Snake | Skid Row | August 2003 |
Well first off.. I normally start from the beginning, and go through a whole time line of the bands..
to catch them up to current time.. but after seeing Skid Row last night.. FORGET IT..
It's time to fast forward to now.. forget the past.. this is Skid Row Part 2.. and they Rock!
Snake called and we chatted about the tour, new c.d. and everything else Skid Row....
S: Sorry I'm late calling, I had a miscommunication with the tour manager..
J: That's o.k........ well after last night.. I don't even wanna go backwards and talk about old Skid Row.. lets move onto the present time.. first off.. how did you guys find Johnny?
S: Through the internet believe it or not.. a person who runs an online fan club for us told Rachel, when she found out we were looking for a singer, called Rachel and said, ya know, you should check out this guys website. So Rachel goes to the Johnny's website, he had a band in Dallas..
J:Solinger right?
S: Ya.. and so he had streaming audio and video on his site, and Rachel went to it checked it out, and he calls me up and said dude, I think we found our guy.. I'm like where?.. he said on the internet, and I was like you've got to be kidding me.. so I went to the website and checked it out.. and was like wow.. I can't believe it but your right! we flew him up.. on January 4th.. and January 9th he was in the band..
J: Did you try out any other singers?
S:We tried out 3 or 4 singers before him.. and had 3 or 4 more lined up after him, but we just cancelled after that.. cause we just knew one and a half songs into it, that he was the guy..
J: And what made you guys decide to put Skid Row band together?
S: Just the love.. the love for the music that we have created..and our desire and ambition to push forward.. to do what we love to do.. which is perform.. having stepped away from it, sorted re energized us and gave us true appreciation for what we are able to do..
J: Then the first gig was the big Kiss tour..
S: Ha, ha.... ya.. poor Johnny.. 6 weeks into the band, and he's played in front of 20,000 people.. talk about trial by fire.. hahaha.. But that was a great opportunities for us, as is this tour as well.. being able to play in front of so many people, and showcase the "new band" .. Skid Row chapter 2.. was just such a blessing, and has been such a blessing.. being out here and being able to play with Poison and Vince Neil.. is a tremendous experience.. gives us the opportunities to play stuff off the new record, then release the new record, and I get to hand out with Bobby Dall on a daily bases.. thank the lord above.. hahaha.. (you hear Bobby Dall in the background "Thank god for Snake" hahaha) We've all become such great friends out here, we all hang out together on a daily bases, its just been such a pleasure..and you find out that that is rare.. haha.. its rare you can experience this sort of thing this communion..
J: And what do you guys find your self doing on your days off?
S: Well me personally.. I sleep.. cause I drink myself into the ground every night, so besides that, we hang out together and go go-cart racing, or baseball , basketball.. whatever.. whatever we can do to pass the time. Us personally because we are promoting a new record, we are doing that as much as we can.. we work 24/7.. because this is our thing, ya know.. we took it upon ourselves to do it all our selves.. this way we don't have anyone making decisions on our behalf without us knowing.. and compromising our integrity.. we live and die by our own word now.. and its such a great feeling, to be in complete control of your own destiny..
J:ok now onto the new album.. how does it differ from any of the past albums?
S: I think its more personal.. having stepped away from each other for a while.. then getting back together.. and refinding your passion and your love, and the reasoning why your doing this in the first place.. I mean I became that 16 year old kid again, who was standing in front of a mirror trying to be Joe Perry, Ace Frehley or Randy Rhodes.. song writing is a very selfish act.. and that's not a bad thing.. cause you have to sit there and write for your self, cause if you don't you start pandering to other people..and you totally compromise your integrity. you have to write from your gut, and write for what you love, and hopefully people will respond and react to that in a positive way.. so with this record.. I think just because its been so long, and we've gone through so much.. individually and collectively, it just became such a personal record to us. The fact that we actually did it on our own.. and it actually got out there, and that people are buying it.. is.. such an amazing sense of accomplishment. I feel..
J: Who does the writing?
S: Rachel and myself mostly... but everybody is involved in some sort of level.. because everyone has to make the song there own.. so its kinda the same process we have always done. Rachel and I will bring in the skeleton of a song.. and everyone will contribute from that time on.. and make key changes, or lyric changes, or melody changes, or guitar changes..or whatever.. but 5 people have to agree the song is done..and when that happens, it makes it to the record..
J: What's your favorite new track..?
S:.. Ummm... either "New Generation" or there is a track on there called "One Light".. and "One Light" is a very, very personally song for all of us, it was written after 9/11, and its basically a song of hope... and faith and believing that there are better days, and the moment is what you make of it and the only think that really exists is the moment...and moving forward..
J: What are some of the other track titles?
S: "New Generation" "Ghost" umm.Swallow Me" "Born a Begger" "Thick is the Skin" "See You Around" "Mouth of Voodoo" "Lamb" "One Light" " I Remember you Too".
J: Ya you did a different version of "I Remember You".. now you do that live sometimes.. right? but not on this tour?
S: When we did headlining tours we do it.. cause during this tour, we only have 40 min. and we respect the fans too much to not give them what they want.. ya know.. they wanna hear "I Remember You" the way it was originally written and we respect that, and without them we are at home with our thumbs up our ass.. in this day and age with the economy being the way it is, just the fact people are willing to spend there hard earned money to come see us play is such a tremendous complement.. we respect them so much.. we have to give the people what they want..
J: Is there any other older songs that you have changed?
S: No.. we just did that as a joke.. and the more we did it, the more it grew on us.. and we thought man.. this is gonna turn heads, you take your biggest ballad ever, and turn it into a punk song.. and I love it.. we wanna keep peoples interest, anyway we could, weather they were pissed off by it.. in no way do we deny or past what so ever.. we are very fortunate to have the success that we had.. but by the same token we are also moving forward.. this is what we d, we write songs.. its not necessarily about nostalgia.. we know what we were, and we know what we are.
J: Will you guys be going out on a headlining tour after this Poison tour?
S: Oh ya.. we have a bunch of make up dates to do.. we had a club/small theatre tour booked.. and we got the Poison tour... so we had to postpone it.. And fortunately we are able to make up those dates.. but unfortunately we had to postpone them..
J: Also coming out is a new DVD.. is it going to be like your old home videos, with a bunch of craziness?
S: Ya.. but its a bit more personal.. you get an incite inside all the trial and tribulations we went through to make this album, you get all the drunkenness.. and tension and the commodity.. but you get an incite into each guy a little more then you may have in the past..
J: Ya I actually have "Road Kill" in my VCR right now.. I was just watching that last week.. Id have to say all the Skid Row ones.. and the Pantera ones.. are the funniest things I have EVER seen..
S: ..Hahahhaa.. ya that's great.. thanks!...
J: SO what kind of new bands are you into?
S: umm.. Dragpipe, Rival Schools.. I love Black Label Society...I love the new Anthrax record.. what else...umm..
J: Well what would be in your c.d. player right now?
S: All of that is in my c.d. player, along with Master of Puppets..
J: What do you think of St.Anger..
S: Uhhh.. not much..
J: Hahaha.. me either...
S: Not much and I hate to say that, cause I'm a tremendous fan..but ya know.. I give them credit for stretching, and trying something different, and having the balls to do that..it just to me.. I don't understand it..it just doesn't effect me..
J:I cant stand the drum sound.. I'm a drummer.. and I cant stand listening to the drums, it sounds like a garbage can lid.
S: Ya its like they spent a year to make a garage record.. ya know.. I don't get it.. but its not my bad, so it doesn't really concern me..
J: How do you feel about file sharing and all the Mp3 downloading?
S: Umm.. I'm not a fan of it.. I think from my stand point.. we work so hard to write the music that we do..and it should be the sole right of the artist to determine if they wanna give it away for free or not.. so I think that its sort of a criminal act in my view.. but the thing is the record companies in general are just so far behind.. they will never catch up... cause when you have 19 year old kid that can take down the whole music industry. pretty much, turn it on its ear... there is 100,000 more of those 19 year old kids out there, that are so much more technically advanced then these suits at the record labels... and they will never come up with a solution, I firmly believe that, but by the same token, I have to defend my rights..as an artist.. and I don't take that word too seriously to be quiet honest.. when I say artist, I mean we make music.. and that's cool but so many people take it too seriously and sit on there soap box.. but whatever.. what we do is not much different then I guy who built a car in Detroit to be honest with you.. its just that its still my property.. and should be able to reserve the right on how to exploit that..
J: After Skid Row broke up you had Ozone Monday right?
S: Yes.. that was with Rachel, Scotti, myself and a couple of friends of ours.. and that was a necessity cause it was such a stretch from what we did in Skid Row.. it was a lot of fun to do.. but it made us realize the actuality of what we had.. and we what we truly truly loved.. what was our passion..and this record signifies that..and really shows it..
J: Did you have a c.d. release for that?
S: No.. we never did.. I have a ton of recorded demos at my house, but no we never released a record..
J: And what website can people find you guys at:
J: and is there anything you would like to say to your fans reading this?
S: Just thank you soo much for the loyalty and the dedication you have shown us.. I feel myself and this band have been truly blessed by the people who have remained loyal to us and still believe in what we do.. and I think the bands we are on the road with, and all there crew, and stuff like that, cause they have been so wonderful to us.
J: Well I've been a fan through the years.. all the album, saw all the tours.. so I was a little worried about how the show was going to sound.. And I have to say Johnny was just incredible.. it wasn't him trying to be like Sebastian.. he holds his own, and has his own sound.. and I was so impressed.. So I'm really excited about the album.. and good luck with it.
S: Thank you.. I'm very humbled by that.. thank you very much..thats very cool of you.. thanks for doing this..
J: No thank you.....
