SULLY ERNA Says His Bandmates' ANOTHER ANIMAL Project 'Created A Lot Of Static' Within GODSMACK

In a brand new interview with Revolver magazine, GODSMACK singer Sully Erna admitted that there have been times where he and his bandmates were on shaky ground with one another. "This band has almost broken up several times," he said. "At first it was just the learning curve of having the band hit big and being on the road relentlessly. That first tour lasted, like, three and a half years, I think. We were robots. We were machines. All we did was tour, tour, tour. That'll destroy anybody. It starts to break you down, and then what you do is you're so exhausted that you start drinking and self-medicating in order to keep going. Because the show must go on. And that creates a lot of drama. So we fought a lot. At one point we brought in therapists and everything to work with the band. Because we lost the brotherhood. We lost the love for the music and for each other and we were fighting so much. It was just a mess. Luckily for us we got over some of those mountains."

Erna also spoke about his decision to release a solo album, "Avalon", in 2010, three years after the rest of GODSMACK got together with UGLY KID JOE vocalist Whitfield Crane to record a CD under the name ANOTHER ANIMAL.

"There was a lot of tension around that," Erna said. "After the 'IV' record [came out in 2006], there were times when Tony [Rombola, guitar] was really bent with me because he got to a place where he started to write more, and he wanted more of his stuff on the records. And I was just like, 'Okay… but, you know, it's still a band here. And me being the main songwriter, don't think I'm ever not going to write music.' So we would pick half of his stuff and half of mine and try to make a hybrid of it. But for some reason he would take it personally when I didn't pick this song or that song of his. And so then the guys went and built a fucking record [2007's 'Another Animal'] off of stuff that we didn't use but could have probably revisited later. And that created a lot of shit. Because 'Avalon', that was completely different. It was a complete disconnect from GODSMACK. It wasn't even the same style of music, nor did I want it to be. But I felt like those guys were doing shit where I was like, 'This is kinda not cool. You're competing with us. What're you guys thinking?' And that created a lot of static. It wasn't good for a while. But again, we went through it, had it out and talked things through. And we realized that we have a really special brand here and it would be foolish to not get past this stuff. Because really, it's all just egos and bullshit getting in the way. And now? We're getting along better than ever. We're tighter than we were when we first met. And that's the god's honest truth."

GODSMACK's new album, "1000hp" (One Thousand Horsepower),will be released on August 5 via Republic Records. The follow-up to 2010's "The Oracle" was once again helmed by Dave Fortman, how previously worked with SLIPKNOT and EVANESCENCE, among others.

GODSMACK is among the confirmed bands for the 2014 Rockstar Energy Drink Uproar Festival, set to kick off on August 15 in Clarkston, Michigan and run through Septembe