Godsmack: Whatever Happened To The Girl On Their Debut Album?

Released in 1998, Godsmack’s first album, was originally self-released under the title, All Wound Up until the band signed a major recording deal to Universal and Republic Records. They re-released the record as a self-titled album.

Mysterious Pierced Woman on the Cover

Gracing the cover of the album was a mysterious pierced woman named Toni Tiller. She was interviewed by Kerrang magazine where she discussed how she got on the cover of the record and what she’s up to today. She talked about meeting the members of the band years after the photoshoot took place and how nice they were to her.

“…The next thing I know, my face is everywhere. It was pretty strange, but I love weird stuff like that.” – Toni Tiller

“I was living in New York City and deeply involved in the club kid scene and so I had an interesting look going. I met a photographer in Brooklyn and we were trying a few things out for a project of his and we snapped that image. A few years later he was working with the band and they saw that in his book and liked it, so they purchased it for use. The next thing I know, my face is everywhere. It was pretty strange, but I love weird stuff like that.”

That image of Tiller was taken 4 years before Godsmack’s debut album was released. Surprisingly, she admitted that being on the album’s cover never got her recognized in public, largely because of geography. She told Kerrang that there weren’t a lot of Godsmack fans where she lived at the time.

“Now I live in the woods.” – Toni Tiller

Tiller admitted to Kerrang, “Now I live in the woods. I’m bald, usually barefoot, and into a variety of stuff. Meditation, strange objects, cooking, esoteric studies, cacti, dollhouses, rugs, and artsy crap. In my spare time, I have a reform school for rude kittens.”

Since doing the interview with Kerrang, she posted some photos, showing her signing posters for fans of the band’s debut album.

Released in August of 1998, Godsmack’s debut record didn’t really create any trouble for almost a year. In April of 1999, the album was certified Gold in America, moving half a million copies.

Fast forward to June of that year, MTV reported that one parent from Cleveland bought the record for his kid and after going through the liner notes and lyrics, complained about the record, citing objectionable artwork and lyrics. The artwork they objected to were pentagrams.

The album hadn’t been released with a parental advisory sticker and somehow made its way past the people who review albums for Walmart and K-Mart. At that time, both chains didn’t sell records that had parental advisory stickers on them.

Walmart and K-Mart Pull the Album from the Shelves

The complaint resulted in both chains pulling the album off store shelves. Eventually, the band agreed to play ball and put parental advisory stickers on the record. Frontman Sully Erna told Rolling Stone, “Our record has been in the marketplace for more than a year now without a parental advisory sticker and this is the one and only complaint. Stickers and lyrics are by nature, subjective. We have decided to put a sticker on the record. It’s almost taunting kids to go out and get the record to see what we’re saying.”

Erna claimed the controversy didn’t hurt album sales and he was probably right. It hit 4x Platinum in America.

Godsmack Fued with Motley Crue

Fast forward to 2009, Godsmack and Motley Crue toured together as part of Crue Fest 2. Since that tour, we’ve seen a war of words exchanged between Godsmack frontman Sully Erna and Motley Crue bassist Nikki Sixx. Here’s an interview with Sully Erna shortly after the tour where he slammed Motley Crue’s diva behaviour.

“I’ll tell you, it’s been the most dramatic tour we’ve ever been on. I mean, talk about just craziness, man, sometimes egos run high. And there has definitely been some rock-star garbage on this tour that we just have never seen in our career.

Every band from Black Sabbath to Arrowsmith, Rush, Metallica, you name it… I don’t think there was ever a threat… Like, who’s going to dwarf Metallica anyways? But there’s always just been this mutual… we want to put on a great show, so bring your bells and whistles, bring your show. So between you guys and us, we can make these people get a bang for their buck and that’s really what entertainment has always been about… I’ve never been in a position before where we felt we had to really protect this thing. It’s kind of like a dog with a bone… You put us up against the wall, we’re going to come out swinging it.”

“I will tell you that I have never been in a situation where I felt like I was out for blood.” – Sully Erna

“…I don’t know why some people consider music as a competition, but I will tell you that I have never been in a situation where I felt like I was out for blood. And honestly, this was the first time that I felt like… if there’s going to be some people that are going to treat other people a certain way, then I’m going to go out there every night and f—in’ crush you on stage.

Make sure that we make you look old and fat and go home with a nice big fat paycheck and you can sit in your world and I’ll sit in mine and see you at the top again… All I care about really is playing music and enjoying myself on the road. I’m not here to compete.”

It came out shortly afterwards that Erna’s comments were aimed directly at Motley Crue bassist, Nikki Sixx. Here’s Sixx responding to the comments:

“I had a great time.”

“What happened?”

“I guess they had a bad time on the tour.” – Nikki Sixx

“The singer in Godsmack was complaining about me, basically. They say he wrote a song about me, but he’s never confirmed about it… so I don’t know if it’s true, but I guess they had a bad time on the tour. So, you know, f— them.”

In 2011, Godsmack drummer Shannon Larkin revealed whether the song “Crying like a b—-” was aimed specifically about Nikki Sixx. He revealed that the song was written actually about Philip Rivers from the San Diego Chargers, who cried after a game loss.

Larkin also took the opportunity to clear up the air on exactly what happened behind the scenes on the Crue Fest 2 tour. “Coming off that Crue tour, Sully had some issues with Nikki. Most of it stem from Motley Crue’s security more than Nikki, but Nikki is the leader of the band. Basically, the security threw us off the stage, whatever it was. It was a bunch of ego stuff that none of us really got into.”

Larkin went on to say, “Motley Crue’s security were real weird with our guests getting backstage. Like our guests might want to look at Motley Crue. Our guests were there to see us and they didn’t give a crap about Motley Crue. Motley Crue is a legendary band that we all respect… So, that’s where the bad blood came from.”

“Sully runs his mouth and Nikki runs his mouth.” – Shannon Larkin

As to where all the recent animosity is coming from, Larkin pointed out that, “Sully runs his mouth and Nikki runs his mouth. They’re both big rock stars. Next thing you know, it’s a battle in the press.” He concluded by saying that Crue Fest 2 was a fantastic tour.

By May of 2014, things didn’t really seem to be improving between the camps. Nikki Sixx talked on his radio show Sixx Sense that Motley Crue would turn down the opportunity to headline US Festivals if Godsmack were on the same bill.

Later that year, during an interview with a radio station in Cincinnati, Erna was asked about how he felt about Nikki Sixx being forced to play Godsmack’s music because the band was on top of the rock charts. “The one thing I’ll never give the guy is the kind of cheap publicity that he’s looking for. I don’t do media wars. If he has something to say, he can come say it to my face. If he has a problem, he can come see me. This isn’t going to be anything for publicity. I’m not going to give him that. He’s on the downside of his career and I’m not just going to do it.”

The feud would extend one year further into 2015 and into its 6th year. Erna appeared on the Jamie Jasper podcast and stated that Sixx was an old, fat, washed-up has-been who treats people like crap. Nikki Sixx would have the final say a few days later when he responded and called Sully Erma “a baby”.

By 2015, it seemed that things had finally subsided and there was no longer a war of words exchanged between the camps. Who knows whether we’ll see both bands share the stage again.

Like this story?  Check out How Velvet Revolver Fell To Pieces

Check out our YouTube channel