During a new appearance on “The Mistress Carrie Podcast”, GODSMACK frontman Sully Erna spoke about his recent move from New Hampshire to Florida. Asked if the coronavirus pandemic and politics played a part in his decision to relocate to America’s southernmost state geographically, which leans Republican in presidential elections, Erna said: “It’s a long story, but in a nutshell, I’d been looking at an alternate home area for a while now. And California was kind of on my radar, just because I have a lot of friends there, my business is there, [and] I love the weather. But when all this political shit went down, it really turned me off to just the thought process and ways of being for a lot of the liberals and people that I just can’t connect with on that wavelength. So it kind of bummed me out to a point where I’m, like, well, I don’t really wanna go three thousand miles across the country to pay triple the amount of money to live in that kind of nonsense and be locked down.”
He continued: “So, yeah, corona and politics played a piece of my decision to divert to Florida. And I honestly just went down there to buy a property with a little bit of room and a decent little house, and I wanted horses. And I knew that Shannon [Larkin, GODSMACK drummer] was kind of in horse country, ’cause it’s in North Fort Myers. So I just came across this really great deal with this lady who had a 20-acre horse ranch, but she also owned a 30-acre pasture next door to it, which is just an open pasture that some guy leases to pasteurize his cows on. And it gives me a tax break ’cause it’s agricultural. And I get a half a cow a year. [Laughs] So, yeah, I’m a meat eater too. Not only am I not a liberal, I’m a fucking meat eater.”
Sully went on to say that a desire to be close to his GODSMACK bandmates provided him with additional motivation to find a new home in Florida.
“This property is about seven miles from Shannon Larkin‘s house, and about 13 miles from [GODSMACK guitarist] Tony Rombola,” he said. “So my guys are down there, and that’s kind of one of the reasons that initiated this whole thought process. Plus I hate the fucking snow.”
According to a Wallethub analysis, Florida has some of the most lax COVID-19 restrictions in the U.S.
Erna has been more vocal about his political opinions in recent years, saying in a July 2020 episode of his Internet show “Hometown Sessions” that if “Trump stays in [office], COVID’s gonna be a big, messy pain in the ass, and there’s gonna be more people burning down Wendy’s fucking restaurants. If Trump fucking is gone, all of a sudden they’re gonna have this miracle vaccine that those fucking liars have been holding on to.”
In February 2020, Erna came under fire for sharing a post that was flagged as part of Facebook‘s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its news feed. The post in question criticized then-Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders‘s plan to raise the minimum wage and provide universal health care to all Americans. It also cited Sanders‘s Medicare For All plan, a single, national health insurance program that would cover everyone who lives in the United States.
Back in 2004, Erna revealed that he was not in favor of the Democratic candidate for president in that year’s election, telling Launch Radio Networks: “I’m a Republican. I want Republican. I don’t necessarily want [incumbent Republican president George W.] Bush to win. I don’t like that choice, but I gotta tell you, I don’t truly believe in the Democrats either, man. I don’t like the way they think. I don’t like, I don’t love Bush, I’ll tell you that, but I want a Republican in office.”
