Skid Row bassist Rachel Bolan says frontman Johnny Solinger was sacked because he wasn’t fully committed to the band.
The singer left the group after 14 years earlier this month, saying he was ready to pursue a solo career, with the band quickly replacing him with former TNT vocalist Tony Harnell. But Bolan insists it was their decision to let him go.
He tells One On One With Mitch Lafon: “We released him. The statement he made wasn’t really the right thing to say on his part.”
Bolan says he and the band noticed problems with Solinger while on tour, adding: “It was evident. There were certain things going on out on the road that kind of set us thinking.
“At certain times you just get the feeling someone isn’t putting 100% into things. And Skid Row is very important to the rest of us. And we wanted to carry on with quality performances and quality songs, so we decided to make a change.”
Bolan reports they announced Harnell so quickly as they didn’t want any speculation whether they would reunite with original vocalist Sebastian Bach – and reveals they started working with the former TNT man earlier this year before Solinger was officially out of the band.
He adds: “That’s why we made the call to Johnny and announced Tony the same day. We knew if we had let Johnny go a couple of months ago when we had started working with Tony, that would be the thing everyone would be thinking.
“We started working with him in a rehearsal situation and things went really well and we made a decision. We actually recorded a song and shot some video, so an announcement on that will be coming out in the next few weeks.”
Skid Row will record the third chapter in their United World Rebellion series of EPs this summer.