In a week when rock fans were listening for clues about the future of Godsmack, sully erna offered two at once: a public relationship and a promise that the band is not done. During an April 23 appearance on SiriusXM’s “Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk, ” the frontman spoke openly for the first time about his relationship with Dorothy Martin, while also talking about their shared track, “Set Me Free. ”
The moment felt bigger than a celebrity reveal. It connected two artists whose recent work and personal histories seem to have met at the same point: survival, honesty, and the need to turn difficult experience into something loud enough to matter.
What did Sully Erna say about Dorothy Martin?
Erna described the song “Set Me Free” as “really good” and “a banger, ” saying it is “coming out soon. ” He said he and Dorothy first connected because they had both gone through difficult relationships and found a way to work through that pain in their art. He said the song came from that shared experience and is “a down-and-dirty good hard rock song, ” not a ballad and “nothing sappy. ”
Dorothy, who recently celebrated her 40th birthday, told host Eddie Trunk that she was happy about the relationship. “I love this man, ” she said of the 58-year-old Erna. “He’s such a good, solid man. I feel safe with him. And we had a wonderful friendship for months and months. I’ve never laughed so much in my life. My face hurts. ”
That exchange gave the relationship a plainspoken quality that matched the music around it. The two are not presenting the moment as a performance. They are presenting it as an extension of a friendship that already existed, and that matters in an industry where personal lives often become part of the marketing before they become part of the story.
Why does this relationship matter beyond one interview?
The wider story is not only about romance. It is also about how artists frame resilience in public. Dorothy has spoken about a deeply toxic past relationship with a world-renowned musician from another band, saying she wanted survivors to have strength to leave and recover from abuse. In that context, her words about feeling safe carry a weight that goes beyond a simple relationship announcement.
Erna has also spoken publicly in practical terms about relationships before. At the 2023 Rocklahoma festival in Pryor, Oklahoma, he said the key is choosing someone “whose shit you can deal with the most. ” The bluntness was typical of the way he talks: less polished than therapeutic language, but aimed at the same basic idea that relationships require honesty, patience, and some tolerance for imperfection.
That is part of why this announcement lands as more than a headline. It sits at the intersection of public vulnerability and artistic output, where private experience becomes the material for songs that fans will hear onstage and online.
How is this tied to Godsmack’s next chapter?
The relationship news arrived alongside a broader reset for Godsmack. Erna said in a separate interview that “Definitely there’s gonna be a new record, ” while adding that he does not know when it will arrive. He said the band will “probably get some new music out by early ’27, ” though he stressed that it is still early.
That statement matters because Godsmack had previously said its ninth album, Lighting Up the Sky, would be its last. Since then, the band has navigated change, including the retirement of guitarist Tony Rombola and drummer Shannon Larkin after the tour supporting that album. Erna said those departures were on good terms and reflected their wish for a quieter life away from touring.
With that shift, Erna and bassist Robbie Merrill regrouped, worked with Evanescence drummer Will Hunt and Dorothy guitarist Sam Koltun, and took the band to Europe in 2025. He said the response helped them reconsider whether the band should stop at all. “We feel like we have some gas in the tank, ” he said. “We love what we do. ”
That is the heart of this phase for sully erna: not reinvention for its own sake, but a willingness to keep moving while the music still feels alive.
What comes next for the song and the tour?
Godsmack plans to give fans a preview of the next era with a new song before the Rise of Rock tour starts on May 7 at the Welcome to Rockville festival in Florida. Stone Temple Pilots and Dorothy are also part of the tour lineup, bringing the personal and professional story even closer together on the same stage.
Erna described “Set Me Free” as a song built for impact, saying the voices work well together and that he is excited to release it and see how people respond. In his telling, the track is not a soft landing but a forceful release, shaped by two people who found common ground in hard experiences and turned it into something direct.
For now, that is the image that lingers: a frontman speaking plainly about love, a singer describing safety, and a band trying to decide how much road it still has left. In the glow of a stage light and the noise of a new song, sully erna is making the next chapter look less like an ending and more like a reset.
