Full Name: Salvatore Paul Erna
Astrological Sign: Aquarius
Birth Date: February 7, 1968
Birth Place: Lawrence, Maine
Siblings: Sister's Maria and Elizabeth
Last School Attended: Lawrence High
Has Lived In: Maine, North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida
Marital Status: Single
Children: One daughter, Skylar Brooke. Born December 17, 2001
Height: 5'5"
Eye Color: Green
Shoe size: Size 9
Musical Background:
Sully started playing drums at 3 years old. Sully's dad was a professional trumpet player. Sully's great grandfather was a famous composer in Sicily where every year they honor his birthday and his pictures are hung in a museum.
Drummers that inspires Sully:
John Bonham (Led Zeppelin), Neal Peart (Rush) and Joey Kramer (Aerosmith).
Favorite Bands:
Dead Can Dance and Sevendust
Favorite Singer:
Lisa Gerrard
Pre-Godsmack Bands:
Strip Mind, Meliah Rage and The Scam
A quote on his vocal skills:
"I was really bad. I was so bad at first that when I was doing vocal tracks, Robbie would just shake his head and walk out of our studio and leave for two days. He wouldn't come back."
About his drumming:
"Every time Tommy doesn't show up for soundcheck I'm the first one to jump on the kit and mess around with the guys. I do miss it."
Family:
"My mom's been a nurse her whole life. My father worked with computers and stuff like that."
Sully's childhood:
"I grew up in a very poor, violent neighborhood, Lawrence, Mass., about twenty minutes north of Boston. My mom raised me and my sister single-handedly. We had it rough. We were poor. We lived in a three-tenement home with my relatives upstairs. The streets were always filled with sirens and gunshots and car chases, fights and drugs. I wouldn't change it for the world, but it was a violent, rough upbringing. It was survival."
Use of the money from the band's success:
Sully bought his mom a new Cadillac. He bought his best friend a Harley. He gave his sister and his father and his wife money. And, he bought a house for himself.
About his daughter:
"I�ve been a daddy for two-and-a-half months! She�s a gift from heaven! It�s amazing. Everything you hear about it changing your life is true. It instantly changes your life and it�s so awesome, it�s not something that you mind changing your life for. This baby comes out, and it�s you. It�s a little you, and you go, I made that! And now she�d getting to the point where she�s really alert, she�s starting to laugh and smile, she knows my voice, and she turns her head and looks when I come in the room. She�s just so beautiful. The first morning after she was born was the first morning in my whole life where I woke up and didn�t think of myself. I don�t mean that in an egotistical way, we just all wake up and go, I�ve got to do this, I�ve got to do that. That first morning my eyes opened, I went, 'Baby! Where�s the baby?' It�s the first time I woke up and didn�t think about something I had to do, you know? But you�re not going to hear any ballads coming out!"
Memorable Tour Moments:
Getting to sing "Heaven and Hell" with Black Sabbath during a soundcheck on the Ozzfest tour.
Memorable stage dive:
"There was one time that really scared me. I don't remember where it was. I think it was Cedar Rapids, that I had jumped in and the crowd kind of lost their balance when they had me up in the air so I fell in a hole. The crowd started to collapse over my legs and I felt like the whole arena started to fall in over me. It got me nervous because I felt like I was going to get crushed and suffocated down there. Security ended up swimming out there and pulling me up and getting me back out."Tattoos:
Cross on his middle finger. Most of his tattoo work done by Dana Thornell and Pat LaFontaine of Tattoo Fever in Pelham, NH. His left arm fully sleeved. His right arm half sleeved. Triple X is tattooed on his lower back, there is a portrait of Pinhead from Hellraiser on his right thigh and he plans to have more work done on chest, legs and back. That is Animal from the Muppet Show tattooed on his right arm. It was his first tattoo.
Jobs before Godsmack:
"I would be a bill collector, 'cause that I was doing. This was collections for an attorney. So I was doing, like, mortgages and credit cards and student loans, and that kind of thing."
Worst day job:
"Scrubbing the bellies of airplanes. That was about ten or fifteen years ago. I lasted about an hour and a half on the job. As soon as lunchtime came, I quit."
Favorite Record:
Newbury Comics in Boston
Favorite Mall:
Circuit City
Talk radio host/station:
Mistress Carrie on WAAF 107.3 in Boston
Favorite Meal:
Pasta and Chicken
Favorite actor:
Al Pacino
Favorite Actress:
Liv Tyler
Favorite horror movie:
Interview with a Vampire
Favorite beer:
Corona
Favorite soda:
Canada Dry ginger ale
Favorite sport:
Boxing
Hangover Helper:
Pedialyte. It is on their tour riders.
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