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Dave 'Snake' Sabo (Skid Row) Interview

© Chad Bowar

Skid Row got their start in New Jersey back in 1986 by former Bon Jovi guitarist Dave "Snake" Sabo and bassist Rachel Bolan. The next year they added guitarist Scotti Hill, drummer Rob Affuso and vocalist Sebastian Bach. The group's 1989 self titled debut sold 5 million copies in the US and spawned the hit singles "Youth Gone Wild", "18 and Life" and "I Remember You". 1991's Slave To The Grind debuted at number 1 on the Billboard charts and went multi-platinum, making Skid Row the first heavy metal band to ever debut at number one. In 1995 grunge was on the top of the charts and Skid Row released Subhuman Race, which didn't make much of a dent in the charts. Among a lot of tension between Sebastian Bach and the rest of the band, Skid Row broke up.

In 1999 Sabo, Bolan and Hill decided to reform the band. They hired Texas singer Johnny Solinger to be the new lead vocalist and longtime friend Phil Varone to be the band's drummer. In 2000 the newly reformed Skid Row landed the coveted opening slot on the Kiss "Farewell Tour". The band has been touring ever since, and will release their latest album and the first with Solinger as the lead singer, Thickskin, on August 5th. A DVD chronicling the making of the new album, called Under The Skin - The Making of Thickskin will be released in July.

Skid Row is currently on tour with Poison and Vince Neil, and I recently spoke with Dave "Snake" Sabo as the band was headed on its bus to Columbus, Nebraska.

Chad Bowar: How is the summer tour with Poison and Vince Neil going so far?

Dave "Snake" Sabo: It's been better than I ever could have expected. Everybody gets along great, people have been coming out in droves, between 6000 and 10,000 people a night. We all get along great and hang out together, it's a great camaraderie out here, no egos, no bullshit.

What is your setlist like on this tour?

We get 40 minutes, which is nine songs, so we play seven old songs and two new ones.

What can fans expect from your upcoming CD Thickskin?

It's kinda tough to be objective, although we were given the opportunity to be objective on this record because we recorded it once, went out on tour, and then were able to sit and live with it and realize that wasn't exactly where we wanted to be. So having that objectivity, we were able to go back and make the necessary changes that we wanted. Now we have the record that we want. It's who we are in the year 2003. We still are who we are, but if you haven't grown and kept your ear to the ground, then you become redundant, and we're not interested in that.