Skid Row Trying To Dig Way Back Up

By Will Jordan

It seemed all was lost with the aging hair band Skid Row when frontman Sebastian Bach abandoned his bandmates in the late nineties.
While Bach went on to pursue a solo career (never really reaching it), the others struggled to keep the band name alive, though it began to fade over the years.
Now, over ten years later, the remaining original members of Skid Row (Scotti Hill and Dave ‘Snake’ Sabo, and bassist Rachel Bolan) are making another attempt at breathing new life into the band that was once on top of the charts.
They recruited a promising Texas vocalist, Johnny Solinger in 1999 and added drummer Dave Gara and are continuously attempting to refine their style without truly denying their roots.
In 2000, Skid Row scored the sought-after opening slot for Kiss’ Farewell Tour - the “mother of all tours,” which brought Skid Row’s music back to the masses. Since then, they have traveled thousands of miles on tour buses, played well over 400 shows and released their comeback album Thickskin.
Their latest album, Revolutions Per Minute, presents Skid Row in a different light, though with shades of their former selves.
“It’s very different than what folks are used to,” Solinger says. “We produced it ourselves and put it out ourselves. We’re very proud of it.”
Solinger adds that some “purists may not be so happy about it,” due to the hardcore nature of the album, and the fact that it may not be as radio-friendly as the group’s songs when they were on top.
Whether on the hook-oriented opener, “Disease,” the aggressive “Another Dick In The System,” the catchy “White Trash” or the programmatic “Shut Up Baby, I Love You”—there’s not much that is comparable to the old days, though that seems to be Sollinger’s point.
“We’re not trying to cater to radio or labels about what Skid Row should sound like,” he says. “We like to play what we are in to now. It’s like we’re damned if we do and we’re damned if we don’t. We even have a cow punk song on the album. I mean what do we have to lose? Not a damn thing.”
Skid Row was founded in 1987 in a garage in Toms River, New Jersey - the band name referring to American inner city Ghettos and symbolizing the closeness of the musicians to the roots of heavy metal, according to the band. Having been discovered by Jon Bon Jovi, Skid Row signed a management contract with McGhee Entertainment and a recording deal with Atlantic Records. Autumn 1988 saw the band in the studio for the first time to record their debut album with the support of renowned producer, Michael Wagener. Skid Row arrived at the stores in 1989, immediately selling over five million copies in the U.S. alone, accompanied by a celebrated tour around the globe. Their second album, Slave To The Grind, came out in 1992, making it to No. 1 on the Billboard charts. Skid Row was the first metal act ever to achieve this feat. Slave To The Grind also sold several million copies, followed by another worldwide tour. Although there were a number of internal problems by 1995, the group returned to the recording studio to produce their album, Subhuman Race, which had the press suspect that it would be the last in Skid Row’s career as the vocalist position was emptied, calling for an organizational restructuring phase.
In 1999, founder members Bolan, Hill and Sabo decided to infuse Skid Row with new energy, refusing to have their band drift off into the land of rock memorabilia.
Solinger was suggested by a good friend of the band and a few e-mails later, the vocalist found himself on a plane to New Jersey.
“As soon as he walked through the door, he came across as confident and pleasantly low-key at the same time,” Snake remembers. Rachel adds “We knew after the first half of a song during that rehearsal that Johnny was our man. Great voice, amazing presence, and he knew exactly what this band is about.”
His heart was in it, but Solinger still had some adjustments to make before he fit in with his new family.
“I’m from the deep-south and these guys are from New Jersey, so when I first met them, I had a hard time finding out what they were saying. They were like the Sopranos or something and they thought I was straight off the farm—some Jethro Modean motherfucker. Then they found out I could sing. I always listened to these guys so I definitely wanted to be a part of the group.”
With Bach stumbling around on a VH-1 “making the band” reality show, Skid Row’s back in front of the limelight, though it may not be the best exposure.
With the new release behind them, only time will tell if Skid Row gets the chance to prove that they can stand on their own.
For more information visit www.skidrow.com.

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