SKID ROW's ROB HAMMERSMITH: 'We Are Still In An Active Search For Our Next Lead Singer'

In a recent interview with The Metal Summit, SKID ROW drummer Rob Hammersmith spoke about the band's ongoing search for a replacement for singer Erik Grönwall. Erik, who was SKID ROW's fourth frontman since Sebastian Bach's departure, was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in March 2021. As a result, he is immunocompromised, which made touring difficult. Regarding where SKID ROW stands at the moment with regard to finding a new vocalist, Rob said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Yeah, so to kind of go back a few months, most of your viewers may know we were fortunate enough to be able to do some shows with our good friend Lzzy Hale [of HALESTORM] post Erik Grönwall's departure. Unfortunately, earlier [in 2024] when Erik left the band, we were kind of in a situation where we had to figure out relatively quickly what the rest of the year was going to look like. So we were able to do some shows late spring, early summer with our good friend Lzzy Hale. So no tour dates since those shows. We are still in an active search for the next lead singer of SKID ROW. We've had some really good, some really strong candidates. At this point, no news, no official announcements. As I said, we are still in the midst of a proper search, if you will, but we're making progress. We're getting there. So, unfortunately, no concrete announcements. All of that said, we like to keep it out there in the rock and metal world. Any ideas are welcome at this point. So singers out there, if you think you're right, you know where to find us for sure."

He continued: "So we will break for the holidays and then we will reconvene in January and move forward with that process. But as anybody knows, it's a a long process and it always takes longer than you would like for it to take. So we'll see. Hopefully early [in 2025[ we'll have some big announcements for everybody."

Asked how SKID ROW goes about looking for a new singer, Rob said: "There's so many different factors. I say anybody that's ever been in a band, but it's not exclusive to being in the music industry. This is really true with really any situation in life, whether it's a marriage or relationship or any other industry, there's so many different factors involved. So for us, we certainly look back on some of our past experiences, myself included — I've been with the band for 15 years now; longest job I've ever held. I don't know how I pulled this off, but here I am talking to you guys, 15 years later. So we really did want to take a minute to say to ourselves and then to each other, how do we we really wanna go about doing something like this in a way that maybe we can do it differently than we've done in the past? So for us, that's been an ongoing process. How do you try to account for all of these different criteria and these things that you have to look for? And knowing the whole time that you're doing something like this with a potential candidate for a situation like ours, they're evaluating us as well. So everybody comes to the table with their own different set of criteria.

"It's been a really, a really interesting process," he continued. "You really have to sit down and examine, as a band, what are your goals? What is important to you? What do you envision the future of your band looking like? And in a lot of ways, that's been good for us to really sit down and define exactly where we see the band in five years or in 10 years or in 15 years, God willing. It's been a really interesting experience.

"For us, the beginning of that process was to really sit down as an organization, as a unit and decide, okay, where do we want to go from here?" Rob added. "And then from there you can start to come up with plans. And any other business or like any other business, you sort of have to have a plan, a business plan, but for us the biggest thing was really sitting down and saying, 'Okay, what do we want to do over the next five years or the next 10 years?' That was the biggest part of the process for us. And then from there, putting that out into the public, into culture, however that works these days, whether it's social media, the Internet, things like that. So that was kind of the next step after we really decided, 'Okay, this is what we, as a band, envision our future looking like.' We just jumped right in and started looking. And sometimes, like anything in life, you're just figuring it out as you as you go. So you kind of make some adjustments along the way. I think that was the biggest part of the process for us, is really coming together as a unit."

Lasy July, SKID ROW bassist Rachel Bolan said during a question-and-answer session at the Days Of The Dead horror and pop culture-themed convention in Indianapolis that he and his bandmates were "taking our time" finding a new singer "because we have time. And we've got a couple guys on the radar that we're gonna audition," he revealed. "And there's also a couple of our friends that wanna do what Lzzy Hale did and sit in [on lead vocals] for a few [SKID ROW] shows. And that's fun too. That was so much fun doing those [four] shows [with Lzzy]."

In May 2024, Rachel confirmed to Meltdown of Detroit's WRIF radio station that he and his bandmates had been talking to singers about potentially stepping in to replace Grönwall. He explained: "No one, really, with a name. But, yeah, we've been talking to a few guys that piqued our interest, for sure."

In May 2024, SKID ROW guitarist Dave "Snake" Sabo ruled out a reunion with SKID ROW's former singer Sebastian Bach telling The Hook Rocks podcast: "It's not gonna happen. And I say the same thing every time. I'm thankful that people have such an interest in wanting to see that happen, but I also have to reiterate that this is about being happy in the situation that you're in. So I'll speak for myself personally.

"First of all, I do need to say something too, is that the reason that this isn't happening is because there's three of us — myself, Scotti [Hill, SKID ROW guitarist] and Rachel — who've had conversations about this, and we've all been on the same page that we don't wanna go down that road again. We just — we don't.

"Rachel has taken a beating over this through the years," Sabo continued. "He's the one who's been blamed for this. 'Oh, it's Rachel's ego.' 'It's this and that.' No, that's a load of bullshit. That is not true. And I feel bad because he's really, really had to shoulder that blame and has never said anything derogatory or anything like that. But you know what? The truth of the matter is that Rachel, Scotti and myself have continually felt the same way, that we enjoy being happy in this band and we're really happy.

"It's been such a great experience for the last however, 35 years, everything, all the ups, all the downs, everything, but we just don't wanna revisit that particular aspect of our history," he explained. "I love the songs, [I] love a lot of the memories, [I am] not fond of some of the memories, but just as individuals and as a collective, that's just how we feel. So this is not on Rachel. And this has nothing to do with anyone's ego or anything like that. So that's just gotta be clear. Again, for anyone to sit there and make assumptions that this is Rachel Bolan saying 'nope,' it's not. It's the three of us, and we've all collectively sat there and just said that we don't wanna do it. We just don't wanna do it. And we wish everybody all the best."

Snake added: "We've been just ripped apart by ex-members of the band and stuff — ripped apart. Some really shitty stuff [has been] said about all of us. And we just choose not to [respond]. It's not who I am. It's not who we are. We won't go down that road. We just wanna play music and be happy. This has really never been about a monetary aspect of things because it's known that we've been offered a good amount of money to do shows together and to reunite [with Sebastian] and whatever, but it's just never been about the money, man. I choose my happiness, my willingness to continue to be a really good friend to my best friends and a really good husband and a really good dad and bandmate and person. And I don't wanna endanger that in any way. So the people that we choose to play with, those choices are made in order to keep those particular things in line for all of us."

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.

Five years ago, Bolan also confirmed that he and his bandmates "were entertaining the idea" of reuniting with Bach following Harnell's departure. But Rachel shot down the possibility of a rekindling of his friendship with Sebastian, explaining: "Well… Here's the soundbite for Blabbermouth. I wouldn't say we were friends [when we were in a band together]. We were bandmates. You know what I mean? We're two very different people." Bolan added that he hadn't seen Bach "in years."

Six years ago, Bach was asked by Rolling Stone what it would take for SKID ROW to be reunited. He responded: "It would take those guys to realize that I have a lifetime manager. His name is Rick Sales. I've been with him since 2006. They don't want to deal with a guy like that. They want to give some singer who doesn't have a manager $700 to $800 bucks a week. I've got a team that's worked with me and don't allow me to get fucked around. I didn't have that team when I was 19 years old."

In response to Bach's statements about the earnings of SKID ROW's singer, Sabo told Rolling Stone in an e-mail: "I guess fact-checking isn't in his skill set… The five of us go on that stage as a band and we all get paid equally. We're in this together. There's no egos."

Sebastian went on to say that SKID ROW was "close to reuniting, but then it didn't happen. The fact that it didn't happen obviously makes me somewhat bitter, because life is only getting shorter, as the song says," he added.

"I wouldn't say 'came close,'" Bolan told Rolling Stone in an e-mail response to Bach's account of the reunion talks. "We entertained the idea. Snake and I went as far as talking with agents and promoters about money. But we quickly learned after a few text conversations, why we fired him in the first place. Nothing is worth your happiness and peace of mind."