In a new interview with The Hook Rocks podcast, Skid Row guitarist Dave “Snake” Sabo was asked if he and his bandmates have “targeted” any new singers since their latest vocalist — former Swedish Idol contestant Erik Grönwall — quit the band to focus on his health. Snake responded (as transcribed by blabbermouth.net), “We haven’t targeted anybody. If we wanna continue as Skid Row, we’re gonna have to get another singer. But we haven’t targeted anybody. There’s a lot of great singers out there. But Lzzy[Hale of Halestrom who recently played two shows with Skid Row as a stand-in singer, see some clips here] just raised the bar, man. And Erik is a great singer. He raised the bar as well. And then Lzzy just came in here and just really raised the bar and showed us another side of what this band could be. So, it doesn’t necessarily have to be a male singer in Skid Row. The options are wide open. And like I said, there’s so much talent out there, but we just wanna make sure that we make the right choice and that we can bring the band to another level. That’s the hope.”
Pressed about whether anything has changed in terms of his thoughts about a possible reunion with classic era frontman, Sebastian Bach, Snake said, “Well, the answer has been the same for — I don’t know — 20,000 years now. It’s not gonna happen. And I say the same thing every time. I’m thankful that people have such an interest in wanting to see that happen, but I also have to reiterate that this is about being happy in the situation that you’re in. So I’ll speak for myself personally.
First of all, I do need to say something too, is that the reason that this isn’t happening is because there’s three of us — myself, Scotti [Hill, Skid Row guitarist] and Rachel [Bolan, Skid Row bassist] — who’ve had conversations about this, and we’ve all been on the same page that we don’t wanna go down that road again. We just — we don’t.”
“Rachel has taken a beating over this through the years,” Sabo continued. “He’s the one who’s been blamed for this. ‘Oh, it’s Rachel‘s ego.’ ‘It’s this and that.’ No, that’s a load of bullshit. That is not true. And I feel bad because he’s really, really had to shoulder that blame and has never said anything derogatory or anything like that. But you know what? The truth of the matter is that Rachel, Scotti and myself have continually felt the same way, that we enjoy being happy in this band and we’re really happy.”
“It’s been such a great experience for the last however, 35 years, everything, all the ups, all the downs, everything, but we just don’t wanna revisit that particular aspect of our history,” he explained. “I love the songs, [I] love a lot of the memories, [I am] not fond of some of the memories, but just as individuals and as a collective, that’s just how we feel. So this is not on Rachel. And this has nothing to do with anyone’s ego or anything like that. So that’s just gotta be clear. Again, for anyone to sit there and make assumptions that this is Rachel Bolan saying ‘nope,’ it’s not. It’s the three of us, and we’ve all collectively sat there and just said that we don’t wanna do it. We just don’t wanna do it. And we wish everybody all the best.”
He added, “We’ve been just ripped apart by ex-members of the band and stuff — ripped apart. Some really sh-tty stuff [has been] said about all of us. And we just choose not to [respond]. It’s not who I am. It’s not who we are. We won’t go down that road. We just wanna play music and be happy. This has really never been about a monetary aspect of things because it’s known that we’ve been offered a good amount of money to do shows together and to reunite [with Sebastian] and whatever, but it’s just never been about the money, man. I choose my happiness, my willingness to continue to be a really good friend to my best friends and a really good husband and a really good dad and bandmate and person. And I don’t wanna endanger that in any way. So the people that we choose to play with, those choices are made in order to keep those particular things in line for all of us.”
22 Responses
Bach..needs to let it go and just be happy with what he’s got…they seem to…
Let’s protest and not buy tickets for their shows until they get Sebastian back !!!!
LMAO
As many singers they have gone through you would think at some point maybe they would realize Snake is the problem .
Ray: That’s exactly what I started thinking. Who is the common denominator…
Hello all,
It seems that common denominator keeps changing. I recall when everyone was blaming Bolan, and that went on for decades. Now it seems, well at least in here, the bullseye is on Snake. Additionally, because Hill is hardly ever interviewed, or he chooses to remain more private, he escapes fan’s judgement, on this issue.
Quite frankly, it really doesn’t matter who the dissenter is, whether it is one, two or all three original members, the real issue seems to be Sebastian.
As I have written many times before, they could have reunited with him at anytime, and that has never occurred. They continue to seek other vocalists and state that happiness is more important to them, than money. It sucks for fans, but I think once Bach was expelled, it seems to be a fait accompli.
Dana, excellent post. If they’re happy hiring a new singer over and over, it’s their choice. If the Skid guys want to end up in bars until they retire, so be it. Their disdain for Sebastian is evident, but we still love him. He is the voice of that band. The fans lifted them up, and we can bring them down. It happened to Kiss. It got to the point where they had zero options, they were losing a lot of money on the Revenge tour. If lifestyles aren’t important to Skid Row, that’s cool. At the end of the day, we have the final say over whether the band is still good, or wanted at all.
Mr. RN’R,
Exactly right, Simmons claims the fans are the boss, and they are, always vote with your wallets.
I also agree, no matter what he is like as a person, there is no arguing that Sebastian Bach, is one of the greatest hard rock frontmen, of all time.
those Skid guys dislike Bach more than they like themselves…i.e., they’d rather drive a Mondeo and see Bach in a beater than them all driving Bentleys…I don’t get that thinking…it gets into being a hater…I mean, what did Bach do? it would have to be really bad.