The Sickness of Godsmack

On the heels of their sophomore release, Godsmack is almost making it look easy. Over the last two years Godsmack has gone from selling out clubs all over the Boston area, to selling out theaters all over the country, to co-headlining this years Ozzfest. They’ve shared the stage with everyone from Black Sabbath to Pantera.

The now triple platinum self titled debut album was originally recorded in 1996 after borrowing $2,500 from a friend. The CD was sold to Newbury Comics, oddly enough, the New England based music and comic book retailer was the only outlet that would carry it. Not too long after that, a DJ at local rock radio station WAAF, started spinning "Keep Away" on a daily basis. Between the radio exposure and non-stop club dates, Godsmack was selling almost 1,000 copies a week. After being courted by several different labels, Godsmack decided to go with Republic Records — who reissued the debut release nationally.

That $2,500 debut was one of the biggest heavy rock releases in 1999 and with the upcoming follow-up release, entitled Awake, Godsmack is ready to take it to the next level.

I spoke with Godsmack drummer Tommy Stewart, during a stop on this summer’s Ozzfest tour, about the tour, the sickness of golf and the new record.

Tell me about the new record?

It’s coming out October 31^st, Halloween. It’s happening on a Tuesday this year. We all think it is going to be unbelievable, well, actually it is unbelievable to us, it’s a great fucking record. It’s wide, it’s phat, it’s loud, a bit more aggressive, it’s like a further extension of the first record I think, with a little more maturity.

So, you are kind of picking up where the last one left off.

Yeah, obviously it’s a little more focused and direct and specific maybe, it’s just a phat record.

Any new sounds you guys have thrown into it?

No, it’s just pretty much straight forward.

Are you guys going to take some time off after this is over?

Yeah, actually we are going to be filming a video for the first single off the record.

What’s the single called?

It’s called "Awake" and the name of the album will be Awake also. We will be doing that within a week of the end of this tour, like in September.

What is the video going to be like?

Well, it’s still not really worked out yet, we’re still talking about it. It will be more of a performance based video and that’s what we’re about anyway, but we are still working out details with the script and stuff.

Looking at different treatments?

Yeah, I think we’ve got to hone in, kind of work with it a little more.

So, who did you guys work with production wise with the new disc?

It’s the same, Andrew Murdock from the first record.

Did you guys change anything up production wise?

No, we wanted to keep everything the same formula as the first record. That was the thought of ours, because obviously the first record has been successful and I guess we didn’t want to change it too much. Having a sophomore record is pretty big and we all know that. If this is a success we can kind of pull our shirt collars away a little bit.

You guys have been working hard during the last two years, you’ve been out on the road a lot.

We have been busy. We had from the beginning of the year to the end of April off, but in that time we recorded the record which took about six weeks and we did a lot of writing too so it wasn’t actually time off. So since September of 1998 we have pretty much been balls out, with only sparse time here and there.

And you guys have pretty much toured with everybody at this point.

Well, yeah if you include Ozzfest and radio gigs we have done.

So how has Ozzfest been this year?

It’s been great, I can’t believe it is almost over. It always happens this way, the first couple weeks seem like four months and then once you get into it, it’s almost done. We’re enjoying it. It always takes a little while to meet some of the other bands.

Who have you been hanging out with?

The Pantera guys of course, Incubus, some of the Static X guys, and Reveille kids. I played golf with Pantera yesterday.

Where did you play?

Plumus Lake, I don’t think it was a country club — it was just right over here not too far.

Nice course?

Yeah, it was a beautiful day too.

Are you a pretty avid golfer?

Yeah, it’s a sickness. I’ve got my clubs with me on the road.

Have you been hitting a lot of courses along the way?

Yeah, the last couple weeks have been kind of slow because we’ve had a lot of off days, in store appearances and then there was some rain during the past few weeks. It’s just been kind of slow and I haven’t played in the past two and a half weeks.

I heard that it was raining for quite a bit of the tour.

The first five weeks of the tour it seemed like over half the shows had rain. There was a storm cloud being pulled by the busses I guess — like a kite string.

What bands in particular were you looking forward to seeing the most on the tour?

I wanted to see Incubus, we actually did a radio event with them in June but I really wanted to check them out live — they are a great band. I wanted to see Pantera obviously and the new Ozzy lineup. Oh, and I wanted to see Method and see what they were all about. We actually got to see them at a bar in Boston in-doors, which was cool because the lights add a lot to their shows.

How has MTV increased visibility effected you?

Well, up to this point it hasn’t really done a lot for us. I mean, we got moderate support off the first record which was fine, but actually what we are doing now is this MTV tour in October and November with Disturbed and STP, that’s a fucking serious bill. So we are starting that in mid October with 5,000 - 7,000 seaters. So, because of that, I think there will be more of an MTV presence on the next record. Up until now it has been really moderate. You know we didn’t really fit in with the MTV generation right away, it wasn’t to one side enough, which was fine.

Well you guys have quietly moved almost three million copies of the album.

Right, and there are still people who are discovering Godsmack for the first time today. So we all feel that if we can get a huge push from the press, MTV and all the other places at the initial surge of this record that we can become more of a name. I try to watch the chart every week & the sound scans and we are still selling 18,000 records a week and the record has been out for almost two years! You know what’s funny? If you think about it, after selling two and a half million records that there is still 18,000 to 20,000 people who still don’t have it and that want it each week. So I think that is a testament to the fact that people are still discovering the band.

And you’re four singles deep into the album now?

Four, yeah that doesn’t happen very often — not with this type of music. On this new record there are three no brainiers and probably two more easy follow up tracks, so we’ll have an easy four or five singles off this new record.

Any other stuff coming up?

No, just the new record in October and we will do that short tour in October and November and then take the rest of the year off. We will have a big tour scheduled for February and March next year to support the new record which will be big.

Are you considering doing Ozzfest again next year?

Probably not, next year is going to be a big turning point for this festival.

Well, Ozzy is not going to be on it.

Yeah, well, I have heard that this is it. Obviously they have to take it in a new direction somehow, but then again if you had asked us last year if we were going to do this next year we would have said no, I don’t know why it just turned out with great timing.

You guys had a better slot this year.

Yeah and it’s just perfect because we have released "Bad Religion" to radio and it’s a great setup for the new record that is going to come out in October.

And rock radio has been nothing but friendly to you guys too.

You can’t even say enough about it, without question it has been one of the biggest parts of our success.

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