In my 14 Days Top Six blurb on this concert tonight at Brandt Centre in our Aug. 25 issue I observed that a bit of confusion exists as to the origins of this U.S. heavy metal band’s name.
Bassist Robbie Merrill has stated in recorded interviews that the name was derrived from the Alice in Chains song “God Smack”. But lead vocalist and principal song-writer Sully Erna told a different story in a 1999 interview. Here’s an excerpt: “I was making fun of somebody who had a cold sore on his lip and the next day I had one myself and somebody said, ‘It looks like God just smacked you in the face for making fun.’ The name stuck and [we] went by Godsmack from then on.”
Not that it’s a matter of huge importance, except to fanatic musicologists (who do exist, though, and not in insignificant numbers either) but drummer Shannon Larkin backs Merrill’s Alice In Chains story.
Backing up Godsmack tonight are Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. Here’s the video for the former’s song “Cryin’ Like a Bitch”
