Willie Chats with Sully Erna about the Godsmack Acoustic Tour and More!

Willie Chats with Sully Erna about the Godsmack Acoustic Tour and More!

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Yeah, Olympus can break stuff.Who knew Fred Durst was an oracle because
everything is fed up and everybody doessuck. Uh, but not this man,
This is this is really cool.I've been telling you for a minute.
Now we're gonna be joining with SullyEarn and I believe this is him
on the phone now, which isjust awesome. Hey, Sally there,

(00:22):
I am here. Oh man,uh as always dude, it's just cool
as hell being able to catch upwith you and find out what you're doing
next. And Dude, for alot of people, this is gonna be
eye opening because a lot of peopleare gonna be blown away when we find
out what we're gonna chat about herein just a minute. But hey,
welcome to the show. Always goodcatching up, bro. I hope you've

(00:43):
been fantastic. I've been doing reallygood. Thanks man, I appreciate that,
and thanks for having me again.Yeah, man, always a cool
catching up with the one and onlySully Erna. Let's talk about the show
coming up to Paramount. Dude,this is gonna be so cool. It's
you guys doing so completely different becausefor a lot of people, well they've
only seen you on the big stage. You know, with the big show

(01:03):
and all the production, and youknow, you've just been a power house
in the last like a couple ofdecades when it comes to rock music.
But this is something that's it's reallycool, it's way different. It's gonna
be just an incredible night. Iimagine it's such a unique experience for so
many fans. Yeah, for sure. We actually kind of did something like

(01:26):
this a while ago in four whenwe wrapped up the Metallica tour and you
know, we had put out thatrecord the other side, that EP,
so we wanted to just kind oflike wind down from the big stages with
those guys and just kind of dosomething chill, more intimate, get in
tune, you know, with thefans a little closer, do some Q
and as whatever, and it justwent over so well, and ever since

(01:49):
then, people have been asking usabout that again for the last you know,
twenty years, like when are youguys going to do this thing again?
So we just figured, you know, we just wrapped up a really
strong year of touring on the bigstages and the Pyro and the double drum
gag, big energy, so wewere like, you know, this could
be a really cool time to getinto some of the deeper cuts because also,
you know, especially over the lastcouple of albums, along with the

(02:12):
previous stuff like the Voodoos and theSerenities and the Spirals and all that stuff
from our catalog, there's a lotof like deeper cuts and other kind of
viby songs that we've written over theyears that we never bring out on the
big stages because those shows are moreabout the energy and the adrenaline and you
know, kind of keeping that up. So this is an opportunity for us
to not only give our bodies abreak from the big stage, right,

(02:36):
you know, you give it onstage. It's it's insane still this day.
It's yeah. Yeah, we've kindof identified over the years that you
know, God Smacked Lives on thebig stage is more kind of like a
full contact sport and musical concert atleast our bodies think that when were in
there, you know, justin roomputting on ben Gate, right. But

(03:00):
anyways, yeah, so this isgoing to be a really cool, intimate
ev it's not fully acoustic, justso people know, it's not like you're
just coming to see a super strippeddown performance, but there will be acoustic
performances. There's going to be fullyelectric performances. There's going to be some
fun vibey covers in there, youknow, some storytelling, and like a
really well balanced evening for people tojust come and take this journey through music

(03:23):
with us. Yeah, what ajourney too, man. Imagine some of
the stories you have are just incrediblefor us, you know, as fans.
You know, maybe some of thosememories you know stem here in Colorado
Venues I'll never forget still refer tothis day as Sodsmack, when Philler's Green
laid down New Soden the majority ofit ended up, and pitdlers, you

(03:46):
know, and when the wall ofAms caught on fire at Red Rocks,
and just so many memories with youin the past. It's it's got to
be cool to be able to breakthose down and share a few of the
moments that people maybe aren't aware ofor didn't know about us. The crazy
you know, because you guys,it is so different the landscape now than
when you guys first came out.And imagine there's some hurdles and crazy stories

(04:08):
from even back then that you loveto tell. Yeah, I mean it's
hard to remember them all you know, we've been down here for twenty five
years plus, and it's like youdon't always just kind of remember what happened
at that venue of that city,but you just kind of remember the staple
moments that stuck out the most.But you know, a lot of times
too, people would just want tokind of hear about the songs and what

(04:28):
they meant to us when we wrotethem, and where they came from,
and you know what these lyrics meanat times, and things like that,
along with just the dynamics of theband and being together so long, and
what do we do to stay friends? What do we do to like you
know? What? How do weget through our fights and our disagreements and
the times where we don't really likeeach other? You know, those are
all important things that I think,you know, it's good to share with

(04:50):
the people because it translates to themin their life and how they have relationships
with their brothers and sisters and parents. Because when you're like brothers and you
they are like married, which iswhat the band is, You're gonna have
your fights, You're gonna have yourdisagreements, you're gonna have your times where
things aren't good, and you haveto know how to push through those times.
You know, it's like it's likea family. You know, it's

(05:11):
really like that sort of dynamic andthat that hierarchy and and you know,
a lot of times it means listeningand a lot of times it means swallowing
pride or you know, battling itout and getting through it. And yeah,
it's it's gotta be a crazy thingfor you to share those. I'm
gonna pivot one second. We guys, we're speaking with Celly are in a
front men of godsmack for decades.But you got something coming out that I

(05:33):
saw the trailer for it this morning, bro, and it's dude. It
tells a completely different story that alot of people might not know about how
you brought kind of how you werebrought up and some of things that were
important, some of the things thatwere just crucial in pivot points throughout your
career, moments where you could havedecided to go a different route and things,

(05:55):
and heavily it would have been awhole different sort of story to tell.
This I stand alone documentary is isstreaming right now, you guys on
Apple and Amazon. Highly recommend youyou check out the trailer. If you
watch the trailer, you'll get thismovie. What a crazy way to tell
your story. Man, that's it'samazing. Well, it was an amazing

(06:17):
journey through my life. You know, I've told people that have asked me
about, you know, how Igrew up, where I grew up and
things like that, and why maybesometimes they feel like, you know,
I'm a good advice giver or thingslike that, and I don't consider myself
some kind of like, you know, guru or some spiritual like conduit that
just happened in life. Right,I've just lived one hell of a life

(06:41):
and I lived most of it inthe first thirty years of my life.
And so a while back, Iput out a memoir called The Paths We
Choose, which is what this documentaryis kind of based on. This is
a featured documentary. It's like aninety minute film that really shows one man's
journey, my journey from the timeI was born until I get a record
deal and growing up in this verychallenging city called Lawrence, Massachusetts, which

(07:04):
was ridden with a lot of gangs, a lot of racism, crime,
violence, drugs, and when you'rein that environment and you're and that becomes
your role model as a kid.You can go to some dark places very
quickly. And there was a lotof times I could have ended up dead
or in jail very easily. Butmusic was there, and music, you

(07:26):
know, saved my life more thanone time, and it really became the
vehicle to get me out of aplace like this and and save me from
you know, from going to prisonor getting myself killed at times, because
the environment around me was just unsafeand it was violent and challenging. So
the documentary just kind of shows mylife before. Oh it's a crazy snapshot

(07:48):
you guys to that point. There'spictures and footage that you're gonna be like,
whoa is that the way? That'sSully. That's well, it's it's
some of the some of the narrationyou do on and some of the the
shotgun story you gave me Goosebo saucewhat man. Yeah, it is something
else to uh, to see thatwhen you started that project and knew it

(08:09):
was gonna be a documentary, that'sdude, that's sharing so much of your
of your life and how you grewup and some things I imagine were pretty
a pretty tough story to tell.They were they were tough, you know,
especially it's more of the pivotal momentin my life, like the shotgun
story or the you know, thatbig gang fight that happened. They kind

(08:30):
of drove my mom into moving usout of Lawrence and all that. So
there's you know, there's there's somemoments that I even reflect back on and
I get the chills because I go, man, if that thing would have
went the other way, it wouldhave changed the whole trajectory of my life,
and so many things would have beenmissing. My daughter, the band,
the music, a lot of myfriends, like I would have spent
my life in prison rather than buildingthe life that I have. So I

(08:54):
hope people see, you know,enjoy it for the entertainment of the movie
and just learn a little bit moreabout me and what I went through my
life. But I really hope theysee it as a more of an inspirational
piece because I really feel like thisfilm in the book is just a story
of perseverance and how one person,you know, can find the strength to
get through these kind of moments andrise above them again and find that in

(09:16):
a strength to kind of move forwardinstead of letting life knock you down over
and over again and just crumbling andfeel defeated. So that's you know,
that's really what the story is about. Yeah, and you know through that,
a lot of people can find motivationand find that they're not alone in
what they're dealing with or going through. It is. It's definitely a layer

(09:37):
too deep in Sully's life and howhe grew up and some of the crazy
things that you know they got hemade those particular choices and or decisions because
it would be so different. Yougot to look back and reflect upon twenty
plus years of being you know,just as tightening rock, bro, and
just you know, you see thestats. The numbers are amazing when they

(09:58):
encapsulated thing like that, Like youknow, it's like twenty million records worldwide,
you know, let's see Billboards MusicRock Artist of the Year, Grammy
nominations, twenty top ten hits.When you start reading all these stats,
it's like, God, what astory, What a crazy ride you've had?
Bro? Yeah it was. Itwas a very big, fulfilling life,

(10:22):
you know, and it's still going. I still learn every day and
I still try to acquire all thiswisdom and take these experiences now and try
to give back, which is whywe started the Scars Foundation. You know,
I felt like I always wanted togive back. I always wanted to
take the successful part of my lifeand give back because that came from such
a raw, kind of challenging areain my life. But I never knew

(10:45):
where to give back to because luckilyfor me, I was never affected by
losing someone in my family to AIDSor cancer or stuff like that. So
to join those charities, not thatthey're not reputable and honorable, but I
didn't have a personal connection to someof that, and I always struggled on
where do I put my time andeffort. And then when I realized,

(11:05):
you know, one day that thiswhole thing with mental illness, anxiety,
depression, bullying, addiction PTSD,these are all the things I've experienced in
my life personally and I have themost experience with. So that's when we
form the Scars Foundation, because that, you know, is what gives back,
That's what helps people have a voice, show them how to get rid

(11:26):
of these struggles and challenges and uh, and that that makes me feel good
to know that all this wasn't fornothing. Yeah, man, it's it's
always amazing. I love to talkto you about that. The Scars Foundation,
their mission is benefit programs with theproven track record of effectingness and addressing
mental health issues. There's a lotabout it online. There's ways to help

(11:48):
out. There's you know, SCARSJunior Ambassador programs, there's all kinds of
cool stuff. And in Sully's man, he's first hand, he's on it,
and it's just really cool you usethat platform as a way to get
help out there, and just hey, you know what, Man, it's
been awesome to see and navigate allthis with you on the sideline, cheering

(12:13):
is as you guys rode through onceagain. Man, amazed at the effort
because that's where I'll stem from.The dream is free, but the hustle
is sold separately, and man,you put the hustle down. So it's
really cool to be able to watchthis over the decades and see just an
amazing stretch career and path. AndI'm excited to be there at the Paramount.

(12:33):
The show's April fifteenth tickets are availableright now, but these things will
go quickly. This thing will sellout. Sully as always, Man,
it's just an honor. Looking forwardto seeing you again, my friend.
And just continue on. It's justan amazing path. Thanks man, I
appreciate it. We're excited to getthere play a lot of stuff that people,

(12:56):
you know, haven't heard in awhile, if ever, of the
stuff we've never even played yet,including by the way, the new single
that we're releasing Truth Truth. Yeah, this was gonna be Yeah, this
is gonna be a first, youknow for even the band. Stuff like
that and some of the deeper cutson the new records. So we're definitely
looking forward to, you know,just to sharing the evening with everyone and

(13:18):
taking them on this musical journey.We look forward to it as well.
And we're gonna play Truth coming upnext man. So yeah, man,
we got that came peek into mymiserable life, but a great story to
tell my friend and continue it.It's been amazing. We're cheering you on
even today, my friend. Thankyou, appreciate it. Ah, Sally,

(13:39):
take care man you soon all right, bye bye, all right,
and I promise got that newer Truthon the way next quick break. We'll
see on the other side. It'swell seven nine kbp I