SKID ROW MEMBERS DAVE “SNAKE” SABO AND RACHEL BOLAN DISCUSS THE DEPARTURE OF SINGER ZP THEART AND THE ADDITION OF VOCALIST ERIK GRÖNWALL

Skid Row members Dave “Snake” Sabo (guitar) and Rachel Bolan (bass) were recent guests on Eddie‘s Sirius/XM show, Trunk Nation L.A. Invasion, where they discussed why they parted ways with former vocalist, ZP Theart, who followed on the heels of TNT frontman, Tony Harnell. They also spoke about recording with singer Erik Grönwall.

Regarding how Grönwall came to join the band, Bolan said (as per blabbermouth.net), “We toured together. H.E.A.T [Grönwall’s band] was on tour with Skid Row. What year was that? ’18? And we’d hear him every night from the dressing room. And a couple of times, I was, like, ‘Man, listen to this guy sing. He’s phenomenal.’ And then, I forget who told me, someone that was with us, ‘Yeah, he won ‘Idol’ in Sweden.’ And I was, like, ‘Man, he’s got pipes.’ And I was listening. Then I went behind the monitor board a couple of times. And in my head, I’m, like, ‘Wow! When Skid Row has some downtime, I’m gonna get in touch with this dude and start a side project with him.’ And obviously, that never happened. But as time went on and we got to the point to where we were with ZP and stuff, Erik was our first… I told Snake, I go, ‘We’ve gotta check this guy out.’ And along with Snake and the rest of the guys, and Nick, our producer, Nick Raskulinecz, were, like, ‘He’s the guy, man. Send him some songs.’ So, we sent him some songs that we were recording, just with a guide vocal on it, and it came back about 24 hours later, and we were, like, ‘All right. He’s the guy. Get him on a plane. Let’s do this.'”

He continued, “We’ve been recording this record… We’ve never done it like this before. He’s been recording at his house in Sweden and sending it to Nick and sending it to Snake and I, and we’ve just been going, ‘Okay, change this part. Do this. Do this.’ And I just found out last night at dinner, he’s, like, ‘I’ve never recorded myself this [way] before.’ [Laughs] And I was, like, ‘I’m so glad I didn’t know that.’ As if my stress level isn’t high enough. I would have just completely combusted right there. But, yeah, man, and then actually Tuesday [March 22nd], when we all flew to Vegas for rehearsals, was the first time we met face to face — other than on tour; we saw each other in the hallway a couple of times. But other than that, Tuesday was the first time, other than a Zoom call, that we met face to face.”

Discussing why Skid Row parted ways with Theart, Sabo said, “It got to a point where the situation with Zee kind of put itself forth where we had to make a decision, because something still wasn’t working correctly. And that’s when the idea with Erik came up. And ironically enough, years ago, a good friend of mine, Rob Hoffman, had said, ‘If something ever happens, there’s this guy in Sweden.’ And he said the same thing to our manager as well years ago. And all of a sudden, as life happens, it kind of came full circle and it became a reality.”

“I’ve been on a high for probably the last month, just hearing the way the songs are coming out, seeing the enthusiasm in everybody, seeing the positive reactions we’re getting from playing it for people,” Snake added. “And it feels so amazing. I feel like I’m 25 years old again… But it’s been an incredible experience, and the way this whole thing has sort of come to fruition, it makes you just go, ‘Man, there’s something going on that’s beyond our control.’ The stars aligned, if you will.”

Skid Row released their first single with Grönwall, on March 28th, called, The Gang’s All Here, which is also the title of their forthcoming new album, out October 14th. Listen to the song, by clicking here.

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