Skid Row is back!

With the release of the new single "The Gang's all here", Skid Row has returned. There's only one question. Does anybody care? Erik Gronwall of "Sweden's Idol" fame is the latest in a long line of replacement singers. Thus far, none of them have managed to get the band back into the limelight of the mainstream music scene.

Skid Row first exploded into the eye of the pop culture storm in 1989 with the release of their self-titled debut album. The four singles and their accompanying music videos from the album thrust the band into rock stardom almost immediately. Their legend only grew as they tore across the country on sold out concert tours in support of Bon Jovi and Aersomith. The band were just what the rock and roll world needed at the time. Their heavy but slickly produced songs were the perfect bridge between the more glammy, style over substance, make-up metal of the mid to late eighties.

Vocalist Sebastian Bach not only had the perfect slim, blonde, poster boy look that magazines like Hit Parader and Tiger Beat were looking for, but also a voice that was undeniable. To top it all off, he had the pissed off, devil may care attitude that made every pimple faced, denim clad, teenage boy in the world want to be him. With their next album, 1990's "Slave to the grind", the band only got louder and heavier. Led by singles like "Monkey Business" and "Slave to the Grind", it went on to even greater success than the first album. It was the first heavy metal album to ever debut at number one on the Billboard album chart.

With it's release, the band hit the road in support of Guns N' Roses, before going on to their own extremely successful headling tour. Soon after, the Grunge revolution was in full swing, and bands like Skid Row were almost instantly out of favor. Undaunted by the surrounding change in the musical landscape, Skid Row stayed on their natural projectory, getting a little darker and heavier on 1995's "Subhuman Race". While hardcore fans like myself, found the album to be great, and the natural evolution of the bands trajectory, the general public did not. Unfortunately, it was not well recieved.

As with anything, hard times have a way of shining a bright light on the cracks within a relationship. This is as true with a band as it is with a marriage. There was already tension between the New Jersey based band, and their Canadian singer. As times got tough, this tension apparently built into distrust and disdain. Sebastian was a controversial character.

A lot of the trouble the band would find itself in from time to time was due to Bach's juvenile behavior. Bach was a loose cannon, and you never knew what he may do or say from one minute to the next. Whether it was jumping into the crowd, and inadvertantly kicking a teenage girl in the face, or appearing on stage wearing a t-shirt bearing the words "Aids kills fags dead", the band always seemed to be trying to clean up some kind of public mess he had created. Even on their first big tour, opening for Bon Jovi, there was some sort of incident in which Bach apparently showed disrespect for the ever-sensitive Jon Bon Jovi, which almost got them thrown off the tour. One can almost understand why they finally felt the need to separate themselves from him. But the truth is, chemistry is very important in a band... and with Bach, they had that.

What founders of the band Dave Sabo and Rachel Bolan seemed to misunderstand, was that Bach's wild, sophomoric, teetering on the edge personality and outlandish antics are what made much of the rock and roll fan base of the age of excess love him. While these behaviors made fans idolize the singer, the band saw his behavior as a liability. Maybe they were right, but no one can argue that his dismissal was a positive development for the band's career. Since they fired him in 1996, the band has never been the same, and their career trajectory since then tells the story. After canning Bach they just faded into obscurity for the next couple of years.

Skid Row resurfaced in 1999 with a replacement singer, Johnny Solinger. Solinger was basically unknown to the rock audience at large. He had released a string of independent albums with his band "Solinger", but had never managed to break into anything even resembling the mainstream. The band released it's first ablum with Johnny in 2003. The album was titled "Thickskin" and was the first original material fans got to hear with Solinger on vocals. It did not set the world on fire.

Skid Row found themselves in a position where they had gone from number one albums and playing in arenas and stadiums, to not even charting and playing at the local dive bar. Solinger was just less than in every category when measured against Bach. He's not a horrible singer, but he's not even in the same galaxy as Bach's soaring, boundless, voice. He had blonde hair and tattoos, but he was not the pin up boy that teenage girls the world over would melt into a pool of jelly over. He wasn't a statue on stage, but nobody would ever compare his presence as a front man to that of the explosive, high energy, Sebastian Bach. No matter how hard the band tried to sell him as the greatest thing since sliced bread, the fans just wouldn't buy it.

In 2006 the band would release it's second album with vocalist Johnny Solinger. Titled "Revolutions Per Minute", the album was a step up from "Thickskin", but it was still nothing to write home about. They managed to get an opening slot on some major tours, and played a few festival dates, but as far as touring on their own, they were still in the clubs. This has been the case basically ever since. Then it happened, the band parted ways with Solinger.

What happened next would be funny if it wasn't so sad. In 2015, the band announced Solinger's replacement, Tony Harnell. This time at least, fans had an idea of who the guy was. Tony was well known from his time as vocalist for the band TNT. So fans knew what they were getting, and were actually excited about it. Sadly, it was to be short lived. Skid Row announced suddenly in 2016, that they had yet another new singer. This time, vocal duties would fall to Dragonforce vocalist ZP Theart. This was welcome news indeed. Not only did ZP have a voice that could rival that of Sebastian Bach, but he was also a fireball on the stage. For the first time in a long time, fans were legitimately excited. But this too was to be short lived.

Now we find ourselves here. With the news that Skid Row has yet another new singer. Erik Gronwall of "Sweden Idol" fame is taking the reigns this time. The band has a new single on rock radio, a new album titled "The Gangs all here", and fans seem to be taking to it pretty well. I think the real question is this. Will Gronwall be around long enough for it to be worth our time to even pay attention? Only time will tell.