is an
American Heavy Metal band which became the glam metal prototypes of the late
1980s metal scene and were successful until they were
Eclipsed by the
Seattle Grunge bands in
1991 .
As of
2007 , Skid Row has released five full-length albums, an EP, a compilation album and a live recording. The band became popular with their first two albums, ''
Skid Row '' (1989) and ''
Slave To The Grind '' (1991), which are often considered their best known works to date. Their last full-length album, ''
Revolutions Per Minute '', came out on
October 24 ,
2006 . The group has sold 20 million albums worldwide, according to then-singer
Sebastian Bach .
They are often associated with
Glam Metal , partly due to their appearance and their sound on their debut album, ''Skid Row'' which spawned the hits "
18 And Life ", "
Youth Gone Wild ", and "
I Remember You " for the band.
They would eventually go on to make music more akin to
Thrash Metal with
Hard Rock leanings. The band bought the name Skid Row from
Gary Moore 's first band
Skid Row .
Skid Row was formed in
Toms River, New Jersey in
1986 by bassist
Rachel Bolan and guitarist
Dave "the Snake" Sabo . The pair added guitarist
Scotti Hill , drummer
Rob Affuso , and vocalist
Sebastian Bach , who replaced original singer
Matt Fallon , to the lineup by early
1987 . The band began playing shows in clubs throughout eastern United States.
With the assistance of friend
Jon Bon Jovi , Sabo secured a record deal for Skid Row with
Atlantic . In
1989 , the band released their first album, ''
Skid Row '', which was an instant success. The record went 5x platinum and produced the hit singles "18 and Life", "
I Remember You ", and "Youth Gone Wild".
In what is referred to as "The Bottle Incident" by fans of the band, Bach had been hit with a bottle thrown onstage from the crowd at a concert in ?'' in
1990 .
Shortly thereafter Bach put on, during a concert, a t-shirt proclaiming the
Anti-gay Slogan "AIDS Kills Fags Dead". The shirt was thrown onstage by a fan, and Bach, without looking at it, put it on. After the concert Sebastian apologized, stating "My grandmother had recently died of cancer, I guess I would be pissed too if I saw someone wearing a "CANCER Kills Grandmothers Dead" shirt" . In later years Bach apologized seriously for wearing the shirt, and made a substantial donation to an AIDS charity.
Skid Row's second album, ''
Slave To The Grind '' (
1991 ), debuted at Number 1 in the American charts. ''Slave to the Grind'' became a big success, and Skid Row once again went out on a worldwide tour which lasted over a year, including a leg supporting Guns N' Roses in 1991 and an appearance at the Castle Donnington Festival in 1992. ''Slave to the Grind'' was a departure for the band; where ''
Skid Row '' was an album that followed the typical hair band formula, ''Slave to the Grind'' had a heavier sound, even verging on thrash with the songs "Mudkicker" and the title track. It was released in two versions, with a "Clean" version replacing the track "Get The Fuck Out" with another, "Beggars Day". The album received strong critical praise, but despite the fact that it disappeared from the charts, received 2X Platinum from RIAA certifications.
After a four year hiatus, Skid Row returned with their third album, ''
Subhuman Race '' (1995), which surprisingly charted in the top 40. Although the album did not achieve the success of ''Skid Row'' and ''Slave to the Grind'', it generated a few hits, but at that point, their videos were rarely played on
MTV .
Eventually, Bach was fired by the band in early 1997, just after turning down a show with
Kiss . Although Skid Row never officially broke up, the remaining members went on to play briefly in a band called Ozone Monday, which also featured singer Shawn McCabe.
Skid Row reformed in 1999 with new vocalist
Johnny Solinger , formerly of "Solinger", and their original drummer Charlie Mills (who was a member of the band for a short time in the 1980s before Rob Affuso replaced him). Mills soon left the band and was replaced with then-new drummer
Phil Varone , formerly of
Saigon Kick . After reforming, they opened for
KISS on their farewell tour, and have also played with other 1980s metal bands such as
Poison . They have been on tour every summer. In
2002 they were part of the
Rock Never Stops Tour .
Skid Row released their fourth album, ''
Thickskin '', in
2003 , which would be their first album to feature Solinger (as Bach's replacement) and Varone (as Affuso's replacement). It would also be their first album with original material since 1995's ''
Subhuman Race ''. After the release of the album Varone left the band and was replaced by current drummer
Dave Gara .
The fifth (and most recent) Skid Row album, ''
Revolutions Per Minute '', came out on
October 24 , 2006 through
SPV Records . It was produced by
Michael Wagener , who produced their first two highly acclaimed albums ''
Skid Row '' and ''
Slave To The Grind ''.
