Graham Finney of Planet Loud spoke with Skid Row guitarist Dave “Snake” Sabo. Excerpts from the interview appear below.
Planet Loud: Twenty five years has passed since the first Skid Row album so who is the Skid Row audience today?
Dave Sabo: It runs the gamut from the people who grew up coming to our shows and they’re turning their kids onto us so we’ll see them as well. I think because of that, in certain areas, we’re getting a younger audience that you wouldn’t expect to be into Skid Row and it amazes me. I’ll look out and see the usual suspects and that’s fuckin’ cool then, all of a sudden, I’ll see a 21 year old kid in a Slayer shirt and that’s really something.
Planet Loud: A large percentage of your audience will want to hear a certain era of the band’s material. Is it hard to get the balance right?
Dave Sabo: Of course they will but I don’t think it’s difficult getting that balance right. A lot of bands either do the classics and nothing else or shy away from it. We’re really proud of our history. We’ve been a band for twenty-seven years and been releasing records for twenty-four. We’re proud of all of it – every incarnation of the band has had something to say and you’ve got to stand behind that. I’m really proud of all those songs.
Planet Loud: It must be a good feeling to know that people still want to hear those songs?
Dave Sabo: You know, it bums me out when I hear people saying they hate playing a certain song because they’ve been playing it for thirty years. It amazes me that songs we wrote all that time ago are songs that people have taken as their own. It humbles me. Going back to your previous question though, one of the things about this band is that we love playing live even if we have been the underdogs at time so I don’t think it’s difficult to please everybody because we give it all to ‘em!
Planet Loud: Playing to seventy-five thousand people in Russia, the Bon Jovi tour, the Motley Crue tour. How much of a headfuck was that?
Dave Sabo: Honestly, not much of one because I’ve always been fairly grounded because of my upbringing. I never viewed anything as if I was owed it, I always viewed it as a gift and was always very thankful for what I’ve achieved.
Planet Loud: Would you agree that timing had a big part in your success as every song on your debut album was perfect for that era?
Dave Sabo: Absolutely. It’s weird because you really can’t tell what is going to happen. I’ve seen bands put out material and expect it to do really well and it hasn’t and they can’t figure out why. We put the record out and just couldn’t believe the opportunities we were getting to take the music we had written out to some of these places. You can’t predict that sort of thing. Sales are just numbers though, the thing for me is when you travel to a place and you see somebody sing that song back at you, I get choked up every night seeing that. It means that I was part of something that has affected somebody on an emotional level.
Planet Loud: [Your] second record [Slave to the Grind] seemed to be a bit of a ‘fuck-you’ to everybody?
Dave Sabo: It was and it was important for us to make that record. That is my favorite record and it was important for us in so many different ways. The fact that it shocked a lot of people and we also lost a lot of people because of it – the screaming sixteen year old girls disappeared but I know that we gained a lot of respect amongst our peers and it opened a whole load of new doors for us – like having Pantera on tour with us, having Soundgarden on tour with us. That wouldn’t have happened if we’d not made that record.
Planet Loud: The debut album came out twenty-five years ago – anything special planned?
Dave Sabo: You know, I haven’t even thought about it. We’re constantly asked about a reunion and have been since the twentieth anniversary and the offers have been phenomenal but, for me, I don’t know, at this point I don’t have an interest in it. Again, it’s not like I have any hatred for it or anything like that, I’m where I’m at right now and it feels really good.
Read more at Planet Loud.
Sid Row will be releasing Rise Of The Damnation Army – United World Rebellion: Chapter Two on August 4th in Europe and August 5th in the US. Watch a teaser for the album here.
source: planet-loud.com
13 Responses
Skid row is tucking great. Thickskin was an absolutely awesome album. Sabo is a wicked nice guy and a killer song writer. Rolling… We are the middle-aged, so raise your hands!!!
Bach back
Anybody actually pay money to see a Bach-less Skid Row at a local big bar? Welcome to 2014.
I admit I didn’t give Skid Row a chance when they first came out because I was into the really heavy bands and thought Skid Row was just another MTV approved, teenage girl approved, style over substance band. WOW, was I wrong! They are a great, guitar grinding hard rock band that is WAY more than the poofy haired glam bands they initially got lumped in with. Slave To The Grind is an awesome album and the tour they did for that album showed they were no wimps. They took Pantera out for God’s sake during their Vulgar Display Of Power era! That showed Skid Row’s confidence and balls! They earned my respect.
You said it, they never did fit in with the cheesy metal bands of the era, much heavier, hooked me from day one and I was a Slayer/ Anthrax/ Megadeth kid at the time.
After 25 years the album still holds its own weight…however, for the anniversary you would think they would embrace something for the fans, with Rob and Baz. But, again the current lineup (meaning mostly Snake, Rachel and Scotti) do not want something like this because maybe it will force them to actually wake up and realize that the current incarnation is not as popular and accepting as they hoped or wanted.
Sure Johnny Solinger has been in the band now longer than Sebastian was…(Baz was in for 9 years and Johnny now 15 years)… but that original lineup made them who they were.
So should they do it for the supporting fans, past, present and future? Absolutely!
Though the downside would be, if it would take place…then they would have to face the rumors, speculation, and pressure to reunite again….which I think Rachel Bolan is the main reason for it not happening!