GODSMACK drummer Shannon Larkin recently confirmed that frontman Sully Erna once dated pop megastar Lady Gaga
During an appearance on the “2020’d” podcast, Shannon was asked if it was in fact true that GODSMACK frontman Sully Erna once dated Lady Gaga, to which he responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Yeah, that’s true. And that’s not, I don’t think, a secret. I don’t think Sully would bum out if people knew he dated Lady Gaga. I mean, she’s hot, and she’s mega talented. “
Larkin discussed further why he believes Sully never went public with his onetime romantic involvement with Lady Gaga, saying: “He’s not Tommy Lee or whatever, or whoever the guy is now… What I mean by that is — Travis Barker, Tommy Lee, whatever — is dudes that have public girlfriends that are super famous too. But they’re different than Sully. Sully’s an East Coast guy. He’s like me, Tony [Rombola, GODSMACK guitarist] and Robbie [Merrill, GODSMACK bassist] — we’re East Coast dudes.
“L.A. bands and West Coast dudes, they’re flashier, maybe, and they’re rock stars and there’s more David Lee Roth than — I don’t know — Eddie Vedder,” Shannon explained. “You know what I mean? We’re more Eddie Vedder, even though we’re East Coast. We’re probably even flashier than Eddie. He’ll show up in an army jacket. You don’t even recognize him. ‘Oh my God. That’s Eddie Vedder.’ So we’re in between them and the dudes with the flashy girls on their arms.
“So, did he date her? Yeah,” Larkin repeated. “But did he ever tell anyone? No — except for his friends and us. The band, we knew… It was a brief thing, by the way.”
Sully Erna once said that the GODSMACK song “Under Your Scars” was actually inspired by Lady Gaga.
“This song came to me shortly after I had spent some quality time with someone who I consider a dear friend, and have grown to admire and respect as one of the smartest and most talented artists today, Stefani Germanotta, who most of you may know as Lady Gaga,” Sully said in a 2019 interview. “In the short amount of time we hung out, she made me realize that we all have these imperfections, these wounds that we carry (whether they’re physical or emotional) that cut so deep they can cripple us. These feelings leave us vulnerable, or embarrassed, or even unworthy at times. And our human nature — when they’re exposed — is to shut down, rather than embrace them and realize that not only can we overcome them, but we can also become an inspiration to inspire others to have a voice and find their inner strength to show their scars off loudly and proudly to the world. Our ‘Scars’ are nothing more than our battle wounds from life and they helped mold you into who you are today.”
GODSMACK‘s new album, “Lighting Up The Sky“, will arrive on February 24 via BMG.