The last Canadian stop on Godsmack's tour with opener Red Jumpsuit Apparatus takes place Sunday at CN Centre.
Robbie Merrill, bassist, spoke to The Citizen from Wyoming as the band headed into Canada fresh from their Mayhem tour in July.
Prince George will be the last stop in Canada before the heavy metal band heads to Alaska, and then over to the more glamourous Honolulu during their current Godsmack Live tour.
"We love Canada, we should actually be up there more often," said Merrill, adding they're hoping to tour the nation again early next spring.
Godsmack has had three number one albums, including Faceless, IV and The Oracle on the Billboard 200. The band has had 19 top 10 rock radio hits with more than 17 million records sold in a decade.
They've played venues of all sizes, but stepping on stage still means some butterflies for Merrill, even after all these years as a founding member of the band.
"Whether it's 10,000 or 10 people, I still have to go through steps to get rid of my anxiety," said Merrill.
However he prefers certain venues to others.
"Sometimes when we play the bigger places the audience is 30 feet away. The smaller venues [like CN Centre], having people closer to the stage, makes you feel more connected to the fans. I like that better."
After 15 years of bringing a show full of the tricks of the trade, Merrill said it's going to be all about the music this time.
"We've done it all, from flying amps to fire to big huge video, and now we want to be real and just play all our hits," Merrill said.
Godsmack is known to treat die-hard fans really well.
Rock Dawg University students who take online bass lesson with Merrill and he likes to surprise them.
"So with my students I promise to meet them," said Merrill said. "I tell them I will meet them backstage after the show but what I really do is upgrade their tickets and get them in the front and they get to meet me and they're real happy about that."
All Godsmack fans will see a great show, Merrill promised.
"We're going to play the hits, we do that drum solo," he said.
Vocalist Sully Erna and drummer Shannon Larkin get intense with hand-to-hand combat on the drums.
"We're just going up there and rock and get real," said Merrill.
Tickets are at all Ticketmaster outlets.
