{"id":565082,"date":"2026-07-29T10:35:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T10:35:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/565082\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T10:35:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T10:35:15","slug":"rachel-bolan-interview-gargoyle-of-the-garden-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/565082\/","title":{"rendered":"Rachel Bolan interview: Gargoyle Of The Garden State"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s taken Rachel Bolan almost 40 years to release his debut solo album, the punky Gargoyle Of The Garden State. \u201cWell, you know, I have a day job,\u201d the longtime Skid Row bassist says drily.<\/p>\n

Still, the New Jersey native has thrown himself into the solo job, singing and playing most of the instruments himself (although he does get a hand from guests such as Corey Taylor, Danko Jones, Extreme\u2019s Nuno Bettencourt and Skid Row bandmates Dave \u2018Snake\u2019 Sabo and Scotti Hill).<\/p>\n

\u201cI moved back here after living in Atlanta for twenty-five years,\u201d he says of his recent relocation to Jersey. \u201cYou start missing the comforts of home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Latest Videos From Louder<\/p>\n

\n

\"Lightning\n<\/p>\n

Why call the album Gargoyle Of The Garden State? Aren\u2019t you being harsh on yourself? You\u2019re not that ugly.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I was originally just gonna call it Gargoyle. A lot of people don\u2019t know that a gargoyle actually serves a purpose [they act as waterspouts on churches \u2013 Architecture Ed]. It\u2019s the same with bass players – most people don\u2019t realise we serve a purpose too, until we miss a note [laughs]. Then I moved back here and I started reconnecting with friends I\u2019ve known since I was ten years old. So I put the two things together.<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

Pretend you work for the New Jersey Tourist Board. Why should I visit the place?<\/p>\n

The thing about New Jerseyans is that we\u2019re natural-born storytellers and hard workers. We\u2019re very honest, too. People in Atlanta have that Southern charm. When I first moved there, a friend told me: \u201cI thought you were the biggest asshole because you just said whatever you were thinking.\u201d I had to train myself to hold myself back so I wouldn\u2019t hurt people\u2019s feelings.<\/p>\n

Sign up below to get the latest from Classic Rock, plus exclusive special offers, direct to your inbox!<\/p>\n

Corey Taylor sings on Big Stick, which features the lines \u2018It\u2019s time to kill the king\u2019 and \u2018Let\u2019s kick the fascists out of town\u2019. You\u2019re not sitting on the fence there.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not Bono, but I needed to put out that song because of everything going on today. Every morning I see something more bizarre or horrible. My dad was in World War II and he told me stories about what was happening. Now I see things happening in this country that sound exactly like the stories he told me. It\u2019s scary and it angers me.<\/p>\n

Are you worried about blowback from any MAGA Skid Row fans?<\/p>\n

What to read next<\/p>\n

No, I\u2019m really not. We\u2019re all pretty like-minded in Skid Row, though we don\u2019t talk about it much publicly. If people don\u2019t like me because of my views, then [shrugging dismissively] okay.<\/p>\n

Rachel Bolan (Skid Row) \u2013 \u201cMemory\u201d (Official Music Video) – YouTube
\n\"Rachel<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

You were always the punk guy in Skid Row. What got you into punk in the first place?<\/p>\n

I was always really into Kiss<\/a>, but then a friend turned me on to the Ramones<\/a>, and it was just, like: \u201cWoah, this is even faster.\u201d I guess I must have been fifteen. The first time I saw the Ramones, they were playing an amusement park. It was one of the hottest days in July, and the sun was beating down, but they never took their leather jackets off. The Ramones lead to the Sex Pistols<\/a> and Dead Kennedys<\/a> and Dead Boys<\/a>, and all these bands. You realise these bands are saying some heavy shit in their songs.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve covered Oasis\u2019s Rock And Roll Star on the new album. That\u2019s handy timing, given the success of their reunion.<\/p>\n

I did that way before they reunited, so I was ahead of the curve. Noel Gallagher is a phenomenal songwriter. I like the snarky, sarcastic lyrics in that song about someone who just wants to be themselves in the public eye. I relate to it, cos I sometimes just want to be the guy eating a hamburger without someone asking: \u201cWhere\u2019s your nose chain and your leather trousers?\u201d I\u2019m like: \u201cUh, in my hotel room? Sorry, man, this is how I dress.\u201d<\/p>\n

You race cars in your spare time. What\u2019s the attraction?<\/p>\n

Yeah, I used to do it quite a lot. I raced high-performance go-karts and what they call Legends cars, which have a kind of stock car body but smaller. Any kind of sport I was into usually had a motor attached to it. I just love going really fast.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the hairiest moment you\u2019ve had on the track?<\/p>\n

I was racing in Hickory, North Carolina, on this track that actually scared me. I was behind this guy who spun out, and I tried to go between him and the wall but I hit his back tyre and went airborne. The car slammed into the wall and spun back onto the track. I had the wind knocked out of me. I was lucky I didn\u2019t break my arm. I tried to restart the car, but the safety crew pointed out my front wheels were heading down the track in different directions.<\/p>\n

Did your manager tell you to maybe think twice about that stuff in the future?<\/p>\n

It was Scotti [Hill] who was the voice of reason. He didn\u2019t tell me not to do it, he just asked me not to do it while we were on tour.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the state of play with Skid Row? Erik Gr\u00f6nwall left in 2024 and Lzzy Hale did a great job standing in for a few gigs last year, but have you found a new full-time singer yet?<\/p>\n

We have our eye on about five guys. We have the luxury of time, since we aren\u2019t mid-record or on tour. We\u2019ll probably go with someone new \u2013 someone with experience but not necessarily a recognisable name.<\/p>\n

Well, that rules out one obvious candidate.<\/p>\n

You mean Lzzy?<\/p>\n

No, I meant Sebastian Bach.<\/p>\n

No, that wasn\u2019t even a question.<\/p>\n

Last thing: who\u2019s the greatest person to come from New Jersey? <\/p>\n

It\u2019s gotta be Bruce Springsteen<\/a>. I admire his storytelling so much. When you\u2019re born in Jersey, they give you a copy of Born To Run before they even slap your ass.<\/p>\n

Gargoyle Of The Garden State is out now via earMUSIC.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Rachel Bolan: Gargoyle Of The Garden State – Today’s Best Prices<\/p>\n

\"Amazon<\/a>\"Amazon\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s taken Rachel Bolan almost 40 years to release his debut solo album, the punky Gargoyle Of The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":565083,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[458,146,85,46],"class_list":["post-565082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=565082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565082\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/565083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=565082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=565082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=565082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}