Rachel Bolan sat down with Going Off Track and revealed his biggest regret about Skid Row.
While chatting about the band’s studio albums, he compared ‘Slave To The Grind’ to their debut album ‘Skid Row.’
“It was very organic, the heaviness, just shifting to that heavier side,” he said of ‘Slave To The Grind.’ “Our biggest mistake, and I’m saying ‘our’ — I disagreed with the decision, so I’m just putting that on record — was releasing ‘Slave To The Grind’ as a single, the song ‘Slave To The Grind’. Radio didn’t touch it. Our male fanbase went up. The female fanbase dried up. They all but disappeared. And then we took Pantera on the road, and it was mainly guys at the show. But we love Pantera.”
When it came time for the singles off ‘Slave To The Grind,’ ‘Monkey Business,’ was a hit, and things seemed to be moving in the right direction. “But anyway, with ‘Slave To The Grind’, we came out with [the first single] ‘Monkey Business’. It went breaker in two weeks, so we had a certified hit. We’re on a f*ckin roll now. Radio jumped on, before we even released the second single, or even thought of a second single, the radio jumped on ‘Quicksand Jesus’.”
Bolan recalled that the band was advised against releasing ‘Quicksand Jesus’ as the second single. “And I was, like, ‘This is great. This is awesome.’ I go, ‘This is our ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’.’ I mean, the song is six minutes long. And I’m not saying it’s as good as ‘Bohemian’; you know what I mean. I’m, like, ‘This is great.’ Somebody — I think our manager at the time — said, ‘We shouldn’t release that song second.’ And we had someone in the band that agreed with him. And I’m, like, ‘But the radio’s already playing it. Don’t we see what’s going on?’ So someone came up with the fantastic idea — ’cause Snake [Skid Row guitarist Dave Sabo] and I were the radio guys; we would do all the interviews; we did the rounds — ‘why don’t you and Snake start calling and ask them not to play it, until we decide on a single?’ I’m, like, ‘Are you serious?’ ‘Yeah.’ So, I did as I was told and we called [and literally asked radio stations] to not play that song because we were coming with a different single.”
The results were just what they expected. “I had one guy yell at me, one PD [program director] yell at me. I forget which market it was, but it was a major market; I think it was out near Chicago. He goes, ‘Are you out of your f*cking mind?’ And I go, ‘Yeah, I think so.’ And then we released ‘Slave To The Grind’ [as a single]. And radio wasn’t only, ‘We’re not playing this. It’s too heavy for our listenership.’ They were also, like, ‘We’re not playing it. And f*ck you.’ And then we tried again with ‘Quicksand Jesus’.”
Bolan also shared his regret over the missed opportunity. “Everyone was, like, ‘Too late, too late.’ And that was pretty much it for radio for that record. We had videos, we had ‘Wasted Time’ and ‘Slave’ and ‘Monkey’. And what else did we have? Was that it for that record? I forget. But, yeah, that was a huge mistake. And I remember being in that hotel room [and saying], ‘We can’t release ‘Slave To The Grind’ as a single.'”
The rocker recalled how the band’s manager at the time responded to his concerns. “And I remember our manager at the time going, ‘You guys can do whatever the f*ck you want at this point.’ Big mistake. Huge mistake. But, yeah, that was our biggest mistake. I just remember seeing it in the room and seeing a few guys thinking it was a great idea, and I’m, like, ‘It’s not a great idea. This is not a great idea.’ And I just got ignored, and that was it. And it was done. But I think that record would have sold a lot more had we stayed the course and let someone dictate for us, in a good way. But it is what it is.”
Released in June 1991, ‘Slave To The Grind’ quickly went platinum and became the first album to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 since they started using Nielsen Music data. The album spent one week at No. 1 and sold over two million copies in the U.S.
