SKID ROW's RACHEL BOLAN On Addition Of Singer ZP THEART: 'The Online Trolls Found Less Reasons To Hate Us'

Andrew McKaysmith of Australia's "Scars and Guitars" podcast recently conducted an interview with SKID ROW bassist Rachel Bolan. You can listen to the entire chat via the Whooshkaa widget below. A few excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On SKID ROW's fanbase now sharing a strong sense of sentimentality to their hit songs:

Rachel: "It's really cool when that happens because it happens to all of us. I would say certain songs to certain people are like a photograph in time. It's just as you said, it's like — for me it was KISS and Peter Frampton and a lot of bands out of the '70s, SWEET and all of that stuff. Whenever I hear 'Show Me The Way' by Peter Frampton, I always smell apple-scented incense because my friend always used to burn it in a room because we'd smoke cigarettes in the room and get high. I automatically smell apple incense. But when people say that to us, it never falls flat from an appreciation standpoint. It's just like wow, we say that about our favorite bands and people say that about us. It's just a really cool feeling that we wrote a song that mattered to someone and is a photograph in time and brought a lot of great memories."

On what keeps SKID ROW going:

Rachel: "I've been asked this question and I don't know really what it is other than we love doing it. It's one of those things… there was a point where we couldn't get far enough away from it, but once we had that breather and a little room, we're, like, 'Man, we can't just let this disappear into nothingness.' We just really enjoy what we are doing and when we got the band back together, there were really, really lean times and stuff would go good, then go bad, then go good, then go bad. It's weird because it took us, we basically started again in 2000. And, it took us until pretty much until 2015 to say, 'Okay, we went through personnel changes like crazy.' Once Rob [Hammersmith, drums] joined the band and that turned a lot of stuff around, once Rob Hammersmith joined. Then, once ZP [Theart, vocals] joined, everything completely changed. People were in our corner again. They were less critical. They found, especially the trolls online found less reasons to hate us, basically. [Laughs] It's like, that stuff is what it is, but we all internally just started feeling really good about what we were doing. We could see things over the past two and a half years whenever ZP joined, I think he came and started singing with us in 2015, I believe. It really started changing quick for the good. Things started getting really positive and eyebrows went up. I'm like, 'Oh man, what's going on?' Yeah, I think that's part of it. We just keep hitting these new goals and we're, like, 'Well, let's go out and tour again. Let's do this. Let's make a new record. Let's start writing songs, do a new record.' Then other people are coming to us, asking, 'Hey.' Labels are coming to us. Constant show offers coming in. It's just a really good feeling. When you hit that again at our age and our career, it's like, let's keep going. Let's ride this thing until the wheels fall off."

On the loyalty of SKID ROW's fanbase:

Rachel: "We still have such a huge core fanbase. We're lucky. We're a really lucky band. We had enough hits to where people will know most of the set. Our hardcore fans trust us when we put out stuff that's new. They go at it with an open mind. We got it really good. We're really lucky guys and we're very fortunate to have such true and loyal people that listen to the band."

On whether he's tired of being asked by journalists about possibly reuniting with Sebastian Bach:

Rachel: "I don't know what they think. But it is a question that comes up. It's coming up a lot less, but it is a question that comes up, usually at the end of the conversation after talking about how well the band is doing. People will ask that and I'm, like, 'You got to be kidding me. We just did a half-hour interview on how good things are going.'"

As previously reported, SKID ROW has collaborated with several other artists, including members of SLIPKNOT and HALESTORM, on the songwriting process for the final installment of the band's "United World Rebellion" trilogy. The follow-up to 2014's "Rise Of The Damnation Army - United World Rebellion: Chapter Two" and 2013's "United World Rebellion: Chapter One" will mark the band's first release with the South African-born, British-based vocalist ZP Theart (DRAGONFORCE, TANK, I AM I),who officially joined SKID ROW last year.

SKID ROW's upcoming release will see the band reunited with famed rock/metal producer Michael Wagener, who worked on SKID ROW's first two albums, 1989's "Skid Row" and 1991's "Slave To The Grind", as well as 2006's "Revolutions Per Minute".