Skid Row bassist Rachel Bolan recently addressed the band’s ongoing search for a new lead singer to replace Erik Grönwall. He explained what the group is really looking for in his replacement, in comments shared on The No Treble podcast.
Bolan explained that the search has been notably unhurried compared to previous transitions. He detailed how the band is using a campaign with Sweetwater alongside outside submissions to sift through candidates before ultimately testing them in a live setting.
“We have the luxury of time, which is the best possible thing, because last time we got a new singer, we were in the middle of doing an album,” Bolan said. “The time before that, we had a tour booked. And when things don’t work out, they just don’t work out. Sometimes you see it coming from way down the road, and sometimes you get blindsided.”
Bolan then turned to the scale of the search itself, describing the volume of submissions the band has been reviewing.
“So, the point we’re at now, we’re doing this campaign with Sweetwater, and we’ve had over… We’ve watched — there’s probably more; we gotta get caught up — but we’ve watched 300 submissions,” he continued. “There’s been about 20 outside of the Sweetwater campaign, a situation where friends in bands will be like, ‘We got a guy.’ Sometimes they’ll show us and it’s, like, ‘Is that what you really think of this band?’ [Laughs]”
He went on to note that while many talented vocalists have applied, not all of them are a fit for Skid Row specifically.
“But there’s a lot of really, really great singers out there. Some of them just aren’t right for us,” he said. “But it’s, like, ‘Wow, this dude should be insanely popular,’ or, ‘This woman should be insanely popular.’ But they won’t work out for Skid Row. So, what we do is we’ll get four or five people through these submissions, and, all right, send them the clean tracks, and they’ll sing on top of them and send them back, or put a video out or whatever they do.”
Finally, Bolan explained the crucial last step in the process — bringing finalists together in person to see how they perform outside the studio.
“And it’s, like, ‘Wow, they’re really good. They sound great. Let’s get a few of them together, get them into New Jersey.’ We’ll get in a room over the course of a week or whatever, and we will just see if it works, see if it works in a live situation,” he said. “Having a studio and singing in a studio is great, but you know how it is. It’s, like, you could get it so perfect and it might not transfer live.”
This methodical, time-intensive approach stands in sharp contrast to how the band’s last two vocalist transitions played out. It offers some insight into why Skid Row is taking such care this time around.
Erik Grönwall departed the band in March 2024, citing the difficulty of balancing the demands of touring and fronting a hard rock band with his ongoing recovery. Grönwall had been diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in 2021 and was declared cancer-free after receiving a bone marrow transplant. His medical history made the grueling touring lifestyle a persistent challenge.
Grönwall had joined Skid Row in 2022, becoming the band’s fourth frontman since Sebastian Bach’s exit decades earlier. He arrived with a well-established résumé. He had won the Swedish version of “Idol” in 2009 and later fronted the rock band H.E.A.T. before stepping into the Skid Row role.
The current search has already produced a shortlist of contenders. Bolan has indicated the band worked through a large pool of video submissions before narrowing things down to a handful of names they’re genuinely excited about. That select group is now moving into a more advanced phase of evaluation.
Bolan has also made clear that star power isn’t the deciding factor for Skid Row. The band isn’t chasing a recognizable name for its own sake. The priority remains finding a vocalist whose voice and chemistry genuinely fit the group, even if that means passing on singers who could easily headline elsewhere.
No timeline has been given for when Skid Row expects to announce its next singer.
