Godsmack shares the secret of their success

Question: Who holds the record for most top 10 singles on the Active Rock radio chart? Creed? Metallica? Guess again. It’s post-grunge rockers Godsmack.

So how did the Boston-based band, which has next-to-zero airplay on MTV and is often lumped into the generic ”nü-metal” category, score its 13th top 10 with ”Speak,” the first single from its Billboard chart-topping CD Godsmack IV? ”Touring and radio have been our hidden heroes,” says Sully Erna, whose throaty vocals set the group apart. ”People go, ‘Godsmack, I dunno…’ but then they hear a song and go, ‘Oh! That band.”’

”They’ve gone into what programmers would call the No-Brainer category; people respond very passionately,” says Ron Valeri, program director at Boston’s WAAF (and a former comanager of the band). Godsmack have carved out a niche between rock and metal, and IV‘s rootsy instrumentation (harmonica, strings) should only widen their audience. As Valeri puts it: ”Godsmack are very good at just allowing their fan base to grow them as artists.”

Since they owe much of their success to touring, they’ll head back out in support of IV, their fourth full-length, this fall. Until then, it’s time to rest on some laurels. ”We just got a plaque that said our catalog did 10 million in the States,” Erna says. ”We’ve touched a lot of people, I guess.”