Godsmack

Godsmack spent years playing clubs in the Boston area before the local radio station WAAF began spinning their independently released tracks "Keep Away" and "Whatever," generating enough buzz to land the band a major-label deal with Republic/Universal Records in 1998. They earned a lot of new fans outside of Boston when they played Ozzfest in 1999 and 2000.

Their first album, All Wound Up, was made for $2,600 in 1997 and released on an independent label. In 2000, it was remixed and re-released with the title Godsmack after they signed with Universal Records.

Early in his career, Sully Erna was a practicing Wiccan - a Celtic spiritual religion focused on karma, the power of the Earth, and the principle that whatever energy you put out returns to you threefold. In later years he described himself as spiritually free-ranging rather than tied to any one religion.