![]() ![]() Later on Sebastian got really drunk and threw a punch at this guy, missing him by about a foot.” But Rachel announced from the stage that we had found our new singer. “That first night, we hung out at this local bar and ended up jamming on 18 And Life and a few other songs,” Sabo continues. “But I wanted to make it, and none of us could stand the thought of seven more months looking for someone else.” ![]() Bolan now reveals that he had been warned of the singer’s volatility: “Somebody who’d been in the business for a while told me they foresaw lots of trouble down the road,” he relates. There was an altercation in a bar on the very night of his arrival. ![]() However, it didn’t take long for people to realise that as well as bringing along enormous positives, Bach also brought along pitfalls. But frontmen were supposed to have spirit, right?” The good thing was that he also had drive – and then some. “Sebastian was very obnoxious and loud, but we needed a singer. “He sang the songs so high that we had to reign him in, but after some work on his voice it all fell into place,” Bolan recalls. A mutual acquaintance put the newcomer, 19-year-old Sebastian Bach (born Sebastian Phillip Bierk, the Bahamas-born singer had cut his teeth with Kid Wikked, who recorded an album for Attic Records, then replaced Bret Kaiser in Madam X), in contact with Skid Row, and an audition quickly followed. Various industry people had seen a young singer jamming with Zakk Wylde, members of Twisted Sister and Kevin DuBrow of Quiet Riot at the wedding reception of photographer Mark Weiss. Atlantic, Geffen and A&M had all expressed an interest in signing the band, but made it plain that the line-up had to be right.Ī phone call came. John Corabi, later of Mötley Crüe, was offered the job. But original singer Matt Fallon, who had also briefly been with Anthrax, lacked the rest of Skid Row’s drive. The patronage of Jon and his guitarist Richie Sambora was guaranteed to bring them a degree of expectation, and Doc McGhee (then Bon Jovi’s manager) signed them up.īolan says the group “pounded the New Jersey, New York and Connecticut scenes till people got sick of us”. Right until the day Skid Row signed their first recording contract, the band rehearsed in the Bolan family’s garage in Toms River, NJ, using kerosene heaters to keep them warm in the winter – and with the TV in the house turned to full volume to drown out the racket. Jon came to see us live, critiqued us and provided the benefit of his experience, which was invaluable.” “It was obvious that Jon was gonna get there first, but he said that when our band was right he would go out on a limb for us,” Sabo relates. ![]() He and school pal Jon Bongiovi (who you may have heard of) had made a pact as seven-year-olds to become rock stars, swearing that whoever made it first would use their influence to help the other. Sabo, too, had decided his own destiny at an early age. “Whether you’re an artist, athlete or musician, it’s there inside you and you can’t shake it off.” “Being an entertainer is something you’re born with, not something you can go to school for,” he maintains. Bolan had played gigs since he was 16, sometimes having to be sneaked into bars in a flight case because he was underage, and there was never in any doubt in his mind that he would make the grade.īad boys running wild, the classic Skid Row line-up in the early 1990s (Image credit: Getty Images) It also helped that Kiss and Van Halen were a common denominator.”īolan proposed Scotti Hill (born Scotti Mulvehill) from a previous group he’d been in, and when their original choice as drummer was jailed for a stabbing, Sabo brought in Affuso from one of his own earlier bands. “When it came to writing we very quickly realised that while we both came from different musical backgrounds – me from Judas Priest and Iron Maiden, while Rachel’s roots are in The Ramones – our styles complemented each other. “This guy walked in wearing a red beret and a pink leather jacket. “I’ll never forget that moment,” Sabo recalls fondly. The Skid Row story began in 1986, with a chance meeting between Dave Sabo and Rachel Bolan (real name James Southworth) in the New Jersey guitar shop where the former worked. ![]()
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