By John Katic
Last year, Godsmack’s Sully Erna took a creative leap of faith and released Avalon.
Godsmack have shown glimpses of Erna’s world, plus some tribal influences, most notably with tracks like “Voodoo.” But Avalon fully immersed the artist into a world of musicians and collaborators. It truly shows the depth and breadth of Sully’s talents.
Recording a studio album is one thing, but making the transition to a live show is quite another. On December 18, Erna will release Avalon Live on DVD and Blu-Ray.
I recently spoke with Erna about the album, the tour and the video.
REVOLVER: Last year saw the release of Avalon, which was different yet somewhat similar to the work you’ve done with Godsmack. Can you describe the feeling of releasing an album under your own name, going out without the Godsmack brand and baring your soul to the world?
It was good and refreshing, and it continues to be refreshing. As you know, I’ve been doing Godsmack for a while, and being a musician my whole life, there is a lot of different kind of music I have played. Sometimes it is not necessarily good for Godsmack. For me, it was about exploring internally and getting some stuff out that I‘ve had inside. There are plenty of times I’m sitting around writing at the piano and noodling around, and you stumble onto some really great idea and you know at that moment that it won’t work out for Godsmack because it has a whole different texture.
They are still great pieces of music, and I wanted to release them and see what people thought. For me, the Avalon thing became internal. It wasn’t about critics and even what the fans thought. It was about creating a body of work that was really a part of me and that I have grown into. This was a record I just had to do for myself, whether it sat on the shelf for the rest of my life or it was released, it did not matter to me at that moment. Luckily, people embraced it and it has done really well and I am really proud of it. It was nice to step out of the box and not have a ceiling over my head.
When you were writing this material, where you typically alone, and were there particular instruments you wrote with?
It was a bit of both. Before I put Avalon together, I had a few pieces written like “Eyes of a Child” and “Until Then… .” From there, I started to put some members together. I had known Lisa [futureusgalleryGuyer] from a mutual friend. She had a phenomenal voice and four-octave range and was just so great but never really had a shot. Once I was starting to write and knew I wanted a female voice, I thought of her. I knew it was going to be a great fit, so I contacted her.
I introduced her to Dead Can Dance and bands like that. It just so happened that Dead Can Dance were doing this reunion tour that year. So I took Lisa to the Boston show and she was just floored. She was blown away by Lisa Gerrard’s voice and the whole mystical, hypnotic world-music vibe. She got it right away. I told her this was what I wanted to do but only modernize it and make it a little more current and edgy.
It just so happened that the percussionist of Dead Can Dance, Niall Gregory, was a Godsmack fan, so we met him that night and we all just kept in touch. The three of us became the foundation for Avalon. Lisa introduced me to Chris Lester, who introduced us to Tim Theriault. Tim introduced us to Chris Decato, and it just grew from there organically. It was just something that kept evolving. It was really supposed to be studio tracking of the music, and we really didn’t know where it was going to go.
Sully Erna Avalon Live TRAILER from Daniel Catullo on Vimeo.
Did you do a lot of the arranging for the record and for the live performance?
Yes, I did all the arranging. There was a lot of input for content when people were writing things. I told everyone to go home and come back in a couple weeks with tapes of ideas. I then started to peruse things and organize it and create the arrangements. I have to give them props for bringing in a ton of ideas. Their melodies and riffs really helped me find the path we were on.
As the frontman of a very successful hard rock band, people think of you with a Les Paul around your neck. How did it feel to stand on the stage for the first time in that environment? Did you feel sort of naked, almost?
No not at all. It was a breath of fresh air. Godsmack is such a big entity, and we’ve always been known to put on a big, fat rock show with pyro, video, big lighting and all that stuff. It’s very animated and energy. It’s like a full-contact sport. Avalon was more like the seductive side of things. It was really cool to lay back on the piano or sing into the microphone and let the music and lights take people to other places. It wasn’t awkward at all for me.
Doing the DVD at the Wilber Theater in Boston, your hometown — was that a blessing or a curse? Obviously, you have the benefit of the hometown fans, but you also have the stress of guests and such that go with playing in your hometown.
It was great. I was proud to do it in Boston. We were in a historical theater at the Wilber Theater. It was great to have all our friends and family there, along with fans that flew in from all parts of the country to be a part of it. I would do it in Boston again for sure. I’d play in Boston as much as I could as long as we continue to draw an audience. It’s a great environment. People love their music there.
Obviously, you are releasing the CD/DVD, Blu-Ray and the box set. Do you plan on taking Avalon further with a new record at some point? Will this take a back seat to other things at the moment?
I’m working on new material now and I’m not sure where I’m going to go with it. What worked on Avalon is that we really didn’t know what we were writing. We just knew we wanted to do a certain kind of vibe for the album. We had an idea in our heads. What worked for us well was that it was a massive left-hand turn from what people expected from me for a solo record. They had no idea and might have thought that it was a solo rock record.
For me as I write again, I’m not sure if I want to pigeonhole myself into that genre. Luckily there are enough colors on that record; I can go in any direction. I could strip in down and do what Adele does acoustically or I could take it to another level and do more orchestration. But again I’m not going to premeditate it too much. I’m just going to write with certain members again. We’ll see where the music takes us. I want to keep people on their toes and not let them predict what the next record will sound like.
I think you can’t help but draw some comparisons to the music of Led Zeppelin and what keeps them so vital to this day. They didn’t stand pat on Led Zeppelin II, they evolved.
Exactly! Zeppelin is the perfect example. They just played what they played. They have stuff from reggae to rock to blues. You name it. They had so many different colors on their albums and that’s what made them special. By no means do I ever compare myself to Zeppelin, but I do feel Avalon was magical. I think my job as an artist is to just continue to write the best music I can write and hope people embrace it.
Avalon Live will be released December 18 on DVD and Blu-Ray. There also is a limited-edition box set that contains 5 DVDs: the double disc, Avalon Live, shot in Boston at The Wilbur Theater in 2D, on Standard and Blu-ray; The Making of Avalon Live, a 40-minute documentary of behind-the-scenes footage from the concert in December; The Journey to Avalon documentary, an hour-long version of the acclaimed doc seen on Palladia, and a bloopers and outtakes DVD of Sully in the studio along with videos from Avalon.
The box also contains two CDs: Avalon, the studio album, and Avalon Live, the live show from Boston. Other items include an autographed limited-edition coffee table book, an updated version of Sully’s personal memoir, The Paths We Choose, a limited-edition poster from the Wilbur show and a limited-edition T-shirt, a Sully Erna hat and necklace, commemorative backstage pass from the 2010 tour, a guitar pick and custom hand-made incense chosen by Sully.
Boston-based hard rockers Godsmack have just posted the official music video for their cover of the Beatles’ “Come Together,” which is taken from their recent Live & Inspired release. Check it out below.
“We knew Aerosmith added modernity and more rocking sound to The Beatles’ version,” said drummer Shannon Larkin of his band’s take on the classic song. “We wanted to bring it into the 2000s with a heavier guitar tone. Tony wrote a more chunking riff than the Aerosmith version. We wanted to make it Godsmack. We approached it like, ‘If we wrote the song, what would it have sounded like today?’”
Next month, the band will head out on the road as part of this year’s Rockstar Energy Drink Uproar Festival, along with Shinedown, Adelita’s Way, Staind and more. For info and a full list of dates, head here.
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Rock Vegas, powered by Rockstar Energy Drink, has just announced the daily band lineup for what is being called “Sin City’s loudest two-day rock music festival.”
Godsmack, Shinedown, Rob Zombie, Marilyn Manson and many more are all set to hit the stage during the two-day festival, which will take place September 28 and 29 at Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas.
“I am packing up the trucks with everything I need to destroy Sin City’s loudest music festival,” said Rob Zombie. “I know Las Vegas has seen it all, but you ain’t seen nothing like this.”
Check out the full lineup below and get your tickets here.
Friday, September 28
Shinedown, Godsmack, Staind, Papa Roach, P.O.D., Adelitas Way, Deuce, Redlight King
Saturday, September 29
Rob Zombie, Marilyn Manson, Stone Sour, Buckcherry, All That Remains, Art of Dying, New Medicine, Otherwise
Godsmack recently released their first ever live album, Live and Inspired, which also features four covers including one of Joe Walsh’s “Rocky Mountain Way.” The band is premiering the video for that song right here right now. Check it out below and let us know what you think in the comments.
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2011 has been a great year for music, as evidenced by the kickass bands and artists we were able to feature on the cover of Revolver this year. Below, you can check out who made the cover of every issue of Revolver that was available over the past 365 days. After you’ve looked at the issues (some of which are still available for purchase here), click here to vote for the Best Revolver Cover of 2011.
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As part of our 2011 wrap-up, we have posted a photo gallery of every Revolver issue that was on newsstands this year (some are still available here). In our poll below, we want you to tell us what the Best Revolver Cover of 2011 was. Feel free to vote as many times as you want. The polls close at midnight EST on New Year’s Eve. Getcha pull!
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Godsmack frontman Sully Erna has revealed that the band will be heading into the studio in January to mix an upcoming live album and record a selection of cover songs. Speaking to BostonHerald.com, Erna said the songs getting the Godsmack treatment would be those that have “inspired us along the way.”
Erna, who is currently on a solo tour, also revealed that Godsmack plan to hit the road with Staind in the Spring.
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Johnny Wore Black, the brainchild of British former Royal Marine Commando Jay Coen, have finished work on their debut single, “All the Rage,” and you can now get an exclusive first listen of the song below. The track features a special guest appearance by Megadeth bassist David Ellefson. Also contributing to “All the Rage” is Grammy-Award-winning producer David Bottrill (Tool, Staind, Godsmack), who will also be working on the band’s debut album. Check out the song, as well as the video for the track, which was directed by David Newton, read what Coen and Ellefson have to say about “All the Rage,” and let us know what you think in the comments.
REVOLVER Jay, what led you to enlist as a Royal Marine Commando?
JAY COEN I lost my dad when I was 17. And I suppose, to be honest with you, it was kind of my way of just sort of rebelling in a funny way. And even though I suppose the military is not really rebelling but, you know, I sort of felt like I was either gonna go one of two ways. I was either gonna, like, go really off the rails and do the whole drugs thing and just, you know, push myself in that way, or I needed to find a way just to channel my kind of teenage angst and aggression.
What inspired the name Johnny Wore Black?
COEN It’s symbolic of two things to me. First of all, I have a great respect for Johnny Cash, as a storyteller and songwriter, and it just always stuck in my mind where people would talk about how Johnny wore black because he identified with the poor and downtrodden and the less fortunate than himself. And I always liked that as a concept. And the other thing is, like, I suppose, even though my friends call me Jay, Johnny was kind of a family name that my dad called me. And I guess the first time I wore black was when my grandmother bought me a black suit for my dad’s funeral. It seemed to be a name that just conjured up images and emotions for me, so it kind of worked, you know?
How did David come to appear on the track?
COEN In order to kind of pay my bills, I’ve kind of done a few things and I’d trained to be a physical therapist a while back and I was backstage and just, because one of the organizers of Download
DAVID ELLEFSON We happened to hook up again this year at the Big Four show at Knebworth. And I really was, quite honestly, not that familiar with his band. And so he came down and gave me backstage chiropractic tune-up so I could be all ready to continue the tour and stuff. And he sent me a track. He said “Hey, I’ve got this track. I’d love for you to, you know, consider playing on it.” And finally I had a week when I was at home and he sent me the track and I opened it up on my computer and I was like, Wow, this is really cool. To me, it kind of harked back to, like, a really cool almost like a Britpop kind of thing, you know, and, it’s like, I kind of like the early Oasis stuff. And so being a fan of that kind of music and that kind of ethereal, trippy guitar playing, it has this kind of haunting loneliness about the sound that really intrigued me. So I pulled a bass out of my closet, I plugged into my computer, and I knocked out a bass track for him. And I basically had it sent over to him all in the course of a cup of coffee in the morning.
Jay, what can you tell me about the themes on the track, “All the Rage”?
COEN There was a an incidence a while back where there was actually a Royal Marine killed and his father wrote a really–how can I put it?–a very well-written piece about his son. And it was his father trying to say, “Well, OK, you know, I’ve lost my son, and I’m proud of my son, and I’ll always be proud of my son, but, you know, what have we gained from his time, from his loss?” you know? There’s been elements of different things that have raised the question for other people, which is how does a soldier in the grave get back what he gave? And yeah, you know, I suppose I’d like people to just think about the fact that service-people are, in a sense, just challenged, really, challenged in just different ways, you know?
David, were the lyrical themes something that encouraged you to appear on the track?
ELLEFSON You know, as soon as I heard, I loved the sound of the music, and then when I heard the lyric, it just gave me shivers, Yeah, I mean, I had no idea quite honestly that Jay was that gifted of an artist to write something like that. And, you know, that lyric just really, really just kind of chilled me to the bone. And, quite honestly, the lyric probably inspired me more than anything to want to be a part of it and put my name on it with Jay. Because Megadeth has done a lot of these kind of things in the past and we certainly have been very public about, you know, just supporting military troops who are defending our freedoms for the betterment of the human race, you know? So we’re always, we’re interested as a group, we’ve always been supportive of that, and just for me personally, this was something that I thought was a good cause to put my name beside as well.
Jay, was there something about David’s playing that you thought would really add to the track?
COEN I think the idea of having David play on the record was I liked the idea of having quite a traditional rock bass mixed in with our kind of ambiance that we have on the record. And a certain amount, of course, of our producer’s influence, which was David Bottrill.
How did David Bottrill come in as producer?
COEN That one came about that I wrote to him, as simple as that. In the last couple of years as I’ve been recording this latest project, I’ve probably become more fascinated by how, I suppose, the great producers seem to be so much the strong foundation between the records I liked. And what I realized was that, in a sense, I now feel that the artist is almost kind of second in line from the producer, you know what I mean? And I’m just fascinated by the way the great producers pull together and turn a song that is potentially good into a great song, into a memorable song.
What can people do to help ex-servicemen and women out?
COEN Just be mindful that their lives carry on once they are out of uniform and that’s often when the most support is needed. The scars can run very deep and don’t heal overnight.
l Show is retuning to VH1 Classic on November 11, with an interview with Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose, on what the channel is christening “National Metal Day.” Rose, who will be joined by Guns N’ Roses guitarist DJ Ashba, will be conducting his first TV interview in over a decade. The show airs at 11 p.m. ET/PT. You can view a list of all upcoming guests on this ninth season of That Metal Show below the clips.
As part of “National Metal Day,” VH1 Classic will also be premiering the documentary Behind the Music Remastered: Megadeth, which looks into the story behind the thrash titans’ 30 years in action. Also airing on the day will be the premiere of Metal Evolution Chapter 1: Pre-Metal. The first episode of the 11-episode documentary series looks at the earliest sounds of metal heard in the music of Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, and Jimi Hendrix. You can watch a promo video for the series, as well as a trailer for “National Metal Day,” below.
That Metal Show Season Nine Guests:
11/11: Axl Rose and DJ Ashba
11/19: Slash/Sam Dunn
11/26: Brian Johnson
12/03: Dave Mustaine/Kill Devil Hill
12/10: Marilyn Manson/Biff Byford
12/17: Sully Erna/Jesse James Dupree
01/01: Tracii Guns/Michael Monroe
01/14: Paul Rodgers/Buckcherry
01/21: Herman Rarebell/Andrew Dice Clay
The 48 Hours Festival, Powered by Rockstar Energy Drink, will be releasing single-day “Lightweight” tickets to the event for the price of $79. These tickets will go on sale for 48 hours only beginning at midnight PT tonight.
Festival co-producer John Oakes says of the tickets: “If you can only handle 24 hours of the 48 Hours Festival, we’re offering you the chance to save by purchasing a single day ‘Lightweight’ ticket.”
The festival will be taking place at the Luxor Festival Grounds on the Las Vegas Strip over the weekend of October 14 and 15. Saturday’s lineup is lead by Avenged Sevenfold and Five Finger Death Punch, while highlights on Sunday include performances by Korn and Godsmack.
To purchase tickets for Saturday, click here, and for Sunday click here.
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