By Martin Popoff
...but the wheels keep rolling, with the Baz-less bad boys heading out on yet another album-delaying tour. But it's a big one, Skid Row, Vince Neil and Jackyl backing up a re-energized Tesla on an almost inspiring jaunt called Rock Never Stops (see end of this feature for band and tour websites as well as full itinerary). Hardradio caught up with Dave "Snake" Sabo on his cell phone, he and the communication device on their way to Memphis, where Dave and would play the first date of the tour, his phone sitting out the set, perhaps chilling on the bus with a sweet southern Bell.
"We've been out for a couple weeks on our own now getting the rust off the gears, basically getting out at it. But it's awesome, really killer. The big tour starts tomorrow actually for the first two shows, and then for some odd reason there's two and a half weeks off and then it starts I guess properly on June 7th. Currently they're looking at 35 or 40 dates, but it might go as high as 60."
And the set list? "Lately we've been playing some new material, our new single Thick Is The Skin. Every market we go into, we release it to radio. You can download that song off our website, which is www.skidrowonline.com. So that's been getting an amazing response and from the live audience. It's very encouraging. We haven't had any new material out in a long time, so for people to be responding the way they are, it's awesome. We're not playing anything else other than that that's new, but some of the other new songs we've got are Born A Beggar, Ghost, and Swallow Me. But live, it's everything people would want to hear from us. We're not shy of what we've done in the past. We're very proud of what we've been able to accomplish so we know people want to hear a certain thing and you have to be able to give it to them. You've got to service your fan base."
It's been seven years since the last Skid Row album, the Bob Rock-produced Subhuman Race, which, even though launched at a time dead for metal, managed to do 1.2 million worldwide and become the band's most critically acclaimed album in the process (alright, alright... it's probably slipped behind Slave To The Grind in recent years). But what gives?
SKID ROW - Youth Gone... Page 2