![\"godsmack.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/05\/godsmack.jpg\")
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Boston band Godsmack<\/a> are a bigger deal in America than here, their latest album having gone to no. 1 in the Billboard charts this week. The band like to play concerts for the US military and have allowed their songs to be used in recruitment ads in the past but seemed to get rather flustered when questioned about these activities as Arthur Magazine<\/a><\/em>‘s Jay Babcock discovered below. A wickedly hilarious interview and one with a point; the band’s reaction shows how little their military support must be questioned by the mainstream music press, a situation one can read as paralleling the craven behaviour of the mainstream media in recent years towards the activities of the current US government. Guys, if you’re going to assist the work of warmongers, at least have some answers ready when people come asking questions.<\/p>\n Godsmack are a Boston hard rock band who have sold millions of records in the last 8 years. Their fourth album, ‘IV,’ was released on April 25. It sold 211,000 copies in its first week in the USA to debut at Number One on the Billboard chart. I interviewed Godsmack frontman\/lyricist\/producer Sully Erna on Monday, May 1 by telephone. Here is the full transcript of our conversation. \u2013 Jay Babcock (Editor, ARTHUR Magazine).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n JAY BABCOCK of Arthur Magazine<\/em><\/strong>: Alright let me get the tape rolling here. How you doing?<\/p>\n SULLY ERNA of Godsmack<\/strong>: I’m good!<\/p>\n JAY: How was the Jimmy Kimmel show on Friday? You were outside playing, right?<\/p>\n SULLY: Yeah it\u2019s always cool to do that because it\u2019s so set up for musicians, you know. Big stage, live crowd. It\u2019s not so like indoors with a camera rehearsals. It\u2019s a lot easier.<\/p>\n JAY: Yeah. So you got to be back out in front of your fans.<\/p>\n SULLY: Yeah. It was good. It was fun.<\/p>\n JAY: What kind of people listen to your music, do you think?<\/p>\n SULLY: Ummm, I\u2019ve seen \u2018em range as young as 8 and as old as 68. [chuckles]<\/p>\n JAY: Yup.<\/p>\n SULLY: So it\u2019s\u2026<\/p>\n JAY: Well, you\u2019ve seen a lot more of \u2018em than I have, and I\u2019m trying to get an idea of what it feels like when you\u2019re out there\u2013to you, on the stage. Do you think there\u2019s a lot of teenagers in the audience? A lot of guys in their 20s? Chicks?<\/p>\n SULLY: Ah you know\u2026<\/p>\n JAY: Is it a dude audience?<\/p>\n SULLY: I would say, if I had to guess what our age group is, it\u2019s probably between 18 and 40.<\/p>\n JAY: Oh yeah?<\/p>\n SULLY: I would have to say that\u2019s kind of where we\u2019re at, maybe more, majority would be 18-30? But I, we definitely, we recruited a lot of new fans off of that acoustic record\u2026<\/p>\n JAY: That did it, huh?<\/p>\n SULLY: \u2026an older audience. And this record seems to be drawing in a different kind of audience as well, so. You know we\u2019re just trying to continue to expand and not have a ceiling over our heads.<\/p>\n JAY: Right. You guys are still having a good time making music after all these years?<\/p>\n SULLY: Of course. We\u2019re musicians, that\u2019s what we do. It may not always be great music, but we love making it! [laughs]<\/p>\n JAY: Cuz music has a power\u2026?<\/p>\n SULLY: Mmm hmm. It\u2019s a universal language.<\/p>\n JAY: So what you say with it, and what you do with it, has an effect\u2026?<\/p>\n SULLY: Of course.<\/p>\n JAY: Right?<\/p>\n SULLY: [emphatically] Of course.<\/p>\n JAY: So I notice you guys have been really involved with promoting the military. [1]<\/p>\n SULLY: Well, they actually came to us, believe it or not. Somebody in the Navy loves this band, because they used \u201cAwake\u201d for three years and then they came to us and re-upped the contract for another three years for \u201cSick of Life.\u201d So, I don\u2019t know. They just feel like that music, [laughs] someone in that place thinks that the music is very motivating for recruit commercials I guess. And hey, I\u2019m an American boy so it\u2019s not\u2026 I\u2019m proud of it.<\/p>\n JAY: You\u2019re proud of recruiting your fans into the military?<\/p>\n SULLY: Well, no. [laughs, then playfully] Don\u2019t be turning my fucking words around, you!<\/p>\n JAY: Well, tell me what you mean. You said your music is powerful, it\u2019s got an effect, like you said, and you\u2019re letting the military use it. The military, who are they recruiting? 18-to-30-year-olds, right?<\/p>\n SULLY: I guess. I don\u2019t know what their recruit age is. I know it\u2019s at least 18.<\/p>\n JAY: Yeah, they do down in the high schools now.<\/p>\n SULLY: My thing is\u2026 Listen, here\u2019s my thing with the military. I\u2019m not saying our government is perfect. Because I know that we make some mistakes and we do shitty things BUT, BUT. You wouldn\u2019t have your job, and we wouldn\u2019t have our lives, if we weren\u2019t out there protecting this country so we could lead a free life. So there\u2019s kind of a ying and a yang to that. Sometimes it\u2019s not always the best choices that we make, or we stick our noses in other people\u2019s shit, but at the same time, we protect this place enough that we\u2019re able to like pursue careers and do what a lot of people in other countries aren\u2019t able to do. They\u2019re kind of picked and they\u2019re chosen to be whatever they become… I\u2019m proud to be an American, I\u2019ll tell you that.<\/p>\n JAY: So your country, right or wrong?<\/p>\n SULLY: Uh, no. Not right or wrong. But I\u2019m proud to be an American. I love my country. I\u2019ve seen the depressions and how people live in other countries and how they\u2019re told what to be, and they don\u2019t have the choices that we have. I do love that about our country. So, you know\u2026 And I actually sympathize with a lot of the soliders, and the military in general, that are trained to go out and protect FOR us, and what they have to go through, it\u2019s really kind of shitty in a sense that these young kids have to go over there and die, sometimes, for something that isn\u2019t our fucking problem. And that kind of sucks. So what I have to do is at least support them, because they don\u2019t have the choice that we do.<\/p>\n JAY: They don\u2019t have the choice because\u2026?<\/p>\n SULLY: Because they\u2019ve decided to fight for our country.<\/p>\n JAY: And they decided to do that because\u2026?<\/p>\n SULLY: [laughs]\u2026<\/p>\n JAY: Of your song\u2026?<\/p>\n SULLY: Aw, come on. It\u2019s not like that.<\/p>\n JAY: Well I have a quote from you here: \u201cWe\u2019ve always been supportive of our country and our president, whereas a lot of people I thought\u201d \u2014 and you said this in 2003, to MTV News, you said \u2014 \u201ca lot of people I thought lashed out pretty quickly at what we did and I thought the government did everything pretty cleanly and publicly as possible.\u201d [2]<\/p>\n SULLY: Yeah…<\/p>\n JAY: Well, what are you talking about?<\/p>\n SULLY: That was my opinion at the time. The whole war thing, and trying to keep us up to date like\u2026 If you remember, back in other wars, we didn\u2019t have the opportunity to follow it through the media, and CNN, and the news, live updates and that kind of thing. And I thought that for the most part you know we were allowed to follow it as best we could through the media sources that were feeding us information.<\/p>\n JAY: [incredulous] You didn\u2019t think the media was being controlled by the military?<\/p>\n SULLY: Well, it could be. I don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n JAY: You didn\u2019t look into it?<\/p>\n SULLY: Listen. Are you a fucking government expert?<\/p>\n JAY: I\u2019m not telling people to go join the military and then not knowing what the military is doing.<\/p>\n SULLY: I don\u2019t tell people to go join the military!!<\/p>\n JAY: You don\u2019t think using your songs \u2014 the POWER of your music, which you were talking about \u2014 has an effect on the people that hear it when it goes with the visuals that the best P.R. people in the world use?<\/p>\n SULLY: Oh man, are you like one of those guys that agrees with some kid that fuckin\u2019 tied a noose around his neck because Judas Priest lyrics told him to?<\/p>\n JAY: You were telling me how powerful your music was, and what age the people are that listen to it, and you must have thought, \u2018Well the Navy sure thought it was useful,\u2019 so you tell me.<\/p>\n SULLY: Hey, listen. The Navy thought\u2026 It\u2019s the same reason why wrestlers work out to the music, and extreme motorcross riders listen to the music and do what they do. It\u2019s ENERGETIC music. It\u2019s very ATHLETIC. People feel that they get an adrenaline rush out of it or whatever, so, it goes with whatever\u2019s an extreme situation. But I doubt very seriously that a kid is going to join the Marines or the US Navy because he heard Godsmack as the underlying bed music in the commercial. They\u2019re gonna go and join the Navy because they want to jump out of helicopters and fuckin\u2019 shoot people! Or protect the country or whatever it is, and look at the cool infra-red goggles.<\/p>\n JAY: You said to MTV, \u201cWe\u2019re not a very political band but we\u2019re supportive of the U.S. military and how they approach things.\u201d [2]<\/p>\n SULLY: Listen. Someone turned that around. I never said \u201cand how they approach things.\u201d<\/p>\n JAY: Okay. So that\u2019s a misquote. Or something\u2013<\/p>\n SULLY [interrupting]: Wow, what…………<\/p>\n JAY: What about this? In 2003 you did a show that started with video footage of Apache helicopters\u201dhoning in on a desert target interspersed with the words \u2018We will prevail\u2026Stronger than them all.\u201d<\/p>\n SULLY: Say that again?<\/p>\n JAY: I\u2019m reading from a Boston Globe review of a show you did at the Tweeter Center.<\/p>\n SULLY: Yeah.<\/p>\n JAY: In front of 13,000 people on May 22, 2003.<\/p>\n SULLY: Yeah, but tell me what it said again.<\/p>\n JAY: Yes sir. It said \u201cGodsmack\u2019s ferociously high energy 90-minute set started with video footage of Apache helicopters honing in on a desert target, interspersed with the words \u2018We will prevail\u2026Stronger than them all.\u201d [3]<\/p>\n SULLY: Yeah\u2026?<\/p>\n JAY: So you\u2019re using military imagery with your music at your concerts?<\/p>\n SULLY: First of all, it was a COMPUTER image, a computer-animated helicopter that didn\u2019t\u2026 There was no scene of a desert in there. It was a helicopter that rose up from the screen and scanned the audience. It was an EFFECT. And then it shot out missiles that hit the stage.<\/p>\n JAY: Uh huh\u2026<\/p>\n SULLY: Because the intro to \u201cStraight Out of Line\u201d has the sounds of like, a war thing going on.<\/p>\n JAY [trying to decide if Sully is dissembling or just obtuse]: Oh I see. So it\u2019s just sort of a concept thing. [pause] Well, you\u2019ve done a lot to help out the guys who are in the military, who are stuck there now, whether they chose to be there or they got hoodwinked into being there. For whatever reason, they\u2019re in the military. And they\u2019re doing their job. You guys did a show for them at Camp Pendleton\u2013<\/p>\n SULLY: Yup.<\/p>\n JAY: \u2013called \u201cRockin\u2019 the Corps.\u201d And so you\u2019ve been doing a lot of benefit shows\u2026<\/p>\n SULLY: [interrupting] Well, like I said, Listen you know, there\u2019s a lot of young kids that die for our country, man, and they don\u2019t have the choice once they\u2019re in there.<\/p>\n JAY: That\u2019s right.<\/p>\n SULLY: So I just feel well you know whatever we can do to say \u201cthank you for protecting our country\u201d is what we try to do. I\u2019m not trying to make this a big political issue.<\/p>\n JAY: Okay. Have you done anything to prevent people from joining the military?<\/p>\n SULLY: No.<\/p>\n JAY: To maybe educate them as to what\u2019s in store for them?<\/p>\n SULLY: I don\u2019t have enough education in the military to educate them in anything.<\/p>\n JAY: Would you let your music be used for anti-military recruiting advertisements?<\/p>\n SULLY: I don\u2019t know, I\u2019d have to see what that was about.<\/p>\n JAY: But you\u2019d be open to it?<\/p>\n SULLY: We\u2019re open to whatever, as long as it\u2019s not a Maybelline commercial.<\/p>\n JAY: [laughs] Maybelline\u2019s more offensive than the military\u2026?<\/p>\n SULLY: No. That doesn\u2019t quite go with what we do.<\/p>\n JAY: But the military does?<\/p>\n SULLY: Listen. Where are we going with this thing? Is this interview about the government\u2013<\/p>\n JAY: Well, I\u2019ve never seen such a pro-military\u2013<\/p>\n SULLY: Sounds like this is a personal attack or whatever.<\/p>\n JAY: Well I\u2019ve never seen such a pro-military band as you guys. [4]<\/p>\n SULLY: But we\u2019re not! I think [chuckling] you\u2019re making us out to be a little bit more. When we\u2019re asked about something, we just answer the question. We don\u2019t go spend 23 hours out of our day supporting the military and what they do.<\/p>\n JAY: Um hmm.<\/p>\n SULLY: We just simply, an opportunity came up, they wanted to use some music for a recruit commercial. What are we gonna say, no?<\/p>\n JAY: Yeah. How hard is it to say \u2018no\u2019?<\/p>\n SULLY: Why would we, though?!?<\/p>\n JAY: Because\u2026<\/p>\n SULLY [interrupting]: Is it because you don\u2019t feel the same way about the government that we do, makes you right and us wrong?<\/p>\n JAY: Yeah. What do you feel about the government? Tell me what\u2013<\/p>\n SULLY: Aw, that\u2019s crazy, man! That\u2019s just an OPINION.<\/p>\n JAY: I can back my opinion up from here to tomorrow if you would like to talk to me all day long.<\/p>\n SULLY: Well obviously you\u2019ve done a lot of research and you\u2019ve\u2013<\/p>\n JAY [interrupting]: That\u2019s right, because\u2013<\/p>\n SULLY: \u2013got a different opinion. We don\u2019t know that stuff that you know, so\u2013<\/p>\n JAY [impatient]: Why don\u2019t you do some research before you get involved with these sorts of things? You\u2019re talking about young kids\u2019 lives. You\u2019re talking about kids\u2013<\/p>\n SULLY: [yelling] Would you rather not have us be protected so they can come and overrun our country?!?<\/p>\n JAY: Do you know what a \u201cfool\u2019s errand\u201d is?<\/p>\n SULLY: I\u2019m asking you a question!<\/p>\n JAY: No one is threatening\u2013<\/p>\n SULLY [interrupting]: Would you rather us not be protected?!?<\/p>\n JAY: You know what I\u2019d like, Sully? A Department of Defense, not a Department of Offense that attacks other countries \u2014 sovereign nations \u2014 who do things in a different way than us, who we have no right to go over and invade and change their governments. Would we want someone else to do that to us?<\/p>\n SULLY: I\u2019m not saying \u2013<\/p>\n JAY [interrupting]: How hard is that to think about?<\/p>\n SULLY: I\u2019m not saying that we were right on every war that we\u2019ve created. I know that we\u2019ve been damn wrong at times about stuff\u2013<\/p>\n JAY [interrupting]: When have we been wrong?<\/p>\n SULLY: [yelling] but they have also been wrong too!<\/p>\n JAY: When have \u2013<\/p>\n SULLY [interrupting]: I don\u2019t trust someone like fuckin\u2019 Sadaam and Osama to come in here and try to control\u2013<\/p>\n JAY: [interrupting, incredulous] When did Sadaam try to come in here and control our country?<\/p>\n SULLY: Dude, [yelling] WHY DON\u2019T YOU GO LIVE IN IRAQ THEN IF YOU HAVE SUCH A PROBLEM WITH AMERICA? Why are you here?<\/p>\n JAY: Why am I here?!? This is the top country in the world, my friend!<\/p>\n SULLY: Well, why do you think so? Because it\u2019s PROTECTED.<\/p>\n JAY: No, it\u2019s not because it\u2019s\u2013<\/p>\n SULLY [interrupting]: \u2013ruled our country.<\/p>\n JAY: No one is attacking us, my friend. Certainly not Iraq. Every first world nation suffers terrorist attacks. Get used to it.<\/p>\n SULLY: I am used to it. I don\u2019t have a problem\u2013<\/p>\n JAY: Get used to it.<\/p>\n SULLY: [laughs] Sounds like you do.<\/p>\n JAY: You\u2019re the one that\u2019s saying it\u2019s alright to not know about stuff and then to send other people to die in our name.<\/p>\n SULLY: I never said that! Don\u2019t put fuckin\u2019 words in my mouth.<\/p>\n JAY: I\u2019ve got it on tape, bro.<\/p>\n SULLY: You\u2019ve \u201cgot it on tape, bro\u201d?!?<\/p>\n JAY: Yeah.<\/p>\n SULLY: You got me saying it\u2019s okay for us to attack other countries?<\/p>\n JAY: I got you on tape saying they\u2019re protecting us by attacking, by going over there and taking out people.<\/p>\n SULLY: Listen, don\u2019t fuckin\u2019 turn my words around to make it to what you want it to be! That\u2019s not what I meant and you know that.<\/p>\n JAY: Okay I\u2019m sorry. Then tell me what you meant.<\/p>\n SULLY: Listen, I\u2019m not gonna get into a political fuckin\u2019 conversation with you. This was supposed to be an interview about the band. Where is this going?<\/p>\n JAY: We\u2019re talking about the power of your music and what you\u2019re using it for.<\/p>\n SULLY: What is this for anyway? Who are you working with?<\/p>\n JAY: I\u2019m working for my own magazine, my friend.<\/p>\n SULLY: What\u2019s it called?<\/p>\n JAY: [laughing in disbelief] What do you mean, what\u2019s it called? Are you serious?<\/p>\n SULLY: Yeah, what\u2019s the magazine called?<\/p>\n JAY: It\u2019s called Arthur Magazine. You guys are the ones that set this up.<\/p>\n SULLY: Hey I was just told to do press today, man.<\/p>\n JAY: Hey man, you guys\u2013<\/p>\n SULLY: I got a checklist in front of me, and I don\u2019t have time for a lot of this bullshit.<\/p>\n JAY: Oh yeah?<\/p>\n SULLY: So write whatever the fuck you wanna write, because your magazine obviously is that popular.<\/p>\n JAY: It\u2019s doing pretty good\u2026<\/p>\n SULLY [interrupting]: Yeah I\u2019m sure it is. All three thousand copies of it\u2026 [5]<\/p>\n JAY: On our own, without any corporate support.<\/p>\n SULLY: I wish you the best of\u2013 Why would you waste your time calling a band like us when you don\u2019t even give a fuck?!?<\/p>\n JAY: I certainly do \u201cgive a fuck.\u201d Cuz you know what?<\/p>\n SULLY: What is this about?!?<\/p>\n JAY: Because listen man! You know there\u2019s 2,800 people, my brothers and sisters, have died over in Iraq?<\/p>\n SULLY: Yeah?<\/p>\n JAY: You know 30,000 Iraqi humans WHO NEVER DID SHIT TO US have died because of the attacks we\u2019ve made over there? [6]<\/p>\n SULLY: [in disbelief] And that\u2019s Godsmack\u2019s fault?<\/p>\n JAY: Did you know that 78% of women in the military report cases of sexual harassment? [7]<\/p>\n SULLY: [sarcastic] And that\u2019s Godsmack\u2019s fault.<\/p>\n JAY: No, man\u2013<\/p>\n SULLY [interrupting, sarcastic]: That has to do with our new record.<\/p>\n JAY: Okay, let\u2019s talk about your new record.<\/p>\n SULLY: I can’t believe this. This is [inaud]<\/p>\n JAY: Let\u2019s talk about that new record, my friend.<\/p>\n SULLY: Get a life. [hangs up]<\/p>\n JAY: Let\u2019s talk about the new album\u2026======<\/p>\n ENDNOTES<\/p>\n 1. from MARCH 7 – 13, 2003 LA WEEKLY: 2. from 06.19.2003 – MTV.COM: 3. from 05\/26\/2003 4. MTV News – Fat Joe, 3 Doors Down, Godsmack Speak Out About War In Iraq – JANUARY 22, 2003<\/a><\/p>\n “Unfortunately, there were some really bad things that happened [involving the Middle East], and I think if we don’t cut out the cancer while it’s still young, then it’s gonna grow to be this entity that we may not be able to defend ourselves against,” Godsmack frontman Sully Erna said. “I applaud the government and President Bush for doing what they’re doing, and I think our military are some of the bravest souls, much braver than I could ever be.”<\/p>\n 5. Actually, it’s 50,000.<\/p>\n 6. Source: Department of Defense 1995 Sexual Harassment Survey (Arlington, VA: Defense Manpower Data Center, December 1996)<\/p>\n THINKING ABOUT ENLISTING?<\/strong>BEFOREYOUENLIST.ORG<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n WHAT IS IT LIKE TO BE IN THE U.S. MILITARY IN IRAQ? <\/strong><\/p>\n OPERATION: DREAMLAND<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n ======<\/p>\n AN AFTERWORD FROM JAY BABCOCK, SATURDAY MAY 6, REGARDING THIS INTERVIEW<\/strong><\/p>\n Regarding the nature of the questions that were put to Sully: it was determined by what’s unique about this band, which is their public pro-military, pro-war stance and the extent of their involvement with US military recruiting campaigns. They’ve spoken about this stuff in public before, so there was no reason for me to think that they wouldn’t be willing to speak about it again. Thus, the interview.<\/p>\n After Sully hung up on me, I called back. The band’s publicist, Ken Phillips, told me that Sully had emerged from the room shouting at the top of his lungs, and he wasn’t sure if he could get him back on the phone with me so that we could talk about the album, Wicca, karma\u2014all interests of Sully’s\u2014that I had hoped to explore. Two days later I was told by Phillips that there would be no further interviewing and the band would rather the feature not run.<\/p>\n Why?<\/p>\n Who knows? Perhaps it’s the way Sully characterizes people who join the military as guys who want to jump out of helicopters and shoot people and use infrared goggles. That doesn’t really jibe well with them being “brave souls” or honorable freedom-protecting people, does it?<\/p>\n Perhaps it has to do with Sully’s attitude towards the Navy’s recruiting efforts. Essentially he is saying that the Navy wasted their money by licensing Godsmack music for their advertisements, since the music has no influence\/impact \u2013 none, zero \u2013 on the viewers.<\/p>\n And so on.<\/p>\n I suppose to a degree it’s like shooting fish in a barrel, but… lives are on the line. People need to be held accountable. I’ve been trying to interview this band since 2003. I finally got my chance. It’s stimulated a ton of discussion \u2013 check out blabbermouth.net’s various threads, or the number of blogs and rock news sites that are now picking this up, or the comments below, or the endless barrage of juvenile hatemail we’ve been receiving \u2013 and it’s embarassed the band into silence on the issue, which is better than the jingoism they’d been spouting previously.<\/p>\n Finally: Please keep in mind that Sully is a MILLIONAIRE living in a comfortable life. His band is using their music to help recruit poor, under-educated, foolish, impressionable kids into the military at a time of worthless, pointless war, the consequences of which we \u2013 all of us \u2013 will be feeling for the rest of our lives. If he doesn’t care to discuss this \u2013 all of this \u2013 he shouldn’t do interviews… especially with anti-war publications.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Boston band Godsmack are a bigger deal in America than here, their latest album having gone to no. 1 in the Billboard charts this week. The band like to play concerts for the US military and have allowed their songs to be used in recruitment ads in the past but seemed to get rather flustered … Continue reading “Gobsmacked”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[43,3,14],"tags":[1164,1801,2422],"class_list":["post-452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-magazines","category-music","category-politics","tag-arthur-magazine","tag-jay-babcock","tag-metallica"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pq7rV-7i","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nhttp:\/\/www.laweekly.com\/ink\/03\/16\/features-goldin.php<\/a>
\n“Selling War: How the military’s ad campaign gets inside the heads of recruits” by Greg Goldin
\nThe Navy’s tweaking of this theme is ‘Accelerate Your Life,’ which promises
\n‘adventure, travel, career, patriotism, technology, education, honor.’ Set to
\nmusic from the band Godsmack, a voice-over intones, ‘If someone wrote a book
\nabout your life, would anyone want to read it?’<\/p>\n
\nhttp:\/\/www.mtv.com\/news\/articles\/1472863\/06182003\/godsmack.jhtml
\nWhile Metallica, Ozzy, Audioslave and others travel America, the Boston band
\nwill head oversees where the touring circuit isn’t quite as crowded. “We zig
\nwhen they zag,” frontman Sully Erna said at Saturday’s KROQ Weenie Roast. They’ll return to the States for a headlining tour in the fall, which like the current outing will offer $10 tickets to U.S. soldiers.
\n“We’ve always been supportive of our country and our president and stuff like
\nthat, whereas a lot of people, I thought, lashed out pretty quickly at what we
\ndid, and I thought the government did everything pretty cleanly and publicly as
\npossible,” Erna explained. “We have a lot of respect for the military and stuff
\nlike that, and we just wanted to give them something back for what they did for
\nus, letting us live in a free country and that kind of thing. We’re not a very
\npolitical band, but we are supportive of the U.S. military and how they approach
\nthings.”<\/p>\n
\nhttp:\/\/archive.unearthed.com\/?news,2003,05,0000018118
\nSteve Morse of the Boston Globe reviewed Godsmack’s homecoming concert at the
\nTweeter Center on Thursday (May 22) before a crowd of 13,000. A large part of
\nthat crowd – 2,000 to be exact – were members of the military who had bought $10
\ntickets in the reserved section on the lawn. Godsmack have taken a pro-military
\nstance this spring, and they loaned their song “Awake” for use in a Navy
\nrecruitment ad. Godsmack’s ferociously high-energy, 90-minute show started with video footage of Apache helicopters honing in on a desert target, interspersed with the words, ”We will prevail … stronger than them all.<\/p>\n
\n