Metal, Hardcore, Indie, Rock
The debut solo album “Gargoyle Of The Garden State” by Skid Row bassist Rachel Bolan will be available on earMUSIC on June 12, as per Blabbermouth. In addition to Corey Taylor (Slipknot, Stone Sour), Nuno Bettencourt (Extreme), Danko Jones, Steve Conte (New York Dolls), Damon Johnson (Brother Cane, Lynyrd Skynyrd), and Rachel‘s Skid Row bandmates Dave “Snake” Sabo (guitar), Scott Hill (guitar), and Rob Hammersmith (drums), the LP was produced by Nick Raskulinecz, who previously worked on Skid Row’s 2022 album “The Gang’s All Here”). Bolan recently spoke about “Gargoyle Of The Garden State” on the “Rockstrap” podcast, which is hosted by rock and roll comedian Don Jamieson and musician and radio veteran Keith Roth.
It doesn’t sound like Skid Row. I’m doing most of the singing. I’ve got a few guests on there. Our buddy Steve Conte is singing a song. The first single Danko Jones is singing with me. And then there’s another song that Corey Taylor sang. So there’s that. Snake played a solo. Scotti played a solo. Damon Johnson played a bunch of solos. Nuno Bettencourt played a solo. Hammersmith played drums on the whole thing. It’s a whole bunch of buds on there, and it’s cool, man. I’m really happy with the way it turned out. Nick produced it. He produced the [last] Skid Row record, and every worth-a-shit Active Rock band that’s out there, he produced. He’s so great to work with because he is such a fan of music.
When we did my solo record, I played most of the guitars, most of the singing, all the bass. I didn’t do drums and I didn’t do some of the solos, so most of the solos. So it was a whole different dynamic that way [from making a Skid Row album with Nick], because he was just talking to me. So it made it go a lot quicker. Stuff didn’t have to clear the committee’s vote and stuff and shit like that. So it was cool, man. And to see him excited about something that I wrote again, it was awesome, man. It was a really, really fun process.
Will there be covers on the album?
[I’m] doing one. I’m not gonna tell you [what it is]… I did it just for the hell of it because I heard it on the radio and I was, like, ‘Man, I didn’t know that was them.’ And so I was, like, ‘It’s a cool tune.’ And I was, like, ‘I’m gonna completely change this — not change the chord structure or lyrics or anything, but I’m gonna change the vibe of it.’ So I did it, expecting the band never to be heard from again, and then they were. And I’m, like, ‘Oh, okay.’
Rachel continued by saying that he was “getting ready to shoot the first video” for “Gargoyle Of The Garden State” and that the lead single from the album would be released in the upcoming months. Rachel also discussed Skid Row’s ongoing singer search after Erik Grönwall left the band over two years ago during the “Rockstrap” conversation. The 38-year-old Swedish artist, who was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in March 2021, announced his exit from Skid Row in March 2024, stating that it had grown more “difficult to prioritize” his health and full recovery as the group’s lead vocalist.
We have a couple of guys on our radar. We’ve auditioned a few people, but we’re gonna do a big, gigantic… We were just waiting for the new year to start. Not so much an open call, but there’s a lot of people that wanna audition, so we’re just going — us and management and our producer, Nick Raskulinecz, we’re all going through each person saying, like, ‘Okay, let’s get in a room with this person. ‘This person [is a] little too young or a little too green,’ or ‘they can’t sing. Who told them they could sing?’ You get that too. So we have a couple of guys on our radar that we’re pretty excited about. So hopefully before the end of the year we’ll be back out on the road.
Bolan responded as follows when Keith pointed out that Skid Row had particularly struggled to find permanent singers.
It’s just one of those things, man. We had a really good thing going with Erik. I think the road was just too much for him, [with] his past health issues and whatnot, and it just didn’t work out, which was a bummer… He fit right in, and the fans loved him.
