Godsmack – Interview [2006]

Godsmack IV is their first full studio release in more than three years, the highly anticipated disc is already garnering momentum propelled by the scalding first single, “Speak.” The song is firmly planted at #1, giving the Boston-based foursome their fourth #1 at Active Rock radio. Godsmack are the only rock band to have scored 13 Top 10 hits in the Active Rock format. The video for “Speak” can be seen on MTV2 and Fuse.

We interview Sully.

HIP: When did you start working on the record?

SULLY: We started pretty much writing when we did the Metallica tour in 2004. We had a jam room set up backstage with recording equipment. We dabbled, nothing serious, no rush, we just figured since we had a lot of time that we would just experiment and that is how some of the songs got collected—musically. After we got done touring on the Faceless cycle and took some time off, about six months, we got back together and started writing. The band went one way and I went another and we ended up meeting back and the middle and I said “check out this stuff” and they said “hey check out all of this stuff” and I started putting lyrics and melodies to everything and we ended up getting this really cool sounding record because we approached it differently, the writing process, than we used to. That made the songs come out a bit different than how Godsmack usually sounds.

GODSMACK

Where does the melody come from? I listened to “Speak” and it has that hook you do best. It’s a song you won’t forget.

We had the luxury of time. The label didn’t pressure us. They just wanted it to be killer. That was a blessing for us. We never had that before. So we were able to write thirty or forty songs and picked the best eleven so there are no skip-overs on this album. Every single song is as catchy as the next. Some have a blues edge, some have an epic sound, and some are just the old cool Godsmack sound. It’s a lot of texture. There is a lot for people on this album.

How do you keep the edge?

I don’t know. We love writing music and we always have ideas. There are always things in our heads and we record what we think about and play around with. We sift through that stuff later and find where the diamonds are.

You always wonder how some bands lose it and how some bands keep it. With the process changing, did it energize you?

Yeah, I went through a dark period in 2005. I’ve claimed it to be the worst year of my life so far. I went through hell. I was in a lawsuit over my house. My relationship was falling apart. I quit drinking. I quit smoking. I came clean with my girlfriend about cheating and lying and the shit I was doing. And then I cleansed… the good thing was I cleansed a lot of negativity out of my life—a lot of bad people and things. So when I came out the other side it was like “it’s going to be okay.” And I think that was the inspiration for a lot of this record and once it came out it opened the flood gates and it was pouring out. It took me a lot of time and distance from my band. To the point where they were getting nervous and wondering “is Sully coming around or not?”

It’s interesting because adversity always seems to help so much in the creative process. That is why it seems so many bands first albums are there best because they are going through the adversity of not having money, trying to get signed, and so on.

A lot of art comes from pain unfortunately.

But kicking drinking has to be good.

Well health-wise yeah, but quitting smoking was really tough to kick. But I did it five months ago and I’m really good now. I got over that hump. The drinking thing came to a halt. I have a few beers with friends once in a while, but it was a half a gallon of whiskey before and it’s ugly. You do stupid things and make bad decisions and that was the kind of life I didn’t want to lead anymore. And with having a four year old daughter that isn’t the kind of life I want to lead anymore.

I’m guessing for the tour energy-wise it’ll help.

I hope so. I would imagine it won’t hurt.

You said the label didn’t put pressure on you—but what about yourself?

I worry about the songs and if they are melodic enough or if they are what I want the record to be. At a point I was like “fuck that” I’m going to write what I write. I think it’s a real special one.

With the blues edge—are you at all nervous saying that? Because when Metallica said it people started turning against them.

I don’t care. We aren’t going to please everybody. There will be people who don’t think we aren’t heavy enough and others that think we are too heavy. There will always be critics out there and some people think we suck. But bottom-line we wrote the best album we could and this is a piece of art. A lot of people will love this album and hopefully we can take them on a ride with us.

How was it picking the songs as the producer?

This is what I’ve always done—I’ve always been the producer. We’ve made the mistake of hiring people to produce are record and they truly weren’t producing. Godsmack is really good about doing their homework ahead of time and we get in there and work up the songs and that is what I’ve done—wrote and composed music. When we get in the studio we just go down a checklist and the producer is just like ‘yeah, that’s cool” and they get sixty grand and 3 points on our record when they were nothing more than a glorified engineer. So that is what we did on this. We had legendary producer Andy Johns on this record. He did Zeppelin II, III, and IV, Stones, Van Halen and he even took a backseat. He said “you guys already did your work. I’m going to mix and engineer this album because I love it.” Sonically he made it sound great. But we’ve learned our lessons over time that we don’t need a name producer to sell our record.

With the other guys bringing you music did you already have lyrics and matched them up or write completely new lyrics?

I always use experiences that I go through and this part of my life I’ve gone through some intense stuff and this whole cleansing period and releasing the demons and that kind of thing—for real this time. I went to Tucson and did some pretty extensive spiritual stuff with the Native Americans in sweat lodges and all that kind of stuff. I got to a much better place but it was hard to get there. I had to release a lot of that stuff. That became the inspiration for a lot of this record. So even though some of the lyrics may sound a bit dark on some things there is a real positive message at the end of every song about “hey, life isn’t always going to go our way.” But there is this presence that watches over us and we can, you know, and take pride in knowing we can overcome the things life throws at us. I think there is a more positive message throughout this record.

When and how did you decide to go out to Tucson?

I was just living a crazy life. I was home and off tour, we had been touring for eight years and we had a year off and I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know how to be with my daughter, I didn’t know how to do anything but go, go, go. I was so used to being drunk and in the party life and now I was stuck home and there was nothing to do. So I started to fall into the same habits I had on the road. I couldn’t be shooing my daughter away because I was drunk on the couch. That’s not good so I knew I had to get help.

GODSMACK

Was it a spiritual thing you needed or…

…I didn’t know what I needed. I knew I had to stop doing what I was doing and start feeling better because it was too much work to live that lifestyle.

Are you going to go on tour for a few years again this time around?

No, I’ll tell you what we’ve earned from going through grind and grueling tour schedule we’ve had over the last years—we were literally doing eleven shows on and one day off. Even people like Pantera were asking “what the fuck are you doing dude?” I was like “why is this not normal? Don’t you do the same thing?” They were like “no.” But what it has earned us is some time to relax so we can pace our scheduling better so we can do five weeks on and a few weeks off. Doing three month tours with a week off is too much. It’s time for us to smell the roses we earned.

I think you have such a fan base now that you don’t have to keep looking for new fans all the time.

We hope this record is huge and we will do our work with it. We’ll tour for the next two or three years but at our own pace. We are going to have our families and enjoy it and do it on our schedule.

+ Charlie Craine