RACHEL BOLAN On SKID ROW's Ongoing Singer Search: 'There's A Few Guys That Have Really Piqued Our Interest, For Sure'

In a new interview with the "Neil Jones Rock Show" on TotalRock, SKID ROW bassist Rachel Bolan once again addressed the band's recently launched first-of-its-kind partnership with USA company Sweetwater, the world's leading online retailer of musical instruments and pro-audio equipment, to search worldwide for SKID ROW's next lead vocalist. The collaboration invites singers from around the world to audition for the opportunity to front one of rock's most enduring and respected acts.

Bolan said about SKID ROW's singer search (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Well, we got video submissions from over 300 people. And we've also had some outside submissions of people telling us, like friends in other bands, 'Oh, I saw this band. You gotta go check this kid out,' and stuff like that. So, we're at the point… We keep doing it in phases. We watch the video, and there's a lot of really, really good singers out there. A lot of them are great, but they're not the right fit musically for SKID ROW. But there are a few. So we'll get the video submissions. Then we'll go to, 'Okay, let's get in a room with a few people over the course of four days,' bring in two or three people a day. And that's where we're at now. We're moving to that phase with a few guys. We're gonna bring them in and work for a couple days, see how a live feel to it works. 'Cause you're in the studio — you know how it is; you could do a million takes and make it perfect. But we wanna see what it feels like in a room. And then it's also — it's the hangout. It's the hang. It's, like, 'Are you cool?' And see how the hang is. So we're at that phase with a few guys. And we have the luxury of time right now. We have no tours booked. We're not in the middle of making a record, so we don't have to make any rush decisions. But there's a few guys that have really piqued our interest, for sure."

This past January, Rachel spoke to the "Rockstrap" podcast about the band's ongoing singer search following the departure of Erik Grönwall more than two 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.

"We have a couple of guys on our radar," Bolan said. "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."

When one of the interviewers noted that SKID ROW has had especially bad luck with securing permanent singers, Rachel said: "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."

Last September, Rachel told Lisa Karkos of the Nashville On The Rocks podcast/show about how he and the rest of SKID ROW are going about looking for a new vocalist: "It's kind of become a thing with SKID ROW, 'cause we've had quite a few [singers]. But we're going to do something pretty big to find one, find the [right] person [to front the band].

"We have a certain criteria, and I think the main part, you have to have strong pipes," Bolan explained. "You have to be able to tour a lot. And you have to be a good hang. I think that's the main thing, is being a good hang.

"It's really hard doing it as long as we've been doing it, and other bands and artists could back me up on this, [when] you're doing it for this long, the hang becomes really necessary. When you get someone in there that is out for themselves and doesn't care about anything that's going on around them, it's tough.

"So that's where we're at," Rachel added. "We've auditioned some people, and some people came in and they were great — they were really great. But you have four guys that are looking at someone, and it's, like, one guy might think they're perfect, another guy might think they're almost perfect, another person might think, 'Eh,' wasn't feeling it. So all four of us — Rob Hammersmith, Snake, Scotti Hill and myself — we need to be a hundred percent on board."

Rachel went on to say that he and his SKID ROW bandmates are "not gonna rush anything" when it comes to selecting the group's next vocalist. "We have the luxury of time on our side," he explained. "Maybe not our ages [laughs], but we have the luxury of time. We don't have any tours set up or anything like that, that we have to just like kind of get someone in place… Our booking agent says those shows are still gonna be there. If it takes two years, three years, whatever, those shows are gonna be there, dude. And it makes you feel good, because when you're as close to it as I am, it's, like, you don't look at us, like, 'You guys are fucking SKID ROW, man. You can do whatever the fuck you want.' I look at it as, like, 'We're SKID ROW. What the fuck are we gonna do?' We just told ourselves we're not gonna stress. If it takes a long time, it takes a long time. And like I said, we've had people down that we've dug a lot. Something was there. Maybe there was pieces missing, an element missing, but it is what it is. And we're meeting a lot of really cool people along the way — a lot of really cool people who I'm, like, 'Wow.' I'll listen to some of their songs, and it's, like, you look at someone and you're, like, 'Maybe we could work together on something else or write songs together.'"

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.