METAL HELL: What’s up lately?

RACHEL BOLAN: We’re getting geared up for this tour with Kings X & Nashville Pussy & the release of the record on October 24th & I’m getting psyched. We’re gonna take those guys out with us. I figure it’s a pretty diverse bill. It’s like the old days where they’d put 3 bands that    weren’t really similar but had some common thread. Instead of having 3 bands that sound exactly alike.

MH: How would you compare Revolutions Per Minute to past albums?

RB: For this record we just wrote what we liked. It goes in a lot of different directions. There’s no ballads, it’s just balls out rock & roll.

MH: How long has the writing been going on?

RB: There was some down time between personal things that happened within the band. It was a couple of years, a year & a half or something. Some of the songs were written 6 months before we recorded the record.

MH: Do you usually write individually?

RB: There’s really no process, Snake & I usually write the bulk of the stuff. I wrote a lot of it on my own this time around. Snake & I wrote a cool song. Scotti & I wrote a song. We did a cover as well. We never really do it the same way twice.

MH: Do you think progression comes more when you wait a while between records?

RB: It could be, the only pre conceived notion we had with this record was to write stuff that you can drive a car real fast to or turn the world upside down with, so that’s what we tried to do.

MH: Sometimes when bands release albums too fast, they sound identical.

RB: Yeah that does happen a lot. We’ve already started writing the next record & so far it doesn’t sound anything like Revolutions.

MH: What inspired the lyrics this time?

RB: A lot of it was daily relationships, whether it’s with a chick or a friend or a stranger or whatever, or listening to the story. That’s how I usually write lyrics & the way a lot of stuff happened was a few of my friends moved into my house because they were getting divorced & had nowhere to stay so by listening to everyone talk, it was like, there’s a lot of common threads between a lot of different people and that influenced a lot of my lyrics.

MH: Is it important to have a sense of humor like the country song (“You Lie”)?

RB: I think rock & roll is about release & it’s about fun. In most of the interviews I’ve been doing they have said this is a fun record & that’s so important. If people can have fun & get away from daily life & daily stress from listening to Skid Row that’s a big pay off right there.

MH: Were any extra songs recorded?

RB: We have a 3rd version of “You Lie”, the cow-punk song we like to call it. Which is a duet with a friend of ours, this girl Rachel Hagan, who is a singer out of Louisville. So that’ll show up probably on our website.

MH: How did “You Lie” come about? Whose idea was that?

RB: That was me I wrote that song. A friend of mine found his wife in bed with another man so he was telling me the story & obviously that sticks out. I just listened to what he said & the next day I picked up an acoustic guitar and started fiddling around with it & it just came out. There was nothing really planned. I never planned on writing a country-esque song. It just popped out & there it was. It’s funny cause when I brought that to the band I thought these guys are gonna think I’ve completely lost my mind (laughs) but I played it for ‘em & they were like ‘this is really cool, we’ve got to do it’, so it was all good.

MH: Do you think the music you’re listening to at the time of recording has any effect on the outcome?

RB: Sometimes it does, but at the time of doing this record I was listening to the same stuff I always did, except some of the newer bands like My Chemical Romance. But I don’t think there’s anything that sounds too much like that on there. But sometimes it does & sometimes it doesn’t. It depends on how much you let it get in your head.

MH: With bass lines, do you prefer to follow the riffs or to lock in with the drums?

RB: I usually lock in with the drums more. It depends. Sometimes I go between both of ‘em. I feel it out and see what comes from it. If it’s gonna make it better I’ll get a little busier. If it’s not I’ll stay simple. You don’t wanna take away from the essence the song.

MH: Do you find it easier to be creative now without pressures for hit songs?

RB: That was our whole concept behind this record. We were like to hell with the ballads & to hell with worrying about it when isn’t gonna be on the radio anyway & let’s just write from our heart. Which we always did but there was always that pressure & we wrote without pressure. Thankfully we’re on a great label (SPV), which is backing what we do & has faith in what we do. It’s a win- win situation

MH: Does everyone in the band have a lot of common musical threads?

RB: We all do listen to different stuff but it’s a bit of both. We all turn each other on to stuff. Scotti, this past year has been listening to a lot of Flogging Molly & Dropkick Murphys, which I love & which is our common thread. Then there’s My Chemical Romance, which I turned him onto.  Snake listens to a lot of different stuff. Johnny is getting into a lot of country rock, like Hank the 3rd & stuff like that as well as Fall Out Boy. Those are newer things we’ve been listening to & turning each other on to. There’s some stuff I’ll listen to that I’ll try & play for one of the guys & they’re not into it, but there’s a lot of stuff that we all like that we would’ve never listened to unless the other guy had turned us on to it.

MH: What’s your favorite Ramones album?

RB: That’s a tough one. Road To Ruin is an amazing record. There’s so many, even some of their later ones are good, like Adios Amigos. If I had to pick one it would probably be Road To Ruin. The first record was unbelievable.

MH: Has a new DVD been considered?

RB: We are gonna put out a new DVD, probably before the end of this tour. However long it goes, whether it’s going to be live or another knuckle headed DVD with us making idiots of ourselves, who knows. But there will be another DVD & there’s gonna be a live album sometime as well as another studio record.

MH: Are you doing any new cover songs lately?

RB: We actually put a cover song on the new record. It’s the song “Strength” by The Alarm.  We did that but we do have something live we’re cooking up which will be cool. I don’t wanna let the cat out of the bag because it’s gonna be a really cool one that we’re only gonna do live. It’s an old metal song that I think people are gonna lose their freakin’ minds about.

MH: You don’t hear about The Alarm much anymore.

RB: That’s why we picked the song, because it’s obscure enough where people won’t think we’re trying too hard to put a cover on the record. But it’s popular enough where once it gets to the first chorus people are gonna be like oh yeah I remember this song.

MH: What are your best memories of touring with Dimebag?

RB: Dime was one of the most creative persons I’ve ever met in my life. The guy was always creating. Whether it was with his video camera or his 4-track recorder that he had on the bus, or creating just to be funny. He was an amazing person aside from his guitar thing. He was an incredible person and a very caring guy.

When we took them out he was a young kid, not much younger than me, but very youthful & out of control & funny. The guy could always make you laugh no matter how bummed out you were. He could always bring up your spirits. That guy will be seriously missed forever. I still find it hard to listen to a Pantera song all the way through because I miss that guy so much.

MH: And you guys & them would always close the shows doing “Cold Gin.”

RB: Yeah, it was a cool tour because they were so opposite of what Skid Row was, but it just seemed to work. I spoke to Rex the other day & we were laughing our ass off on telling stories about Dime. We were laughing so hard we couldn’t help it. The guy was so funny & such a good person. We were going on for an hour; oh remember when he did this? How about when he did that? So his spirit’s gonna be around for a long time to come.

MH: At the time, was it conscious to make Slave To The Grind a lot heavier than the 1st album?

RB: I think it was a natural progression. At the end of the 1st albums tour we were all starting to listen to heavier stuff. We were getting into Motorhead a lot & The Cro-mags & stuff like that. Once we got around to writing for Slave it was a natural progression.

MH: What is your favorite TV show?

RB: Scrubs is without a doubt my favorite TV show, I love that. I buy every season on DVD. I’ve got it on my I-pod. I watch it on airplanes all the time. It keeps me calm on planes.

MH: Have you seen the Deathklok Metalocalypse cartoon?

RB: I have seen a couple episodes, that’s pretty funny & I love Robot Chicken.

MH: What bands do you still look forward to hearing new albums from?

RB: It’s weird. I listen to, like I was saying My Chemical Romance. I haven’t heard their new CD yet but I’m looking forward to hearing it. Green Day, everything they put out. Foo Fighters, every time they put out a record the day it comes out I get it. This band Damone I like a lot. With a chick singing & a lot of their stuff is really cool. It’s a weird mix of pop & almost like Iron Maiden so it’s pretty cool. It’s a lot different than the stuff that’s out there.

MH: Didn’t they cover “Wasted Years” by Iron Maiden?

RB: Yeah, they did an acoustic version of it. It’s awesome! It’s super cool.

MH: What’s next for Skid Row?

RB: We’ve got this tour coming up that starts on Halloween, with Nashville Pussy & Kings X.  VH1 Classic is behind it & Gibson Guitars are part sponsor of it so good things are happening for Skid Row. We’re looking forward to getting out there and going overseas & touring the world again and bringing our music out there.

MH: Any messages for the readers of Metal Hell?

RB: Just that we’re a lucky band to have fans that have been around for 20 years to be as loyal as they are. And well as the new fans that have come in. We’ve got brothers & sisters or even their kids at our shows. We just want to say thank you to all those people for sticking with us through thick & thin. We’re very fortunate to be a band from our era, one of the only ones, that still has a record deal & that are able to go out & tour the world, so we have our fans to thank for that. It’s wild because in 1995 to 1998 or even ’94 to ’98 it was not cool to like Skid Row & all the sudden we’re cool again so that makes us feel good.