Watch: Ex-SKID ROW Singer ERIK GRÖNWALL Tells His Story In 'To Hell & Back' Mini-Documentary

Former SKID ROW singer Erik Grönwall, who was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in March 2021, now opens the door to his most personal chapter yet. A seven-minute mini-documentary, "To Hell & Back" is following the journey leading up to the release of Erik's new solo album "Bad Bones" — a story about survival and rediscovering the love for music and songwriting, from the highest highs to the darkest moments. Check it out below.

A little over two years ago, Erik opened up about his cancer battle while explaining his reasons for leaving SKID ROW after a two-year run with the band. He said in part at the time: "In 2021, I was undergoing treatment against leukemia, and as a result of the treatments and the bone marrow transplant that I did, my immune system was impaired. You can think of my immune system as a four-year-old kid bringing home all kinds of shit and viruses from preschool. So I pretty much get everything. It takes a while for the immune system to build up that resistance again, but my immune system is getting stronger every day. So that's the good news. However, I'm still doing regular checkups, like blood tests, at the hematology department at my hospital in Sweden. But that part has proved very challenging while keeping up with the SKID ROW schedule and demand. And as I'm sure you all understand, I have way too much respect for my medical history and for my health to push myself to the limit.

"But I also wanna say that this illness came with a lot of good things," he continued. "And one of the best things that I want to mention here is that it gave me a superpower called perspective. I remember sitting at the hospital, and I was in a really fucking dark place. And I was looking out my window and I saw all these people going to work in a hurry, stressing. And I remember asking myself, watching all these people, and I was, like, 'What are we stressing about? What are we chasing?' So right there I felt like I had so much perspective on things and actually a gratitude towards — it's weird to say it, but a gratitude towards my illness. I remember going, 'Thank you for giving me this perspective this early in life.' Anyway, so I was sitting there, and I remembered that the samurai had a code of honor that they called Bushido that they lived by. And so with the perspective I had at the time, I wanted to create my own Bushido. My goal was always, okay, 'I'm gonna get through this and I'm gonna get healthy,' but I wanted to remember the perspective, that feeling of gratitude and perspective I had at the time, because I know that we're human beings and we move on and we forget things, but I didn't wanna forget this; I wanted to remember this for the rest of my life. So what I did was I created my own Bushido at the hospital, and on top of that list, it says 'health first'. And back to SKID ROW, that's exactly why I had to make this decision."

Erik's first fully original solo LP, "Bad Bones" will arrive on May 22.

Known worldwide for his powerhouse vocals and commanding stage presence, Erik has also previously fronted H.E.A.T., and toured across Europe and Japan providing lead vocals for guitar legend Michael Schenker.

In a recent interview with Roppongi Rocks' Stefan Nilsson, Grönwall stated about his upcoming solo album, on which he worked with his producer and former H.E.A.T. bandmate Jona Tee: "It was just one of those things that I've built my career in bands, I've loved being in bands, but I also asked myself, who am I as a songwriter when I release my own music? 'Cause I did a solo album after [appearing on the competition show] '[Swedish] Idol', but I have to say that was more Sony Music's album. And to be fair against the people I worked with then, and I didn't really know what I wanted to do either. So it was kind of, like, 'Okay, you have a guy who can sing stuff, probably. What do we do? Maybe this.' And then we just put it out there. And it was way too fast. We put it out just to get it out for people to shop for Christmas. [Laughs] So, yeah, it wasn't from the heart. But now it is. And I've never been prouder of an album than I am right now. I've really taken the time, and Jona has been next to me. And I've been experimenting. I've been soul searching, like, 'What if we do this? No, that doesn't feel right. This, no. Okay.' And then I realized that who I am as an artist is everything I've done so far, combined — H.E.A.T., SKID ROW, Michael Schenker. It's not that hard. It's rock and roll. If you can count to four, you can do rock and roll. 1, 2, 3, 4 — it's done. That's all you need."

SKID ROW's longtime friend Lzzy Hale (HALESTORM) handled lead vocals for the band's four concerts in late May 2024 and early June 2024, two months after Erik's exit from the group.

At the time of Grönwall's departure, SKID ROW members said in a statement that they were "proud" of what they had "created and accomplished with Erik" over the previous two years" and wished "nothing but the best to him and his health."

In January 2025, Erik told Finland's Chaoszine about his exit from SKID ROW: "Leaving the band was one of the toughest career decisions I ever had to make. I loved being in that band. It didn't hurt waking up being the lead singer of SKID ROW. But I would still be in the band if that was an option.

"I left to respect the person who went through the leukemia — I mean, the person at the hospital," he explained. "I promised myself that I would always put my health first. And when I felt like I couldn't do that being in the band, I just had to make that decision.

"I loved my time in the band. I had so much fun with the guys. We clicked right away, and I will always look back at that time with a smile, for sure. And I would have loved to stay in the band. But given the circumstances, we just couldn't find common ground in terms of how much we should tour."

Grönwall went on to clarify that he was always open to continuing with SKID ROW if an agreement had been reached regarding how much time to spend on the road.

"I'm not sure if it's been said in any interview, but, for me, it was never about not touring at all," he said. "I just wanted to have more time in between to recover. So, my suggestion was three weeks on the road, including traveling, and then one month off, three weeks on the road, including traveling, one month off, just to have that time in between. But they didn't find that feasible, and that's totally fine. I mean, SKID ROW has been doing this since before I was born. [Laughs] They have a recipe. I totally respect that they didn't find out feasible at all. But it was what I needed, and here we are."

The English version of Grönwall's autobiography, "Power – Music, Death, Life", was made available in December 2024 via HarperCollins.

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.

Grönwall sang on four H.E.A.T studio albums — "Address The Nation" (2012),"Tearing Down The Walls" (2014),"Into The Great Unknown" (2017) and "H.E.A.T II" (2020).

More recently, Erik sang on two of Michael Schenker's albums, 2024's "My Years With UFO" and 2025's "Don't Sell Your Soul". He also toured Europe and Japan with the legendary German guitarist.

In September 2021, just four months before joining SKID ROW, Grönwall released his new cover version of "18 And Life" via all streaming platforms.

In 2018, Grönwall debuted in the U.S. for 10 million viewers in NBC's live broadcast of Andrew Lloyd Webber's and Tim Rice's musical "Jesus Christ Superstar". Along with John Legend, Alice Cooper, Sara Bareilles and others, Erik played the key role of Simon Zealotes.

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.

Grönwall lives in Knivsta, a city in Uppsala County in east central Sweden, with his wife and their son.