Godsmack frontman Sully Erna says that he got in “a little bit of trouble” after he discussed the passing of Rush drummer Neil Peart in a recent radio interview.
Erna told Boston's WAAF in January that he knew about the private battle with brain cancer that took Peart's life earlier this year, claiming in a January interview that Peart was in a wheelchair and couldn't speak for much of the last year of his life.
Asked about that on SiriusXM, Erna admitted, “You know, I can't comment on that. I did before, and I got myself in a little bit of trouble. I was close with him . . . I was close enough with him. He, actually, did the honor of giving us maybe his last on-camera interview ever in his life. And, of course, we had no information at that time. I just knew him, and he was a nice guy. And I reached out.”
Three days after Erna made his remarks about Peart's condition, Donna Halper — the woman credited with discovering Rush while working at an Ohio radio station back in 1974 — said it was “inaccurate” to say that Peart was unable to speak in the months leading up to his death.
Peart died on January 7th, 2020 at the age of 67.