bands Only Played Live Once<\/p>\n

Note: songs that were played as part of a medley and cover songs were not considered for this list. Only full performances of individual songs were taken into account.<\/p>\n

Gallery Credit: Joe DiVita<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Several years ago,\u00a0Godsmack frontman Sully Erna\u00a0mentioned that\u00a02023\u2019s Lighting Up the Sky might be the group\u2019s last album. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":375039,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[88,1739,216,3,1740,6879],"class_list":{"0":"post-375038","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-metal","10":"tag-music","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-rock","13":"tag-videos"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=375038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375038\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/375039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=375038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=375038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=375038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}