SKID ROW's RACHEL BOLAN Explains Recent Concert Postponements: 'Health Has To Come First'

In a new interview with Neil Jones of TotalRock, SKID ROW bassist Rachel Bolan discussed the band's decision to postpone a handful of shows on its December 2023 tour with BUCKCHERRY after several members of the band and crew contracted the flu and COVID-19. Asked how everyone is doing right now, Rachel said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Everyone's getting there. I was one of the first ones to get sick, and it was just one of those things. It was a short run. It was the third leg of the SKID ROW-BUCKCHERRY tour. And it's just one of those things. You're on a tour bus and one guy gets sick and it just runs like wildfire. I woke up and — you know when you wake up and you're, like, 'I'm sick. I have something.' And I tried to tough it out and first thought it was a flu, then ended up with COVID and then a couple other guys got the flu. And when it started spreading like really fast to our crew and stuff, we're, like, 'Well, we need to reschedule shows.' So this band just needs a break. We got a hard restart for 2024."

Bolan also addressed some of the other health issues which forced SKID ROW to either cancel or postpone shows in recent months, including SKID ROW guitarist Dave "Snake" Sabo's December 2022 neck surgery. He said: "Yeah, he had two discs replaced. And he's doing fine with that, but then he got sick on the road now."

Speaking specifically about SKID ROW singer Erik Grönwall, who was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in March 2021 and was declared cancer free six months later after receiving a bone marrow transplant, Rachel said: "He's good. He got a touch of the flu [this time around], I believe. I don't know whether he got COVID or the flu — I don't remember. But with him, we have to take extra precautions because he's immunocompromised. So, what could be the sniffles for you and I could turn out to be a really bad situation for him. So we have to take that into consideration. So we're, like, 'You know what? These shows, it sucks to have to reschedule, 'cause a lot of people made plans around it, but health has to come first.'"

Grönwall, who was a member of the Swedish hard rock band H.E.A.T. for nearly a decade before exiting the group in October 2020, announced in September 2021 that he was cancer free after receiving a bone marrow transplant one month earlier.

In late March 2022, SKID ROW released its first single with Grönwall, "The Gang's All Here". The song is the title track of the band's latest album, which arrived in October 2022 via earMUSIC.

SKID ROW played its first show with Grönwall on March 26, 2022 at Zappos Theater at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada as the support act on the rescheduled dates for SCORPIONS' "Sin City Nights" residency.