Rachel Bolan of Skid Row on Sebastian Bach

A classic Blast cover with Baz & Bolan!

Note the yellow stripe, clearly this is old news.

 

Rachel Bolan of Skid Row on Sebastian Bach “Everyone has a beef with him honestly”

Posted By: Metal Sludge

Contributor: John Parks

Skid Row —  Rachel Bolan piles on Sebastian Bach with more on why the band will likely never reunite with their ‘glory days’ singer. It seems Bolan will gladly move forward with Johnny Solinger and it seems he has put Sebastian Bach – firmly in the rear view mirror. Along with the rest of the key members of Skid Row (Dave ‘Snake’ Sabo & Scotti Hill).

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As someone approaching my 40th birthday I have to marvel at the resolve, focus and energy of a guy like Rachel Bolan.  If you’ve seen him onstage recently, spoken with him or heard any of his latest songwriting you would be hard pressed to believe the guy just celebrated his 47th birthday a couple months ago.  He is still, in so many ways,  the same middle finger extending, snarling, punk rock fan and rock and roller you came to love in the late 80s/early 90s.  By now we all know the story, Rachel and Dave “The Snake” Sabo formed Skid Row back in 1986 and became one of the biggest groups of the hard rock MTV era.  What we didn’t know and couldn’t predict back then was that 27 years later the band would still be shaking concert stages and stereos with the same ferocity they exhibited back in their dirty Jersey formative years.  Conversation and interest about the band remains as lively and volatile as ever these days and fans of all generations have been waiting to hear the band’s new EP “United World Rebellion, Chapter 1″. (Click Here To Pre-Order)   It’s Skid Row’s firstnew release since 2006 and Rachel recently called to fill me in on everything going down, read on…..

Legendary Rock Interviews:  Thanks for taking the time to talk to us man, have you been bustin ass on interviews all day for the new EP?

Rachel Bolan:  Actually, this is the first one I’ve done.  It’s gonna start up as soon as we go overseas but I wanted to do this one before we split because the schedule is gonna be crazy once we get over there.

LRI: I literally just listened to the album a couple hours ago for the first time and I am diggin it.  It doesn’t sound like a dated production but it almost feels like it picks up where “Slave To The Grind” left off.

Rachel:  That’s awesome.

LRI:  Was it on your mind that you wanted it to have that spirit but have the feel of the 2013 band?

Rachel:  You know, I’d like to say that we are that smart and we could think of that (laughs) but I think we knew we should go back to our roots.  Our last record (2006′s “Revolutions Per Minute”) was so experimental.  People thought it was weird.  We did too but it’s just a thing where every now and then in your career you’ve gotta make a weird record.  When Snake and I were writing for this first EP we purposely didn’t listen to the radio and instead we listened to the stuff that influenced us growing up, the stuff that basically helped us write the first two records.  That’s how we did it this time around and this is what came out of it and the more stuff we write, the more it feels like we’re back in the groove of things.  It’s weird man, when you have a career that spans a long time it becomes really easy to get far away from your roots.  If you make a conscious effort to try and pay attention to what your musical roots were it seems like stuff starts coming out.  I’m really glad to hear you say that about “Slave” because as we were recording that we all kept saying that like “”Man, this is kinda like “Slave To The Grind”.  We are stoked.

LRI:  Who produced it?

Rachel:  We had a couple of different engineers working with us but Snake and I produced it for the most part.

 

Skid Row still putting asses in the seats with Johnny Solinger on the mic

LRI:  I haven’t talked to you guys since I spoke with Johnny Solinger and was subsequently banned from all future events involving your former lead singer …who couldn’t remember your name

Rachel:  (laughs) Right……

LRI:  Do you think at this point that whole lead singer conversation is sort of a dead issue?  Johnny has been on enough albums and played enough live shows that I would hope people have gotten the point.

Rachel:  I agree.  Johnny’s been in the band for almost 14 years I believe  people  understand that he’s the lead singer of Skid Row.  It’s pretty obvious.  These EPs will be the third album, so to speak, that we’ve put out with Johnny.  Granted, there has been a lot of time between each one but really, it was like that with the first two albums as well.  That’s just how we work and that’s part of the reason we’ve decided to release a series of EPs instead of one full length record.  Johnny is here to stay and if people aren’t getting it by now, they are probably never gonna get it.  I mean, I know people who still won’t listen to AC/DC because Bon Scott isn’t singing (laughs) which is just absolutely ridiculous but….true.

A reunion doesnt seem likely for the Skid Row glory years line up.

LRI:  I heard Snake on Eddie Trunk  a few days back clarify a few of the reunion rumors that were kind of floated out there last year which was nice because one of the things that is consistently mentioned by bystanders is that you were the lone holdout of the reunion and everyone else is on board.  Obviously you can give me a “No comment”  and I totally understand, but I still want to ask you directly for those fans who continue to claim this.  Is there any truth to the sentiment that there is some exclusive beef that is is strictly between you and him?

Rachel:  I’d really rather not talk about him but I can say I think everybody has a beef with him honestly.  I know what it’s like from this side, meaning Snake, Scotti and myself and I know all of our feelings towards that but we just choose to ignore his comments because it really doesn’t matter.

To read the full interview with Rachel Bolan go to LegendaryRockInterviews

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