Skid Row’s Rachel Bolan recently joined WRIF’s Virtual Rock Room for an interview. The rocker revealed why the band recruited Erik Grönwall as their new frontman.
In March, Skid Row announced that they parted ways with ZP Heart in a statement. Moreover, the band revealed that they would continue with former H.E.A.T vocalist Erik Grönwall. He rose to popularity after winning the Swedish ‘Idol’ show, and he had also performed Skid Row’s ’18 And Life’ before.
The fourth lead singer of Skid Row after Sebastian Bach, Erik Grönwall, will also make his debut as the band’s lead singer in the upcoming record ‘The Gang’s All Here,’ which will be released on October 14. Before the release, Skid Row released their first song with Grönwall in late March.
In a recent interview with WRIF’s Virtual Rock Room, Rachel Bolan revealed why Skid Row chose Erik Grönwall. He stated that they were touring together in 2019, and H.E.A.T. was opening for Skid Row. He heard Grönwall’s voice from the dressing room and was astonished by his vocal skills.
Bolan said he heard about Grönwall’s ’18 In Life’ cover and decided to reach out to him on social media. They then exchanged phone numbers, and the band asked Grönwall to sing one of their new songs. All the band members and producer Nick Raskulinecz liked the result and decided to recruit him.
During the conversation, Rachel Bolan said the following:
“There’s such a great backstory to Eric. We toured together in 2019 when he was in the band H.E.A.T. They were opening for us, and I heard his voice from the dressing room. I was like, ‘Whoa, this guy has pipes, man!’
I went out and watched a couple of shows, and he was just really fun to watch. He was cool on stage, he sang amazing, and it just always stuck in the back of my head, like If we have any downtime, maybe I’ll hit him up and say, ‘Hey, you want to do a side project?’
Then I found out that he won Idol in Sweden in 2009. I was like, ‘Wow, that’s impressive!’ because he has incredible vocal control, and his pitch is killer. He is a total package.”
He then continued:
“Then, we got into this year. I see he recorded ’18 And Life’ just for his YouTube channel. I was like, ‘Wow, this is impressive! This is really, really impressive.’ So, when things happen the way they did, I just shot at him, inbox, or a dm on Instagram. I said, ‘Hey, man! Long time, no see.’
I mean, we really barely spoke when we were on tour together. Those guys were passing the hallway a couple of times. I said, ‘Hey man, it’s Rachel from Skid Row. If you got a second, here’s my email. Can you hit me back?’ So he did, and then we exchanged phone numbers and started talking.
We were seeing if he could do some shows with us, and then we just got the idea. We were like, ‘Well, let’s send him some new stuff and see if he digs it or likes it.’ He sang on it within 24 hours. We got it back. I and the guys and Nick were like, ‘Whoa, what is happening here? This is pretty awesome!’ So, we asked him to be in the band.”
You can watch the rest of the interview below.
