Skid Row guitarist Snake Sabo and bassist Rachel Bolan discussed the process that led to Swedish vocalist Erik Gronwall replacing ZP Theart.

The line-up change was revealed last month, hours before their first performance together in Las Vegas. The band also released “The Gang’s All Here”, the first single featuring Gronwall, and the title track from their upcoming album.

“It got to a point where the situation with Zee kind of came up where we had to make a decision, because something still wasn’t working properly,” Sabo told Eddie Trunk on SiriusXM in a news story. interview. “And that’s when the idea for Erik came. And ironically enough, years ago, a good friend of mine, Rob Hoffman, said, “If anything ever happens, there’s this guy in Sweden. And he said the same thing to our manager years ago. And all of a sudden, as life went on, it came full circle and it became a reality.

Bolan said his thoughts on Gronwall began to crystallize in 2018 when Skid Row were touring Europe with the singer’s former band, HEAT “We would hear it every night from the locker room, and sometimes I was, like, ‘Dude, listen to this guy sing. He’s phenomenal,’” the bassist recalled. “Then I went behind the dash a couple of times…I was like, ‘Wow, when Skid Row gets some downtime? ‘stop, I’ll contact this guy and start a side project with him.’ … Over time and we got to the point where we were with ZP and all that … I said to Snake, “We have to check this guy out.”

The band, along with producer Nick Raskulinecz, sent Gronwall some songs “just with a guide vocal on it, and it came back about 24 hours later, and we were like, ‘Okay, that’s the guy . Get him on a plane. Let’s do this.'”

The album was completed by a file exchange with Gronwall working in Sweden. When he arrived in Las Vegas on March 22, four days before their first concert together, it was the first time he had met Skid Row as bandmates. Bolan revealed: “I just found out last night at dinner, he’s, like, ‘I’ve never checked in like this before!’ And I was like, ‘I’m so glad I didn’t know.’ As if my stress level wasn’t high enough – I would have burned out right there!

Sabo noted that he and the rest of the band couldn’t be happier with their new leader. “I’ve been on a high for probably the last month,” the guitarist admitted. “Just hearing the way the songs are coming out, seeing the enthusiasm in everyone, seeing the positive reactions we get playing them for people…I feel like I’m 25 again.