Legendary rockers Skid Row are still auditioning singers following the untimely exit of previous vocalist Erik Gronwall due to the frontman’s health issues. The band’s longtime classic vocalist Sebastian Bach hasn’t been invited back to the fold despite Gronwall’s exit and many rumors that it would eventually happen.
Last year, Halestorm singer Lzzy Hale filled in for the band on select dates, but due to her touring commitments with her own band said she would be unable to fill the role full time.
In a new interview with the “Going Off Track” podcast, Skid Row bassist Rachel Bolan shared what he thinks was the band’s biggest mistake, and it didn’t have anything to do with what has seemingly been their ongoing issues with keeping a singer. Rather, it had to do with releasing a single that he felt was too heavy for the masses to accept on a mainstream level.
“It was very organic, the heaviness, just shifting to that heavier side,” Bolan said of the band’s 1991 album “Slave To The Grind” as compared to their 1989 self-titled debut. “Our biggest mistake, and I’m saying ‘our’ — I disagreed with the decision, so I’m just putting that on record — was releasing ‘Slave To The Grind’ as a single, the song ‘Slave To The Grind’. Radio didn’t touch it. Our male fanbase went up. The female fanbase dried up. They all but disappeared. And then we took Pantera on the road, and it was mainly guys at the show. But we love Pantera.”
Bolan continued: “But anyway, with ‘Slave To The Grind’, we came out with ‘Monkey Business’. It went breaker in two weeks, so we had a certified hit. We’re on a f*ckin roll now. Radio jumped on, before we even released the second single, or even thought of a second single, the radio jumped on ‘Quicksand Jesus’. And I was, like, ‘This is great. This is awesome.’ I go, ‘This is our ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’.’ I mean, the song is six minutes long. And I’m not saying it’s as good as ‘Bohemian’; you know what I mean. I’m, like, ‘This is great.’ Somebody — I think our manager at the time — said, ‘We shouldn’t release that song second.’ And we had someone in the band that agreed with him. And I’m, like, ‘But the radio’s already playing it. Don’t we see what’s going on?’ So someone came up with the fantastic idea — ’cause Snake and I were the radio guys; we would do all the interviews; we did the rounds — ‘why don’t you and Snake start calling and ask them not to play it, until we decide on a single?’ I’m, like, ‘Are you serious?’ ‘Yeah.’ So, I did as I was told and we called and literally asked radio stations to not play that song because we were coming with a different single. The responses we got were exactly what I thought. I had one guy yell at me, one program director yell at me. I forget which market it was, but it was a major market; I think it was out near Chicago. He goes, ‘Are you out of your f*cking mind?’ And I go, ‘Yeah, I think so.’ And then we released ‘Slave To The Grind’.
According to Bolan, radio and the band’s fanbase largely rejected the tune at the time. “And radio wasn’t only, ‘We’re not playing this. It’s too heavy for our listenership,’” Bolan explained. “They were also, like, ‘We’re not playing it. And f*ck you.’ And then we tried again with ‘Quicksand Jesus’. Everyone was, like, ‘Too late, too late.’ And that was pretty much it for radio for that record. We had videos, we had ‘Wasted Time’ and ‘Slave’ and ‘Monkey’. And what else did we have? Was that it for that record? I forget. But, yeah, that was a huge mistake. And I remember being in that hotel room, ‘We can’t release ‘Slave To The Grind’ as a single.’ And I remember our manager at the time going, ‘You guys can do whatever the f*ck you want at this point.’ Big mistake. Huge mistake. But, yeah, that that was our biggest mistake. I just remember seeing it in the room and seeing a few guys thinking it was a great idea, and I’m, like, ‘It’s not a great idea. This is not a great idea.’ And I just got ignored, and that was it. And it was done. But I think that record would have sold a lot more had we stayed the course and let someone dictate for us, in a good way. But it is what it is.”
