I’m sad….
Shannon Larkin and Tony Rombola, drums and guitar respectively, have left Godsmack for a quieter way of life. I can’t say I blame them—hell, they’ve been touring for 30 plus years! That doesn’t help ease my sadness though.
This band has been with me through my life. Through all the buckets of shit I’ve had to eat, through all the karma ass-fuckings from those who made me eat previously mentioned buckets, and even through some of the best times of my life.
The band is just powerful. Powerful like every song being played was written for me, for that very exact moment in my life. Their music has been a great release for me…therapy really. No matter what is going on I could always get absolutely lost in their music and come out feeling better.
I’ll never forget when I first heard them, it was on a radio station around Chicago as I was driving through. “Voodoo”. Wow. From there, I was devoted. I have the band’s entire collection. I’ve been to their shows, had a VIP experience to an acoustic show that took place before the stadium show, and have even met them on other occasions. Hell, I’ve got Sully’s autograph on the underside of my tattoo sleeve. Yup…that kind of fan.
My wife and I were at the show where we met them the first time and we were front row stage left, Sully and Shannon had just finished their drum solo and he walked up front and was looking at my wife dead in the eyes and tossed her his drum stick.
My wife is about five foot nothing and the guy next to her was six foot something and he snatched it from her when she dropped it, raked her knuckles across the ground.
“That mother fucker just took my stick!” she yells. I’m still in awe that Sully was focused on my wife so I didn’t go for the stick. For the next three maybe four songs, she is focused on this asshole next to her. The guy shoves the stick in his back pocket and that was her signal.
In one fair swoop she grabs the stick, jabs it into my ribs and tells me to stick it in my boot. It was like she was stealing the Hope Diamond for fucks sake.
In it goes and before the guy knows what’s happened, the deal was done. He looked around and I’m pretty sure he figured out what happened because we both made eye contact.
I gave him that look that says, “You really don’t want to talk about this…” Not a word was said. He knew she should have gotten the stick. He did the right thing. Good rock and roll etiquette.
Great show. They are the best band I have ever seen live. You can feel the power and emotion when they play.
I have hundreds of these kinds of memories from all the shows and albums I’ve had the privilege to be a part of.
I will miss this band as a whole. I can’t say I’m surprised by this. Sully made a comment a few months ago that we would probably never hear another album from Godsmack. An end of an era for me.
Thanks for the ride boys…
PJ