On a recent episode of Talkin’ Rock with Meltdown, Godsmack’s Sully Erna talked about how their famous drum battle started. In case you don’t know, in the middle of Godsmack’s set, the crew roll out another drum set onto the stage, as Sully and Shannon Larkin go back and forth, trading off beats. It’s really cool!
I asked Sully how that started. “It was back in 95′ or 96”. Many people may not know, but Sully played the drums on their first record because they didn’t have a drummer. He told me that then drummer Joe Darko would play a beat, and he would play the congos off to the side. As time went on they switched up drummers from Joe to Tommy Stewart, to finally Shannon Larkin.
He said they had a couple of solid drummers in the band. “Then when Shannon came in the band, we had two really strong drummers. We were like, why aren’t we utilizing this in the show? That’s when we built two full drum kits, came up with the rotating risers and all that stuff, and we really just went for it. And it just kind of developed from there.”
Godsmack’s Sully Erna Loves Their Drum Battle
It’s one of my favorite parts of the show, and apparently, I’m not alone. “Yeah, for sure, it’s our favorite part of the show because we love to play. There’s really no band out there that does what we do when it comes to this.”
I passed along a time I watched the show at Rock on the Range in Columbus, Ohio, from the side stage. Legendary drummer Scott Travis from Judas Priest walked up and stood next to me. He said he’d wanted to see this part of the show. “Wow, really? That’s awesome, man. And we’re fans of him too, so that’s pretty cool!”
Check out the drum battle below, and get your tickets to see it live when Godsmack headlines RIFF Fest on September 28th at Pine Knob.
win your tickets for RIFF Fest
This is how you can win tickets for RIFF Fest to see the drum battle in person.
the entire RIFF FEst lineup
Here’s the entire lineup for RIFF Fest….so far.
