Chords for Godsmack's Sully Erna - Wikipedia: Fact or Fiction? (Part 1)

[Gbm] _ Hey, what's up?
I'm Sully Erna from Godsmack and you are watching Loudwire
_ _ _ [Db] _ _ _
[Gbm] _ _ _ _ [Fm] _ _ Hey everybody, Gruhamed here for Loudwire, and it's Wikipedia factor fiction time again today.
We've got
Sully Erna from Godsmack here.
Thank you so much man.
I really appreciate you stopping by
full birth name _
Salvatore Paul Erna fact fact all right good so far.
It's a hell of a name
It says that's also the name of your father Salvatore Erna correct correct
And um he his middle name is not Paul.
He has like 17 middle names
Because when you're born in Sicily
That's how it is every uncle and aunt has some kind of you know something to do with your name when the baby's born
it said that your father was a trumpet player and would rehearse in the basement and
as a young kid you would watch him play and
Sometimes fall asleep in an empty guitar case.
That's right.
That's right.
He's still a trumpet player
he actually owns the the Northeast Italian band which is the
marching band that goes throughout the streets of Boston and New England in general and
Does all the Italian feasts when they bring in the Saints and you pin money up on him and all that my dad's the actual band
You know he's the conductor in the owner now.
He doesn't quite play as much as he used to
_ But yeah, he's been a musician his whole life, and that's exactly how it started for me
I became a drummer because I used to go down to the basement and watch his band play and
Was infatuated with the drums, but I would kind of get in one of the acoustic guitar cases and chill there and fall asleep
So it says that you began playing drums at the age of three three and a half three Wow
I started playing pots and pans when I was three sure six months later when they knew it wasn't a phase
I [N] was going I was driving everybody crazy in the house
They actually convinced a teacher to take me at three and a half, and so I was young yeah
_ Further back in your family's history your great-grandfather was a famous composer in Sicily
Where every year they honor his birthday and his pictures are hung in a museum _ _
Kind of fiction okay, it's facts, but it's fiction the fact is that my great uncle was a famous composer in Sicily great uncle
Yep, he was my grandfather's brother on my dad's side
They do have his picture in this in this place where every year they honor
His music they have a day where they honor his music and the bands play his music in the streets
They have like a feast and food and that kind of thing
It's not on his birthday
Okay, it's just a day.
I think they have it's a very little town in Sicily called Mille Lili and
_ In this small little town he was just a very famous person says signed your first record deal in
1993 with a band called strip mind _
But you didn't get along with the band members and were subsequently kicked out
Okay, yeah this fact and fiction that _
Fact is I signed my first deal in 93 with a band called strip mind.
We were like a punk metal band
I did get along with most of the members me and the singer had the biggest problem _ _
He was just kind of a really spoiled rich kid, and we were all from the streets and just kind of
Scrambling for oodles and noodles and you know
And just trying to make our way and grab a couple bucks here and there and he kind of had a you know
American Express gold card from his dad and things like that
So there was just a lot of that snootiness that didn't really fly with us
But I was the only one who would really speak up and was kind of blunt about the whole thing
And so, um, of course it created a lot of tension with me and him Yeah
Eventually I was thrown out of the band because I was the problem
And soon after I was like, oh the other two quit anyways when they realized that I wasn't the problem in
_ _ _ February
1995 you decided to start a new band as the lead singer after playing drums for more than 23 years
That's right.
That's right.
The name of the band's Godsmack and here we are today.
Yeah done pretty well
Actually, we were called the scam at first though.
We weren't even God's game.
How did that change?
Is there well the scam?
Was something we came up with because we used to just kind of scam my way into playing gigs
Because nobody would take us yet.
They didn't know who we were
And so I think there was even some times when me and TC hung outside the club
before the opening band would show up and he would pretend he was from the club and be like you guys are late beat it and
Throw it and then the guy would come out with the opening band.
We go.
Hey, we're oh, wow
We can set up and play we're a band That's brilliant
but then you know after a while we started thinking we need a better name because at that time the
Anything was kind of old school and we wanted to change it and come up with something a little bit more punchy _
_ And then Godsmack came around
Wow, _ you've cited
Allison chains is Layne Staley as your primary influence as a vocalist
_ Not true.
Although I admire the guy a lot
I thought he was a brilliant singer and definitely was one of my influences.
_ I think if I had to
target more of a
Vocalist that that I probably resemble more it would probably have to be more like a James Hetfield.
I think it's a bit more growly and
_ you know a bigger voice than that, but
But for sure Lane was definitely an influence of mine as was, you know, Scott Weil and Steven Tyler James Hetfield is you know
There's been a lot of singers along the way that I've kind of looked at as great vocalists and great frontman
You know Jonathan Davis from corn.
I thought he was an amazing frontman _
_ And
Throughout the years, you know being a younger singer
I was just kind of molding and shaping myself to try to figure out who I was on stage and what I was
Tried to you know, grab a little bit of this and a little bit of that and and create something of my own
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