SKID ROW guitarist Dave “Snake” Sabo says that “the stars aligned” when the band recruited ex-H.E.A.T. vocalist Erik Grönwall as its latest frontman.

Grönwall recently joined SKID ROW as the replacement for ZP Theart, a former member of DRAGONFORCE, joined SKID ROW in 2016 following the departure of Tony Harnell (TNT, STARBREAKER).

SKID ROW played its first show with Grönwall on March 26 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. SKID ROW’s nine-song set included its new single, “The Gang’s All Here”, which was made available on March 25. The song is the title track of the band’s upcoming album, which will arrive on October 14 via earMUSIC.

SKID ROW recorded “The Gang’s All Here” in Nashville, Tennessee with producer Nick Raskulinecz, who has previously worked with FOO FIGHTERS, STONE SOUR, HALESTORM, EVANESCENCE, RUSH and ALICE IN CHAINS, among many others.

Sabo and SKID ROW bassist Rachel Bolan discussed Grönwall’s addition to the band during an appearance on the latest episode of SiriusXM’s “Trunk Nation L.A. Invasion”, recorded just hours before SKID ROW’s first performance with the Swedish singer.

Regarding how Erik came to join SKID ROW, Rachel said: “We toured together. H.E.A.T. was on tour with SKID ROW. What year was that? ’18? And we’d hear him every night from the dressing room. And a couple of times, I was, like, ‘Man, listen to this guy sing. He’s phenomenal.’ And then, I forget who told me, someone that was with us, ‘Yeah, he won ‘Idol’ in Sweden.’ And I was, like, ‘Man, he’s got pipes.’ And I was listening. Then I went behind the monitor board a couple of times. And in my head, I’m, like, ‘Wow! When SKID ROW has some downtime, I’m gonna get in touch with this dude and start a side project with him.’ And obviously, that never happened. But as time went on and we got to the point to where we were with ZP and stuff, Erik was our first… I told Snake, I go, ‘We’ve gotta check this guy out.’ And along with Snake and the rest of the guys, and Nick, our producer, Nick Raskulinecz, were, like, ‘He’s the guy, man. Send him some songs.’ So we sent him some songs that we were recording, just with a guide vocal on it, and it came back about 24 hours later, and we were, like, ‘All right. He’s the guy. Get him on a plane. Let’s do this.'”

He continued: “We’ve been recording this record… We’ve never done it like this before. He’s been recording at his house in Sweden and sending it to Nick and sending it to Snake and I, and we’ve just been going, ‘Okay, change this part. Do this. Do this.’ And I just found out last night at dinner, he’s, like, ‘I’ve never recorded myself this before.’ [Laughs] And I was, like, ‘I’m so glad I didn’t know that.’ As if my stress level isn’t high enough. I would have just completely combusted right there. But, yeah, man, and then actually Tuesday [March 22], when we all flew to Vegas for rehearsals, was the first time we met face to face — other than on tour; we saw each other in the hallway a couple of times. But other than that, Tuesday was the first time, other than a Zoom call, that we met face to face.”

Touching upon the circumstances that led to SKID ROW’s split with Theart, Sabo said: “It got to a point where the situation with Zee kind of put itself forth where we had to make a decision, because something still wasn’t working correctly. And that’s when the idea with Erik came up. And ironically enough, years ago, a good friend of mine, Rob Hoffman, had said, ‘If something ever happens, there’s this guy in Sweden.’ And he said the same thing to our manager as well years ago. And all of a sudden, as life happens, it kind of came full circle and it became a reality.

“I’ve been on a high for probably the last month, just hearing the way the songs are coming out, seeing the enthusiasm in everybody, seeing the positive reactions we’re getting from playing it for people,” Snake added. “And it feels so amazing. I feel like I’m 25 years old again… But it’s been an incredible experience, and the way this whole thing has sort of come to fruition, it makes you just go, ‘Man, there’s something going on that’s beyond our control.’ The stars aligned, if you will.”

Grönwall sang on H.E.A.T.’s last four studio albums — “Address The Nation” (2012), “Tearing Down The Walls” (2014), “Into The Great Unknown” (2017) and “H.E.A.T II” (2020) — before exiting the group in October 2020.

Grönwall was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in March 2021. A short time later, he wrote on his social media: “I am extremely privileged and grateful to live at a day and age where a disease like this is curable. There’s been so much progress made in this field. My body is reacting well to the treatment but it’s a long treatment and it’s going to be the toughest challenge of my life so far, for me and my family.”

Last September, Grönwall released his cover version of SKID ROW’s “18 And Life” via all streaming platforms. At the time, he said about his version of the track: “This song was basically the starting point of my professional career as an artist. I performed this song during my ‘Swedish Idol’ audition back in 2009. 12 years later it’s time to give this bad boy a try again. Here’s my version of the SKID ROW song ’18 And Life’.”

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.

Theart, a former member of DRAGONFORCE, joined SKID ROW in 2016 following the departure of Tony Harnell (TNT, STARBREAKER).

Sebastian 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 Bolan and guitarists 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 Tony Harnell as his replacement. Eight months later, Harnell exited the band and was replaced by Theart, the South African-born, British-based singer who previously fronted DRAGONFORCE, TANK and I AM I.

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LAMB OF GOD frontman Randy Blythe says that he “wouldn’t mind” playing a show in the Czech Republic again if the circumstances were “right.”

In 2012, Blythe was arrested in the Czech Republic and charged with manslaughter for allegedly pushing a 19-year-old fan offstage at a show two year prior and causing injuries that led to the fan’s death. Blythe spent 37 days in a Prague prison before ultimately being found not guilty in 2013.

Randy addressed the possibility of performing in the Czech Republic during an appearance this past Wednesday (March 30) on SiriusXM’s Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk”. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I don’t rule it out. But it would have to be under the right circumstances. I mean, I’m [legally] allowed to go there. But unless things were worked out in advance with certain people, I think it would be rude to go back there. Because if I went back there to play a show, it would be huge news. And there’s a family who’s still missing a son there. So I don’t wish them to be any more upset than they already are; they’ve suffered enough. So, if the circumstances were right and we had their blessing or whatever, I wouldn’t mind going and playing a show and then donating the money to charity or something. But other than that, LAMB OF GOD really has no business going there, if the circumstances aren’t right, ’cause I don’t want to cause anyone any further emotional duress.”

Randy previously touched upon the prospect of returning to the Czech Republic while answering fan questions during a June 2020 Reddit AMA. He said: “I would love to play in the Czech Republic again — I have nothing against the Czech people, and I was not mistreated there. Eventually I think we might play there again, but it will 100 percent have to be with the cooperation of the family of the young man who died, and I would want to give the money from the show to a charity they choose. If we played there, it would be a huge news story, and I do not wish to cause the young man’s family anymore pain — they did no wrong, and were not cruel to me at all; in fact they showed me great kindness. But they have suffered enough, so it is out of respect to them we have not returned. I hope the Czech fans understand.”

Blythe’s prison experience inspired two songs on LAMB OF GOD’s 2015 album “VII: Sturm Und Drang”: “512”, one of his three prison cell numbers, and “Still Echoes”, written while he was in Pankrac Prison, a dilapidated facility built in the 1880s that had been used for executions by the Nazis during World War II. It also led him to write the memoir “Dark Days”, in which he shared his whole side of the story publicly for the first time.

“I think artistically, it was a very valid choice to use those two songs because they come from a very real, very dark place,” Blythe told the New York Post back in 2015. “I write about things that are impactful for my life that stir up emotion in me, that affect me, that have some sort of impact within my life. Not that going to prison has no impact in my life, but I was out of prison and I felt it would be disingenuous to use it as a creative well to draw from.”

The 2022 leg of LAMB OF GOD’s “The Metal Tour Of The Year” with MEGADETH will kick off on Saturday, April 9 in Las Vegas, Nevada and hit a further 21 cities before wrapping in Allentown, Pennsylvania on Sunday, May 15.

LAMB OF GOD recently entered a California studio with longtime producer Josh Wilbur (KORN, MEGADETH, GOJIRA, TRIVIUM) to record some of its brand music, tentatively due later in the year.

LAMB OF GOD’s upcoming effort will be the follow-up to the band’s self-titled album, which was released in June 2020 via Epic Records in the U.S. and Nuclear Blast Records in Europe. That LP marked LAMB OF GOD’s first recordings with Art Cruz, who joined the band in July 2019 as the replacement for the group’s founding drummer, Chris Adler.

“Lamb Of God” was recorded with Wilbur and included special guest appearances by Jamey Jasta (HATEBREED) and Chuck Billy (TESTAMENT).

THE DEAD DAISIES have released “Long Way To Go (Live From Daisyland)” which was recorded in November 2021 at the legendary Rock City music venue in Nottingham, England. It is the second release from THE DEAD DAISIES’ “Live From Daisyland” series.

THE DEAD DAISIES took the extremely enthusiastic and vocal crowd on a trip down memory lane with “Long Way To Go”, the classic hit from their 2016 album “Make Some Noise”. It’s been a crowd favorite and always in the setlist at live shows. The song took on new life with lead singer Glenn Hughes and the drive from the engine room with Tommy Clufetos on drums and the dynamic dueling guitars of Doug Aldrich and David Lowy.

Lowy said: “It’s a hard-driving rock and roll track with great significance to the world’s predicaments today. What’s really cool about the riff is the first two bars are 4×4 and the third bar is 2×4 which gives it a really interesting feel. It’s a very meaningful track to us as the music is an ode to my friend Doc Neeson and the lyrics that John Corabi came up with are very poignant.”

In January, THE DEAD DAISIES announced the return of drummer extraordinaire Brian Tichy to the musical collective of Hughes, Aldrich and David Lowy.

Brian first joined THE DEAD DAISIES in 2013 during the U.S. “Uproar” tour and has regularly played with the band ever since, including highlights in Cuba, in Poland with an immense orchestra at the Woodstock Festival (Poland) and performed on the “Revolución” and “Make Some Noise” albums. He is also known for playing with WHITESNAKE, FOREIGNER and OZZY OSBOURNE, among others.

THE DEAD DAISIES’ latest album, “Holy Ground”, was released in January 2021. Recorded at La Fabrique Studios in the south of France with producer Ben Grosse, the LP is the band’s first to feature Hughes, who joined the group in 2019 as its new bassist and vocalist, replacing John Corabi (MÖTLEY CRÜE) and Marco Mendoza (THIN LIZZY).

Drummer Deen Castronovo (JOURNEY) announced his exit from THE DEAD DAISIES in January 2021, two days after the band’s publicist revealed that Tommy Clufetos (OZZY OSBOURNE, BLACK SABBATH) would rejoin THE DEAD DAISIES when they hit the road in support of “Holy Ground”. Clufetos previously toured with THE DEAD DAISIES in 2015.

THE DEAD DAISIES will embark on a massive pan-European jaunt this summer consisting of arena and amphitheater shows with JUDAS PRIEST, FOREIGNER and WHITESNAKE, festival appearances and a number of headline dates.

In a new interview with Meltdown of Detroit’s WRIF radio station, FOZZY frontman Chris Jericho touched upon the subject of rock bands using pre-recorded backing tracks during live performances. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “We use backing tracks for some songs, and everybody does. Unless you’re GUNS N’ ROSES… Let me rephrase that… If you’re in Slash’s band… GUNS N’ ROSES has backing tracks. They have a keyboard player. It’s just the way of the world right now. It doesn’t mean we’re not singing and not playing. If you’re listening to a record, you go to a DEF LEPPARD gig and you hear ‘Pour Some Sugar On Me’ that was recorded with 25 tracks of guitars, you can’t just go with two guitars on stage and in your right mind think there wasn’t something building up the background there. It’s just kind of the way that bands are. It doesn’t make you any less of a band. ‘Cause you know what? QUEEN used tracks in the ’70s. If you don’t believe me, watch it when they play ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ live.”

Back in July 2020, Jericho was accused by Sebastian Bach of using pre-recorded lead vocal tracks during live performances. Thef former SKID ROW frontman initially claimed Jericho was “miming to a tape” at FOZZY concerts in a social media post. In response, the wrestler-turned-rocker insisted that he had “never mimed anything ever” and challenged Bach to a “singoff” with “no effects, no tuning, no bullshit”, saying “Bas is a great singer…but I’m better”.

In the months that ensued, Bach brought up Jericho’s alleged lip syncing on several occasions, most recently in January 2021 in an interview with The Aquarian Weekly. Asked specifically about his feud with Chris, Sebastian said: “I have an open mind about everyone. If I read on Blabbermouth.com [sic] that some band says, ‘We’re the future of rock ‘n’ roll and we are the next thing after THE ROLLING STONES,’ I think, this must be incredible! What have I been missing out on? So, I checked out one video during which the singer was 100% miming to a tape on stage at The Rockpile in Toronto. I thought to myself, ‘That’s weird, that’s not the next ROLLING STONES.’ So, I watch another video where he was opening up for NICKELBACK in an arena and, again, he’s miming to a tape. You can go watch it for yourself. Then someone said, ‘Here’s a clip of him singing live. Legit, bro.’ And it’s him miming to a tape again. It’s crazy obvious. It is not my opinion, it’s fact. It is not me starting a fight. But don’t tell me what singing live is, ’cause I have never used tape. I don’t even know how to do that.”

Bach also addressed the fact that Jericho accused him of having a less-than-original stage name after Sebastian slammed Jericho for copying the name of a SKID ROW tour for FOZZY.

“I switched a couple of letters of my legal last name [Bierk]. Who’s Mongoose McQueen?” Bach asked, referring to Jericho’s original FOZZY stage name. “What kind of a stage name is that?

“How about this: professional wrestling sucks,” he added. “Everyone wishes they were a rock star. It hilarious. Evidently, all you have to do is [record] a tape, go on stage, and jump around. You can jump off the drum riser and do jumping jacks. It doesn’t matter if you are miming to tape.”

Jericho’s most public reaction to Bach’s criticism came in a January 2021 tweet. At the time, he wrote: “I’ve been told that @sebastianbach continues to go out of his way to bury me. My response is this…be my guest! You are entitled to ur opinion & it doesn’t affect me either way. I still dig ur work on the first 3 @OfficialSkidRow albums & look forward to ur new record.”

When Bach first went public with his Jericho accusation, FOZZY guitarist Rich Ward called Sebastian “universally disliked” and said that seeing Bach “publicly go after the only guy that I have ever witness utter a nice word about him is sad.”

Sebastian, who has been outspoken about rock bands using pre-recorded backing tracks during live shows, later tried to explain his outburst, writing: “I’m not trying to beat anybody at anything. I’m actually trying to say hey Chris maybe you’re right maybe I’ll stop singing live and prance around while the tape is playing just like you do Chris. I’m tired of trying so hard it’s like beating my head against the wall.”

After a self-proclaimed Bach fan called Sebastian “an asshat” on Twitter for firing “the first shots” in his war of words with Jericho, Bach came back with: “Hey man f*** you. I have spent my life learning how to sing live on stage. When someone comes along and mimes to a tape it sucks for all of the rest of us that don’t. You want to go see a wrestling match good. Don’t call it rock and roll”.