Several years ago, Godsmack frontman Sully Erna mentioned that 2023’s Lighting Up the Sky might be the group’s last album. The 2024 departures of guitarist/vocalist Tony Rombola and drummer Shannon Larkin solidified such speculation, yet during his recent appearance on Kylie Olsson’s Life in Six Strings podcast, Erna shifted his stance to discuss why there could be a new Godsmack album after all.
What Did Erna Say About Godsmack’s Potential New Album?
The episode (which was uploaded to YouTube on Dec. 22) sees Olsson touring Erna’s “house of music” as they discuss his career, influences, interests and the like.
About halfway into the 35-minute clip, Olsson asks Erna: “Do you think there’ll be another Godsmack record,” to which he replies: “I think there will. I said there wasn’t going to be, and at least I know there won’t be with the original members.”
He continues by specifying that Rombola and Larkin have officially retired “very honorably” from Godsmack, adding:
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’s really like – it’s kinda come full circle.
To be fair, this isn’t the first time Erna changed his tune regarding the finality of Godsmack’s studio work.
For instance, he appeared on Loudwire Nights back in February of 2024 and told host Chuck Armstrong that “you can never say never” when it comes to the group doing a follow-up to Lighting Up the Sky.
He elaborated [via Loudwire]:
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 — and I say this egoless — 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.
That said, his most recent comments imply not only that a new Godsmack album might happen but that it will happen, and that Erna’s already thinking about how to do it.
Would you like a new Godsmack album, though? What do you think of Lighting Up the Sky and/or the band’s recent lineup changes? Let us know!
Also, you can watch Erna’s full episode of Life in Six Strings below:
Sully Erna Discusses Godsmack’s Past + Future on Kylie Olsson’s Life in Six Strings Podcast
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More About Godsmack’s Studio Retirement + Recent Lineup Changes
To dive a bit deeper into why Lighting Up the Sky was positioned as Godsmack’s last record, Erna said in late 2022 that the band “put every single ounce of energy and emotion into [it]” and that it represented his “life journey.”
He expounded:
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.
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.
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.
As mentioned before, his February 2024 Loudwire Nights appearance saw him reconsidering – or at least rephrasing – his intentions with Godsmack.
This past April, both Larkin and Rombola revealed that they’d quit Godsmack in 2024 because they “didn’t want to tour anymore.”
Godsmack uploaded a statement to social media regarding the matter, too (which you can see below).
In it, they shared the “bittersweet news” that following “almost 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.”
The message also stipulated:
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’s celebrate the memories we’ve made together while we all look forward to our future together.
Subsequently, Erna and Merrill welcomed Evanescence drummer Will Hunt and lead guitarist Sam Bam Koltun as live fill-ins. Neither musician has been named an official member of Godsmack, of course, and following the end of their 2025 European tour, Erna confirmed that the group would take a “full year off.”
Indeed, and per setlist.fm, their last concert was in Germany on April 12.
Other Godsmack News
It looks like Erna was 100% correct about Godsmack’s year-long break, as they won’t be returning to the road until May of 2026.
In fact, they’ve 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 and Sonic Temple.
You can see all of their upcoming dates – and grab tickets – here!
The Songs 30 Huge Rock + Metal Bands Only Played Live Once
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.
Gallery Credit: Joe DiVita