MMRBQ Flashback: Backstage with Godsmack

Today (2/7) is Sully Erna's birthday, and we've had the pleasure of speaking with him many times over the years at WMMR. We're flashing back to an interview from the MMaRchives that happened in 2017 when Godsmack headlined the MMRBQ.

Before their fiery 'RBQ set, Brent Porche and Jacky Bam Bam sat down backstage with Sully alongside Godsmack drummer Shannon Larkin. Their conversation covered everything from the origin of the band's name (no, they're not named after that Alice In Chains song), the blues, our least favorite words (is it "moist" or "cream"?) and Sully's love of blues artists like Aretha Franklin, Miles Davis and Amy Winehouse. Plus: who in the Erna family makes the best meatballs?

The Godsmack fellas told us about their earliest memories of Philadelphia, like their first gig in the city "at a roast beef joint" (but now they're playing our big barbecue!). Sully was stoked to run up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art a la Rocky, quipping, "I did it better than Stallone!"

All four of the guys at the table - Shannon and Sully and Brent and Bam Bam - are drummers, so of course they talked about the live drum battles that are a staple of every Godsmack concert: Batalla De Los Tambores.

Fast forward to the present: the band have been on a victory lap since 2023 and into 2024. Lighting Up The Sky is their eighth and final album, with the group indicating that even though they're still bursting with energy, they want to go out on a high note with Godsmack and gracefully move on to other projects.

The last time we saw Sully and Godsmack on stage in the Philly area was last fall at the Freedom Mortgage Pavilion in Camden, NJ. Check out Brent's photos from the gig below.

Sully and the boys of Godsmack made good on their promise to bring their "Best of Times World Tour" back to Camden, NJ and the Freedom Mortgage Pavilion after Mother Nature and a severe storm had other plans earlier this summer. This time around they brought their Boston-area brothers in Extreme along with them.

Extreme is touring in support of their brand-new album SIX that was released back in June. They had been on the road most of the summer with Living Colour on their "Thicker Than Blood 2023 Tour". They had so much fun on the tour, that they added another leg of it set to kick-off in 2024, with a stop at the Tropicana Casino in Atlantic City on Saturday January 27th.

Godsmack is touring in support of their 8th, and possibly final, studio album Lighting Up the Sky, released earlier this year via BMG. And though this show was the last night of Godsmack's 2023 tour, Sully mentioned from the stage that the band would be back on the road as early as February of 2024 with a whole new show and tour.

Highlight of the night, and quite possibly the whole tour, was Godsmack and Extreme teaming up for a blazing rendition of AC/DC's "Highway to Hell", which you can view here.

Encore: