Sully’s seductive, spiritual side

Sully Erna, Sat., May 14, 8 p.m., F.M. Kirby Center (71 Public Square, Wilkes-Barre). Tickets: $24.50-$35, via Ticketmaster, box office. Info: sullyerna.com, kirbycenter.org, 570.826.1100

Sully Erna feels like a famous literary character.

To start the summer, he’s headed out on a tour with a new band delivering soft, more seductive sounds from his solo album “Avalon;” one of the stops is at the F.M. Kirby Center in Wilkes-Barre Saturday, May 14. Then, after about a month, he’s hitting the road with his band, Godsmack, which rocks as hard as it comes. When the Godsmack tour ends, it’s back on the road with the “Avalon” band.

“It’s ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’,” Erna said late last month while rehearsing for his solo tour. “That’s what it is. It’s going to be an extreme change to jump from one to the other. There’s some Godsmack dates right in the middle of the solo thing. That’s going to be intense.”

But, even with the whiplash changes, Erna wouldn’t have it any other way. The solo record, which was released last year and hit No. 24 on the “Billboard” magazine “Top 200” album chart, means as much to him as does his work with Godsmack.

“It’s a huge part of me,” he said. “I need Godsmack to be loud and crazy and bring the chaos. I needed the solo project for the spiritual, seductive side. I need both for balance. For me, it’s both sides of me. There’s no way I can be on 10 all the time, but there’s no way I can be on two all the time, either. The music is an extension of who I am.”

Joining Erna on vocals in the “Avalon” band is Lisa Guyer, a veteran r&b-based singer — “She’s got a four-octave range,” he said. “She totally kills it. I can’t believe she’s never had her shot at the big time.”

The six-piece band includes Niall Gregory, an Irish master of hand percussion and award-winning Bulgarian cellist Irina Chirkova. To say the music doesn’t sound much like Godsmack is an understatement. While the songs have a rock-based structure, the “Avalon” music flows with melodic pianos and cello and eerie vocals floating over intricate near-tribal rhythms.

In part, Erna said, that sound is the result of the collaboration of the international group of musicians.

“It happened organically,” he said. “Because everybody is from some different part of the world and have different sounds, it’s no miracle that it shaped itself to be something interesting.”

The songs on “Avalon” are also set apart from Sully’s work with Godsmack in their openness. They’re direct, personal discussions of the demons and desires, uncertainties and failures that have plagued him through out his life.

“It’s about as vulnerable as it can be,” he said. “Nobody wants to be that open. We’ve all done stuff that’s embarrassing, that we don’t want people to know about. Who wants to be embarrassed? Who wants to be that open?”

As he started to write the record, Erna made a conscious decision to open up.

“Over the years, I stuffed a lot of stuff inside me,” he said. “I wanted to use it as therapeutic, a release through art.”

Erna’s solo tour kicks off in mid-May and runs through early June, beginning on the East Coast and moving to the middle of the country.

In early July, Erna and Godsmack will hit the road with Disturbed and Megadeth topping the Rockstar Mayhem Fest. That tour, which includes six other bands, will run through August.

There won’t be any new Godsmack material at Mayhem Fest. The band hasn’t composed any new material and, when asked if there would be a new Godsmack album anytime soon, Erna replied:

“We just finished doing ‘The Oracle,’ and I just got the solo record out. For me, the biggest reward is doing the live performance and touring. I’m always writing. But the short answer is ‘no.’ I’m not going to write for awhile and just enjoy the tours.”