Godsmack’s Shannon Larkin and Tony Rombola Were Oddly Missing at Last Saturday’s Show
Over the weekend, an entirely different iteration of Godsmack hit the stage in Sofia, Bulgaria than most fans expected. Sure, you had founding frontman Sully Erna and bassist Robbie Merrill were there, but drummer Shannon Larkin and guitarist Tony Rombola were oddly missing. In their place were Evanescence’s Will Hunt and Dorothy’s Sam Bam Koltun, leaving fans to wonder what happened to the other two members of the band.
In an interview with Elena Rozberg of Bulgaria’s Z-Rock radio, Erna explained that the lineup change actually happened a couple months ago. Rather than announce said changes and make fans think Larkin and Rombola were out for good, they decided to just move forward and see where things land.
“I can tell you that there has definitely been some changes that have happened in the last few months. They are changes that we’re not sure will be permanent or temporary, but everybody and everyone is in good health and in really good spirits. And the band is doing better than ever.
“We’re [playing to] the biggest audiences ever, and the shows are just becoming more and more valuable, because, as we get older, we still appreciate coming to places like Sofia that is so far away from where we started and being able to come here and sell out a 13,000-seat arena.
“All I can tell you right now is that the band is in good health, we’re in good spirits, but there’s gonna be a little bit of a different visual for everybody. Tony and Shannon have some personal things going on, and they’re not with us. So we have a couple of guest musicians playing with us that are phenomenal.”
Erna remained silent on what exactly happened to make the two members step away from the band, but when you consider Larkin’s comments about Godsmack not making much money playing Europe, you can potentially see how this could be a temporary thing while they’re out on tour in that part of the world.
Regardless, Erna remained cagey about why the lineup change happened in the first place. While it doesn’t sound like things blew up and were irreparable, he’s unsure if fans have seen the last of Larkin and Rombola.
“Hmmmm… I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know if I feel safe enough talking about that yet, because I don’t wanna give people the wrong impression.
“Right now we’re still at a stage where we’re trying to figure out exactly what’s happening, but we’re also trying to respect their privacy. So whatever Tony and Shannon have going on in their personal life, we’re just trying to respect that and at the same time still come here and put on a really great show. I can tell you right now that we have a guest drummer playing with us, who’s Will from Evanescence. And he is such a good friend of ours and such a great musician, and we’ve been having so much fun with him. So that’s been a real surprise.
“And then we have a guitar player with us named Sam Koltun, who is somebody who — he’s played with several different bands and a really, really nice guy and great guitar player. So as far as the music goes and the sound, it sounds exactly like we’ve always sounded, which is even surprising to me.”
