Godsmack kicked off their 2025 European tour on March 22 at Arena 8888 in Sofia, Bulgaria with a slightly altered lineup. Godsmack was founding frontman Sully Erna and bassist Robbie Merrill alongside Evanescence's Will Hunt filling in for drummer Shannon Larkin, and Sam Bam Koltun of Dorothy filling in for guitarist Tony Rombola.
So what's up with the band's lineup? According to Erna in an interview with Elena Rozberg of Bulgaria's Z-Rock radio, these changes occurred in the last few months and the band isn't sure if they'll be "permanent or temporary."
"Well, [that's] such a tricky question to answer right now at this stage. 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 was later asked why Larkin and Rombola weren't with the band, which he didn't answer: "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."
