SKID ROW's JOHNNY SOLINGER Tries To Recreate Band's Classic Songs Live As Fans Remember Them

Don de Leaumont of The Great Southern Brainfart recently conducted an interview with SKID ROW singer Johnny Solinger. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

The Great Southern Brainfart: I have to say that you've really done a great job with the older material. I mean, I know that Sebastian Bach is the "iconic" guy but at the end of it all, I just don't miss all that baggage and what not that came along with him being there.

Johnny: Thanks, man. Yeah, it's just those songs. It's not about Sebastian Bach. It's the songs that Snake [Dave Sabo, guitar] and Rachel [Bolan, bass] wrote is why this band is so memorable. I just try to make them my own and try to make them sound like how they remember them.

The Great Southern Brainfart: Congratulations on the release of "Rise Of The Damnation Army - United World Rebellion: Chapter Two". How does it feel to be a part of some of SKID ROW's best material since "Slave To The Grind"?

Johnny: I'll tell ya what, whenever we went in and started working on this stuff, you could tell right away that it was going to be special. I mean, nobody really cares too much about new releases, unless you're U2 and it's forced upon you. [laughs] When we started working on this new stuff, everyone was excited immediately. It seems like Rachel and Snake were going back to their roots; to what made them write music in the first place. To be a part of that and to sing on that stuff was really special. I can't believe how good it all turned out, and I really can't believe what they in store for us next with "United World Rebellion: Chapter Three". I was just very excited to do it.

The Great Southern Brainfart: I just think it's great that SKID ROW is putting out such great, new music when a lot of your peers are either putting out subpar material or just riding the wave of nostalgia. Do you feel that putting out new music that is of such a great quality kind of breaks the ties to being thought of as a mere nostalgic act?

Johnny: You know, I'm not sure. People put out new music all the time but nobody really cares. I agree with you in that some of these bands are just putting out new music just to go out and tour. In our case, I think we just want to put out something better than we did last time. There's an objective to top ourselves for sure. Snake and Rachel have gone back to the drawing board on some of the songs that they've written but they're still out to try and top themselves from the last time. I would hope that most other bands are trying to do that, but I just don't see it a lot.

The Great Southern Brainfart: From an opinionated fan, I sometimes feel like the later albums like "Thickskin" and "Revolutions Per Minute" saw SKID ROW trying to break away from what they originally were, but with these latest EPs they are really embracing the band that they originally were.

Johnny: Yeah, I think that's exactly what we're trying to. They really went back and remembered why they were making music in the first place and what kind of stuff would we listen to? I feel like we really captured that well. Trying to make music for others instead of trying to make music for yourself can be difficult. If you start trying to make music that you think people want to hear, instead of music that you really want to do, sometimes it can just go astray. Being with these guys for a decade and a half, they make music for themselves and we really managed to strike it on these last two albums.

Read the entire interview at The Great Southern Brainfart.