519 Magazine - April 2019

Metal band Godsmack hit the road
across Canada and the US this month
with a stop in the 519 at London’s
Budweiser Gardens on May 9. The
tour, with Danish band Volbeat, starts
in BC and makes its way across the
country to Quebec.
Godsmack is running high with
its latest album When Legends Rise,
hitting the Top 10 on the Billboard
charts in Canada. It’s a departure for the
band, sounding more like a hard rock
album than a metal release - in much
the same way the self-titled Metallica
black album was for that band.
Fans are loving the new sound and
drummer Shannon Larkin couldn;t be
happier. We spooke with him on the
phone while on tour in Germany.
Later this year you’re doing a
few gigs in Russia and the Czech
Republic. Touring places like
Russia still isn’t quite everyday
commonplace, but it seems like it’s
getting easier than it used to be.
Have you ever played a show when
you felt uncomfortable?
I’ve done shows where I had cracked
ribs and that felt really uncomfortable,
but as far as crowds go, no. I’ve never
done any show with any band where I
felt uncomfortable with the crowd.
There were a couple times in my
early years when my metal band was
opening for a punk band, so the crowd
booed us off the stage, but those are
trials and tribulations that one must
go through when you’re a lifelong
musician.
As far as Godsmack, I’ve never felt
uncomfortable, except for one time in
LA. The radio station there had said
that we would play our new single
if we close the show at this Festival
in the city and that meant going on
after the Foo Fighters. If you know
anything about the LA concerts, that’s
called the clean-up act, so basically the
Foo Fighters are headlining, but they
needed a clean-up act to go on after
that. Of course we said “Hell No”,
because everyone knows there are
certain bands that you can’t go on after,
like the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Foo
Fighters and Metallica. So we said no,
but management and all the powers
that be forced it. So we go on and it
was fucking uncomfortable having to
play for all the Foo Fighters fans in
LA. They were walking out as we were
still playing. That’s the only show that
I’ve ever felt uncomfortable at in the
Godsmack world.
You’re going to be back in North
America in April with a pretty goodsized
tour in Canada. Do you have
any fun memories of Canada from
previous tours?
I do. I feel that every time we
go to Canada it’s always been
special because the crowds up there,
particularly in the places that aren’t the
major cities, are awesome. They don’t
get many American bands that come
and play for them, so all my memories
are of the crowds and just feeling this
amazing energy coming from them,
like a freshness that’s not jaded.
When you play in the major cities
in America, even though they’re great
shows, you come through it’s not
really anything that super special, but
in Canada, man, every show just feels
super special and the people seem
super appreciative of us. As musicians
and fans of music, that feels so good.
We’re experiencing that here in Europe
in the smaller towns we played like
Malmö, Sweden.
You’ve been in Godsmack for 16
years. Does it feel like it’s been that
long?
No it doesn’t. I think the reason for
that is because we put records out four
years apart. I joined in late 2002 and
then the record “Faceless” came out the
next year. If you look at it, every single
record has been a four-year space in
between. Three of those four years
are writing, recording and touring our
asses off. And hat time just flies. So
that breather time, which is that one
year of the four, we’re able to take that
and slows things right down a little bit.
Do you like the slower times where
you can relax a little bit?
I do, but I don’t particularly relax
because Tony and I have a blues band
together. I tell all my musician friends
and people that care to ask about
that. I’ve always had side projects
and in every band, I’ve always had a
side project in which I can play with
different musicians, in different genres
explore and experiment. When I do
come back to the big drum set and rock
hard, I appreciate the genre that I am in
much more.
I know you’ve been playing since
the late seventies when you were just
a wee little guy. And I bet that little
guy had a few dreams that’s you
have met over the years.
Oh my God, I’m that dude. I
started playing clubs when I was 13
and I always had the dream. I’m not
bullshitting here, but I have never
worked a regular job. My work has
always been playing drums. From
the time I started playing in clubs at
13, I just never looked back and have
been paid for it along the way. The
week I turned 18, I moved out from
my parents and I was paying my own
way. From then on my musical dreams
have gone far and beyond. I got the
play with Black Sabbath this one time
when Michael Bordin couldn’t do the
gig. I got the call and somehow I’m
walking on stage with Tony Iommi,
Ozzy Osbourne and Geezer Butler and
that was something that even that little
version of me never dreamed of.
Godsmack took a twist with the
music on When Legends Rise. That
new hard rock sound is a big change.
Why change at this point?
We all crossed that threshold of
being 50. Sully was the last one to turn
50 years old. He had originally come in
with the idea eight years ago because
all of his favorite bands worked with
outside writers and they never made
the same record over and over and over
again. Our records come four years
apart and we don’t want to continue
making the same sounding records
forever, so for eight years he’d thrown
the idea at us and it just never came
to be. However, once every one of us
turned 50, he really felt that a change
of maturity needed to happen. He came
to us and said he wanted to work with
some different writers for the first time
and we’re all for it. So he came back
and played us the first song which
was Bulletproof that he wrote with
Eric Ron, who was also producing our
record. We heard it and it still sounds
like Godsmack, we feel that it still has
our sound, but was more mature.
It’s less aggressive and the production
is a complete 180. We’ve always been
old school, trying to record just the
four of us on analog. We embraced
this new production using outside
sounds and outside writers. We’re not
faking it on this record. We’re not
young and angry and pumped full of
piss and vinegar like we were 16 years
ago when I joined, so it’s a reflection
of that. Sully writes mainly about his
personal life. If you look at his lyrics,
it’s the story of his life on every record
- from the first one all the way up to the
new one. It’s always been his band and
the lyrics have always been about him
and I feel that that’s why the band is so
successful. We’re really happy at this
point and we all have children. While
we’re not these super rich rocks stars,
at least we don’t have to worry about
a mortgage or car payments. The last
thing I want to do is stand on the stage
at 50 years old and pretend I’m 30 and
still angry and pissed off at the world.
I’m not. People can say what they want
about how we changed the sound of the
band, but we’re trying to be real with
ourselves.
Canadian fans really embraced
the new album - you rose to the top
10 here.
Hell yeah man, we hit another
milestone. I mean we had two number
ones in a row, both Bulletproof and
When Legends Rise went number
one not only on active radio, but at
mainstream, which we’ve never done
before. That proves, at least to the four
of us, that it works and there are people
out there that that can see through the
bullshit and can tell what it’s worth.
This is not a sell-out for some money -
we have the money. We sold 20 million
records; we don’t need to sell-out for
money or something stupid like that.
I can speak for me as a drummer.
It’s a physical gig and one of the things
that I fell in love with about playing the
blues was that it doesn’t kill my body
like Godsmack does. And so when we
got this new set of music, I noticed that
it doesn’t beat my muscles and bones
up as much but yet I can still express
myself and feel real about it.
Bulletproof and When Legends
Rise are real rock anthems. Do you
find that songs like that make the
audience a little more like a giant fist
pounding rock crowd than a mosh
pit thrasher show?
Anybody who has been in a pit or
that is a little older like me that went
through the era of thrash metal and
jumped into a pit knows that you can’t
really watch the band when you’re
in that pit. You have to keep your
head up and watch your back when
you’re thrashing around. It’s a way of
releasing aggression and it’s very busy
and I got many bloody noses coming
out of the pit. So you keep your head
up and you watch your back. The
attention is on your ears. The band
is making the aggression and you’re
letting it out with the fans. When I’m
looking out there and I’m seeing a big
mosh pit I know all those people are
getting off and they’re there for that
reason - to release that energy - but
they’re not really watching the band
or listening to what we’re playing.
They’re not hanging on every word
of the singer or feeling every note that
the guitar player is putting out. They’re
there for a different reason.
Now when we play big shows and
the mosh pit doesn’t break out, I can
see that everybody’s got their fists in
the air and I look out and all the eyes
are on us. It feels more like we are one
with the crowd. I love the black metal,
death metal and thrash metal. I was in
that era when it was off being invented,
I love it so much. But now, I also find
myself listening to a lot of classic rock
and blues for enjoyment. My personal
tastes have changed, but I can still
go back and throw on Slayer “Hell
Awaits” and it takes me right back to
that time, but I just can’t take as much
of it now. I’ll listen to three or four of
my favorite songs and then I’m back to
listening to Oasis.
Does it still feel like Godsmack?
I know you guys were ready for
this change when Sully presented it
to you. But when you went into the
recording session for When Legends
Rise is still feel like Godsmack?
What helped was that we did it at
our own recording studio. We made
the last three records there, so even
though it was a brand new producer,
brand new songs, a whole new fresher
sound and a different way of recording,
we felt at home. Everybody was super
comfortable and there was no red light
fever or fear in there. It still felt like a
Godsmack recording and Eric Ron fit
right in with us personality-wise. He’s
such a cool guy and a great producer.
What else is ahead for you guys
this year?
That’s an easy answer - touring,
touring, touring. When we fly home
from this five week European run,
we’ll have two days at our houses and
then we fly over to start the next leg.
It’s like that until later in 2020.