New SKID ROW Vocalist JUSTIN SARGENT: 'The Song I'm Most Excited To Sing Is 'I Remember You''

SKID ROW has shared a new video in which the band's new singer, Broadway veteran Justin Sargent, spoke about his addition to the group, more than two and a half years after the departure of Erik Grönwall. Regarding how he landed the SKID ROW gig, Justin — who made his stage debut in 2011 in the hard rock jukebox musical "Rock Of Ages", as well as appearing in "Bonnie & Clyde" and as the lead in the famously troubled superhero musical "Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark" — said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Every year I do this big charity event in New York City called 'Rockers On Broadway'. It's an event that was started and founded by Pete Townshend and my good friend Donnie Kehr. And I did the event like I always do, and the next day I get this e-mail from [SKID ROW's manager] Robby [Hoffman] at Primary Wave saying, 'Hey, I represent the band SKID ROW. Would you have any interest in meeting the guys? We're looking for a new singer.' And I was, like, 'Are you kidding me? Yes, of course. That'd be amazing.' So he put me in touch with Rachel [Bolan, SKID ROW bassist]. I live in [New] Jersey, and so I just drove down to Rachel's place, and there was Rachel and Snake [SKID ROW guitarist Dave Sabo]. And we were just hanging out in a room for an afternoon. And we recorded three songs and sent them to the rest of the guys. And then [they were, like], 'We'll be in touch,' this kind of thing. And then a couple of months later, [they reached out and said], 'Hey, we've got this big campaign we're doing, looking for our next singer. We've got some guys coming down to get in a room together with the full band and go through the setlist. Would you come and do that?' And I was, like, 'Yeah, absolutely.' And I just kept thinking, 'This is the coolest thing that's ever happened to me. I mean, I've done some really cool things, but this is the coolest thing that's ever happened to me.' And after those two days in that rehearsal space going through this set, I just kept thinking, 'Well, if that's the furthest this goes, dream's achieved.' And from that moment on, those things just kind of kept happening. These milestones kept coming. And one day, Rachel asked, 'Hey, we got a couple of more questions for you. Do you mind if you get on a FaceTime with me and the rest of the guys?' I said, 'Sure.' And so I FaceTimed with them, and they were very coy about it. And Rachel said, 'I guess really the big question we have is how would you like to be the new lead singer of SKID ROW?' And I was, like, 'What? This is amazing.' And I made a lot of noise and it was really embarrassing. But it was just one of those moments that I will never forget. And I don't think they know this, but I actually — I snapped a screenshot of that moment and I kept it on my phone. So it'll probably be the Christmas card this year for these guys."

Reflecting on the first time he heard SKID ROW's music, Justin said: "Let me start from the beginning. I was raised by two very cool parents who listened to a lot of classic rock — mostly late '60s and '70s rock: LED ZEPPELIN, THE WHO, QUEEN, PINK FLOYD. And that's kind of where I started developing my love for this art form, this medium. And I kind of started expanding my horizons, which included SKID ROW. And [SKID ROW's] 'Slave To The Grind' was the first album that I had ever heard from this band, and it just hit me like a ton of bricks. And then when I was doing 'Rock Of Ages' on Broadway, the song that I had playing every night that was my cue to go on stage — it was part of the pre-show music — was [SKID ROW's] '18 And Life'. And that song, to me, oh, 500 shows in, represented this moment of, like, 'Cool, I get to go out there and do something that I love. I get to go out there and sing rock music for a couple thousand people.' And it's one of those things that every time I hear that song, it just makes me feel like I'm doing what I love to do, and there's no better feeling."

Regarding how he first got into rock music, Justin said: "My mom worked with the local newspaper in Tampa, Florida, and part of her job was to take out advertising clients to see all the concerts and sporting events. And so I got to tag along quite a bit. The first concert I ever saw — I was in eighth grade, and it was [THE WHO's 1973 rock opera] 'Quadrophenia'. And I will never forget sitting there and just being absolutely blown away by what I was seeing, what I was hearing, what I was smelling. And from there it was... Then it was AEROSMITH, and then it was Alice Cooper. I sat second row at Ruth Eckerd Hall [in Clearwater] with my mom, seeing Alice Cooper, and I got just absolutely covered in blood. I saved the shoes that are absolutely covered in blood. I still have those shoes somewhere in my mom's attic somewhere. And just seeing those incredible performances and seeing these people who are doing the thing that they love the most in the world, it had such a big impact on me at such a young age. And that's when I knew that this is a dream that is coming true, and I just can't believe it."

Sargent also talked about his first time playing with SKID ROW, saying: "The first time I got in the room with the band was during that audition process. And honestly, the first moment was we were all sitting in the lobby of this rehearsal studio and just talking. And I just remember thinking, 'Oh, I know these guys. I know these guys.' They're so easy to hang with. And there was no lull in the conversation. We were laughing, we were joking. It just felt comfortable. And then that kind of carried over into the room, when it came time to do the audition. And I felt completely at ease and I felt like this is exactly where I'm supposed to be."

He continued: "One of the first things that I did, when I knew I was gonna be getting in the room with these guys, I watched as much as I could. I went on YouTube and I just watched… Over the years, I watched everybody that has been a part of this band. And the one thing that struck me and the one thing that stuck out to me was no matter how different each singer was that I was watching, it all sounded like SKID ROW. The first song I sang with the band was 'Slave To The Grind'. We just started the setlist and we just blew all the way through it without stopping — we did one song after another."

On the topic of which SKID ROW song he is most looking forward to performing, Justin said: "I think the song that I'm most excited to sing, quite honestly, is 'I Remember You'. And honestly, I think, for me at least, it's just got this great audience interaction in a way where they wanna sing with you, they wanna sing back at you. And every video that I've watched of all the various performances of that song, there's always been this incredible energy coming from the crowd back on to the stage during that song. And I think that's just a huge testament to the legacy of this band, what's come before and what we're definitely gonna be carrying over into this next chapter."

Elsewhere in the video, Justin talked in more detail about his Broadway career, saying: "Before joining SKID ROW, I was doing a lot of rock shows, especially on Broadway: 'Rock Of Ages', 'Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark', [which] was written by Bono and The Edge. 'Jesus Christ Superstar', which is one of the most incredible rock albums of all time. That original brown album is just iconic.

"A lot of the times when you're an actor or when you're a singer, your side job is waiting tables and catering and that kind of stuff," he explained. "And I was so lucky because what I got to do was sing with bands. I got to sing with all kinds of different bands all over the tri-state area here in Jersey, New York City, Long Island, even Connecticut sometimes. And I also did quite a bit of these rock symphony gigs where I'd get to sing 18 ZEPPELIN tunes with a full symphony. 'The St. Louis Symphony presents the music of LED ZEPPELIN', and I'd just go out there and have to do an insane amount of ZEPPELIN tunes in one evening. And we would do everything from ZEPPELIN to THE ROLLING STONES, THE WHO, PINK FLOYD, QUEEN — I mean, all those bands that I love so much. And so this has always been such a big part of my DNA, and my journey here has really been so organic, and it just makes this all feel so right."

During an appearance on the October 29 episode of SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk", Sabo talked about SKID ROW's singer search, explaining that "one of the biggest things for us, as it's kind of always been, is we need to get along with the people that we're sharing the stage with and sharing a bus with and sharing hotels with and so on and so forth. I mean, you're living together every moment of every day, basically. And so, for us, we wanted to make sure that we could laugh and could have conversations without feeling, like, 'I gotta get out of the room right now 'cause I can't stand this guy already.' And so all of those things are... I mean, obviously you want the person to be a great performer and great musician and whatnot, but, man, being able to get in a room with a person and sit down and talk about their family or talk about whatever, but just be able to talk and get along and laugh, because this whole process is... Why we do this is because it's a joyful experience. That's why we're in a band, because we love to make music and we love to create music and to perform music for people, and you wanna do that in an environment where the smile on your face is for real. It's not bullshit. It's for real. And so having spent a bunch of time, all of us together, we realized pretty quickly that if this didn't work out musically, that we could still all hang with each other and still be buds. And so that was a really easy thing to get past very quickly. And then you get in a room and you're jamming and stuff, and then right off the bat [Justin is], like, 'Let's do the whole set.' And we're, like, 'We're only prepared to do, like, three or four songs.' He's, like, 'I learned the whole set, man. Let's go.' And so we started right off in the beginning, 'Slave To The Grind' on through to 'Youth Gone Wild'."

Snake continued: "Look, everybody says, 'Oh, it felt great since day one,' and all that. But the truth of the matter is it wasn't a struggle. It wasn't pulling teeth. It was, like, 'Wow, this is really cool.' I'm looking forward to going down and jamming at Dave DiPietro's place in Hazlet and running through the set as if we had been doing it for quite some time. And, again, to have the joy in doing what you do is really... Especially at this stage of our careers, man, you just wanna be happy. You just wanna go out and have fun, and hopefully that's infectious and that translates to the audience. And I think it will. I hope it will. I mean, we'll obviously do our very best, but so far it's been a great experience. This whole process has been... There's been nothing tedious about it. There's been nothing that's been gut-wrenching or anything. It's just been a lot of fun. And so to be able to have that sort of feeling 40 years into a band's career, that's pretty humbling, man. Pretty special. And I can speak for everybody when I say we're all very, very thankful for the moment that we're living in right now."

Snake also addressed SKID ROW's touring plans, saying: "We've been idle for a long time — too long. But it was well worth the wait. This whole process, we were very meticulous. We met with a lot of great people. But we wanted to make sure that we weren't just jumping into something, and that's kind of one of the reasons why we've been gone for as long as we've been gone. But it was well worth it. And so we're just looking forward to getting back and doing what we do, which is play live and create music."

Asked when fans can expect a new album of original SKID ROW material with Justin on vocals, Snake said: "It won't be out before the dates start. We wanna get out and play, but we continually are writing. And we also wanna see what Justin brings to the table as well. At the end of the day, it's 'best idea wins'. That's the way it's always been. It's just very much five guys throwing their ideas into the middle of the room, and whatever works best works best. And, obviously, Rachel and I have this partnership that we've had since the very beginning, and it's worked out great, obviously. We're very fortunate in that respect. And, again, we still have so much fun doing what we do, creating together. So this whole process is going to be a little bit different because Justin's in the band now, and let's see what he brings to the table. And I'm sure he'll come up with some great stuff. But, again, we just wanna make sure that it's the best material that we could possibly put out there. We don't wanna rush into anything. We're just dying to play, is really what it comes down to. We're dying to go out and jam."

SKID ROW announced Sargent as the band's new singer on October 29 via a cover of THE WHO's "Won't Get Fooled Again".

Born in Murphysboro, Illinois and raised in Florida, Justin has been performing since high school. Since he graduated, he has been lucky enough to make a living doing what he loves. He has performed alongside music legends like John Legend, Alice Cooper, Sara Bareilles, Dee Snider, Kip Winger, Graham Russell, and has been a guest singer with the band AIR SUPPLY. Justin has toured the country singing everything from QUEEN to Andrew Lloyd Webber. His TV/film appearances include "Jesus Christ Superstar: Live" on NBC, "Law & Order: SVU", "Mr. Robot", "Delocated", "Royal Pains" and more.

Justin's addition to SKID ROW followed an extensive worldwide search that attracted overwhelming interest from singers across the globe. Earlier this year, SKID ROW partnered with leading music retailer Sweetwater to further extend the search and engage the global music community.

Grönwall exited SKID ROW two and a half years ago. The now-38-year-old Swedish-born musician, who was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in March 2021, announced his departure from SKID ROW in March 2024, saying that it had become increasingly "difficult to prioritize" his health and full recovery as the lead singer of the group.

Erik was SKID ROW's fourth frontman since Sebastian Bach's departure.

Bach fronted SKID ROW until 1996, when he was fired. Instead of throwing in the towel, the remaining members took a hiatus and went on to play briefly in a band called OZONE MONDAY. In 1999, SKID ROW reformed and, after a bit of shuffling over the years, featured a lineup consisting of bassist Rachel Bolan, guitarists Dave "Snake" Sabo and Scotti Hill, alongside drummer Rob Hammersmith and singer Johnny Solinger. SKID ROW fired Solinger over the phone in April 2015, a few hours before announcing ex-TNT vocalist Tony Harnell as his replacement. Eight months later, Harnell exited the band and was replaced by South African-born, British-based singer ZP Theart, who previously fronted DRAGONFORCE, TANK and I AM I. Theart was fired from SKID ROW in February 2022 and was replaced by Grönwall, who was previously a member of the Swedish hard rock band H.E.A.T