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This issue's "So & So Sez" feature brings us a fast-rising metal star known as Godsmack. An unknown indie...

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This issue's "So & So Sez" feature brings us a fast-rising metal star known as Godsmack. An unknown indie band from Boston just a little over a year ago, this band is a true "indie underdog does good" story. After playing out regionally for a while, this quartet recorded and pressed their own album. A local radio station invited them to be on a compilation CD, they recorded the song "Whatever," it was picked up by a DJ, who started playing it on the radio, and then the DIY ethic exploded for them. One indie record store alone was selling something like 800 to 1,000 units of their custom cd per week!

At this point, the radio airplay is spreading all over the country, and HM editor Doug Van Pelt caught the band in Austin, Texas during a stop on a non-stop tour that included a performance on Late Night With Conan O'Brien, and continue through the Ozz Fest this Summer. Scheduled to interview Sully, the lead vocalist, but he was sick, so instead he talked to Tony the guitarist and Robbie the bassist. This interview, like the dreaded Korn interview ruined by Danzig's soundcheck, was partly muffled by a local band checking, so we had another chance for a phone interview with Sully, but Tommy the drummer came on the line instead. I guess an HM interview with a Wiccan disciple was not to be... Read on as three-fourths of Godsmack answer questions on God, music, and the questions themselves.

How did you guys hook up with (Manager) Paul Geary (from Extreme)?

Tony: Sully knew him before. He used to be in a band called Strip Mind. He was signed and everything. He toured and the whole bit. He's a really good drummer. He played all the drums on the CD. So, being a drummer, that's how he knew Paul.

Congrats on the Ozz Fest gig.

Tony: It's going to be really cool to play with the original Sabbath lineup. It's huge for me, because that's one of the first bands I got into.
Tommy: We're all very excited, obviously. I mean, who would have thought in 1999 we'd be able to see Black Sabbath together, you know what I mean?

What are your other influences on guitar?

Tony: Oh, anyone. I've been playing for a while, so, I mean... Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Jerry Cantrell. A lot of the new bands. I went through all the 80's shred guitars -- Joe Satriani and all those guys, Steve Vai, Greg Howe. I just love little bits and pieces of different people. It goes full circle to the basics of Black Sabbath, where I started.

Now, Tommy the drummer was in Lillian Axe. Did all four of you guys come from the glam metal scene?

Tony: No. Sully and Tommy are. Me, I'm not. I was a carpenter my whole life. I just played guitar for a hobby. Robbie, the bass player, he played in cover bands and stuff. We worked, too, for a living -- a regular job. But those two (Sully and Tommy) were in bands and stuff prior to this band. I played in a cover band, but nothing really serious. This is actually the first original band I've been in.

What's your assessment of the whole music scene right now and the hard music...

Tony: There's not a whole lot of it going on (laughs). I can tell ya that, with all the hip-hop and rap being so big right now. Maybe that's why it seems to be going well for us -- there's a big hole there. Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, all those bands are gone now, and maybe that's a void that we can fill, ya know? Not trying to say that we sound like any of those bands, but still there's those rock people just sitting around, waiting for something hard. Maybe that's why we're doing good. That's kind of where we're coming from.

How was the Conan O'Brien performance show for ya?

Tommy: It was good actually. It was kind of weird, you know, it's very strange, it's like, "1, 2, 3, GO..." you know? We went through the song, like, 3 or 4 times, so they could do their camera blocking and audios, and stuff like that. We waited around for an hour ‘cause they rehearsed some of the skits they were gonna do, so we were there from about two o'clock until about seven o'clock and then we did our song and then we left, ‘cause we had to get on a plane and fly to Tampa. It was funny though, because we recorded the show in New York City and we flew to Tampa ‘cause we had to play there the next day, so we got to see the show in Tampa... It was kind of weird -- to record it in New York and watch it in Tampa.

Yeah, that's kind of trippy.

Tommy: But we were all pretty happy with the way it came out.

So, what do you think about spiritual things?

Robbie: I'm not really... I stay out of it. I have my own little thing. I was never raised... My father, he was a Catholic. My mother was an Episcopalian. I think it's a branch of Protestants. We never really . . . they just left that alone. "When you get older, you can do what you want to do," kind of thing. I've always stayed away from it. I believe in your higher powers and stuff, but I'd never get into churches. I don't pray or anything like that. Um, it's like everybody in the band. They do their own little thing. Everybody stays out of each other's way with it. That's one thing I like about this band -- is that you don't have to worry. Like, with Sully (being) into Wicca and stuff... He doesn't really say anything about it. "If you're interested, here's a book. Read it. See what you think." The name (Godsmack) seems pretty nasty, but it has nothing to do with religion or anything like that. "Instant Karma" -- that's basically what we use it as.

So, you believe that there's something out there?

Robbie: Yeah. There's something, ya know? I tend to shy away from it a little bit, and stay away. It's like...I don't spend too much time thinking about that. I just get out, think positive, and treat people the way that I'd like to be treated, that kind of thing. I don't know... When you see wars started over religion and that kind of stuff. You say, "Why?" I just get it out of my mind. I don't understand it at all. You know, just cause you're a Muslim or because you're this or because you're that, you hate that person. Why? You don't know him. You don't know what he's about!

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