Godsmack drummer Shannon Larkin has addressed his retirement from the band in a May 1 livestream on his official YouTube channel, describing his exit as a warm and mutual parting after the tour behind Lighting Up The Sky. He said (transcribed by Blabbermouth): “With the Godsmack thing, I tell you, people, it ended beautifully, and there were no hard feelings. And Godsmack 2.0 is coming, with Wade Murff on the drums and Sam Koltun on guitar. And it’s gonna be badass, ’cause I know [Godsmack frontman] Sully Erna, and he’s badass, and he’ll make a badass record. And Godsmack will persevere, 2.0. And no hard feelings on this side, because it’s all love.”
Larkin also put his 40-year career in perspective and spoke to the depth of his friendship with Erna: “The touring — I’ve been touring for 40 years. It was the greatest years of my life. Until it wasn’t. And so I stopped. And it was okay. And Sully understood, ’cause he knew me from the Wrathchild days, since 1986, [198]7, we met. That’s for real. There were no cell phones or the Internet, people. We wrote our numbers down after having met one another, and stayed in touch for 17 years before I joined Godsmack. So, we were friends way before that, and so now we’re friends way beyond that. And that’s important, I think, especially in moving on.”
In April 2025, Erna released a statement confirming that Larkin and guitarist Tony Rombola had left Godsmack “on good terms, but for no other reason than to fulfill their desire to live a simpler and quieter life away from touring.” Erna and bassist Robbie Merrill subsequently recruited Evanescence drummer Will Hunt and Dorothy guitarist Sam Koltun for a European tour in the spring of 2025.
Godsmack released a live album and Blu-ray, Live At Mohegan Sun, on May 1 via Primary Wave. Captured during the band’s sold-out Oct. 26, 2024, performance at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut, the release marks the final show of the classic Godsmack lineup of Erna, Rombola, Merrill, and Larkin.
During an April 23 appearance on SiriusXM‘s “Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk,” Erna officially introduced Wade Murff as the band’s new permanent drummer. He said, “Sam‘s on board now full-time, and he’s gonna be the new player from this point forward. And the drummer that we chose, his name is Wade Murff. He’s worked with Daughtry and some other acts. A fairly under-the-radar kind of guy. A strong player. A great dude.” Erna added, “I really feel that the fans will be able to come and enjoy the music as they have always known it, because it won’t sound foreign to them, like there’s a new singer singing Godsmack stuff.”
Based in Los Angeles, Murff began playing the drums at age 4. He cites Led Zeppelin‘s John Bonham and Van Halen‘s Alex Van Halen as his early rock inspirations, and Slayer‘s Dave Lombardo and Pantera‘s Vinnie Paul Abbott as the players who drove him toward heavy music. His touring credits include Daughtry, Prong, Sebastian Bach, Orgy, and Doyle (of The Misfits).
Promoted by Live Nation, Godsmack‘s “The Rise Of Rock” 2026 North American tour — featuring Stone Temple Pilots and Dorothy as special guests — kicks off May 10 in Bristow, Virginia, and wraps Sept. 26 at Ford Idaho Center Amphitheater in Nampa, Idaho, with stops in Austin, Chicago, Denver, Phoenix, and California.
Larkin joined Godsmack in 2002 after years with Wrathchild (later Wrathchild America and Souls At Zero) and Ugly Kid Joe. Rombola had served as the band’s lead guitarist since the mid-1990s. Godsmack‘s most recent studio album, Lighting Up The Sky, came out in February 2023 via BMG, co-produced by Erna and Andrew “Mudrock” Murdock (Avenged Sevenfold, Alice Cooper).
