GODSMACK frontman Sully Erna thanks Lady Gaga for the inspiration to launch The Scars Foundation in 2019. The non profit organization was to raise awareness about mental health issues.
The SCars Foundation have partners such as American Foundation For Suicide Prevention and MusiCares.
Sully shared how the foundation started, "The whole thing started for me several years ago".
"I actually had a moment in my life where I was dating [pop singer] Lady Gaga for a minute. But it's because of her that, really, [the GODSMACK] song ['Under Your Scars'] was formed. And that song became the nucleus of birthing The Scars Foundation non-profit organization that we've done".
"Sometimes as you get to learn people, you trigger little things inside of ourselves that we either are insecure about or that we're embarrassed about or feeling vulnerable about," Sully continued. "And I remember after this kind of happened and there was this little conversation that went kind of sideways. It made me start thinking, like, wow, I wonder how many people actually do that, where we hide these imperfections, we hide these things that maybe we're not ready to expose publicly. And what it does is puts a lot of us in a depressive state of mind sometimes, or at least some of us. I'm not saying her or me, but I do know that there's a lot of people out there that when they start to see these, what we call scars, whether they're emotional scars or physical scars, these traumas in our life, it can really spiral us out sometimes and make us feel insecure and imperfect. But to me, those imperfections are exactly what makes us unique and perfect. And I think those are the times where we need to wear these things loudly and proudly and share our stories with the rest of the world, because that's what inspires other people to come forward and share their stories. And that's what we found has been the most successful in helping people heal through The Scars Foundation, because we deal with multiple categories, from severe depression to suicide prevention, addiction, bullying, PTSD. And it's been some of the most gratifying work I've ever done in my life, honestly, to see people turn their lives around that know there's an outlet in the community now that they can communicate through and share these kind of stories to inspire others."
"I really do thank [Lady Gaga] for that in that way, because we've been able to remain friends and everything's good there, but it was just a small situation that kind of happened that triggered this whole thing and where my strength was. And from growing up in the streets of Lawrence [Massachusetts] and going through the childhood I had, I realized this is where I can give back, this is where my strength is, because this is the kind of life I lived, of bullying and addiction and the streets and all those kind of things that I think created my own scars that I've worked through."
