The Gang’s All Here: 20 Fascinating Facts About Skid Row’s Latest Album
Explore the 20 fascinating and interesting facts and secrets that you probably didn’t know about Skid Row’s latest release The Gang’s All Here.
Instead of writing the good old album review, let’s try something else. Don’t get us wrong; we still love the classic style of review writing. However, there are always thousands of them on the internet whenever a new album is released. For that very reason, we have come up with some of the most interesting and fascinating facts and stories about the latest Skid Row album, The Gang’s All Here, that you might have never heard before.
1.One of the well known facts about this album is how Skid Row and Erik Grönwall came together. The band basically contacted Erik via Instagram after seeing a video on his YouTube channel of him singing a cover of the song “18 And Life”. Fun fact: Erik had performed that same song in Swedish Idol, back in 2009.
2.Just six months after Erik’s had his transplantation, he came to the US to begin rehearsals with the band. They had their first ever rehearsal on a Tuesday and their first performance was on Saturday that same week as the opening act for Scorpions. It was in Las Vegas on March 26, 2022.
3.Until this concert, Erik did not perform and had not been on stage for nearly two years due to his illness. When he was first asked to be a member of Skid Row, which was via Zoom, he thought it would be just temporary.
4.Skid Row and HEAT (Erik’s pervious band from Sweden) had toured together in the past, and according to Rachel Bolan, Erik had been one of the Top four singers that Skid Row had wanted since then.
5.Nick Raskulinecz was the producer of the album “The Gang’s All Here,” and according to the group members, he was the sixth member of the band in a creative sense. He helped a lot in the writing and producing process.
6.The album cover was designed to depict the band and the new life they were starting with this brand new lineup. They got that long awaited and desired unity, and the full circle was complete. It also describes something special that happened to them.
7.The flag on the album cover was modeled after the American flag, with each star representing a member of the band and each line representing Skid Row’s albums.
8.“The Gang’s All Here” is a song about the desire to be together again after the pandemic, and nothing more. The riff for this song was originally written by Paul Taylor from Winger, and it was later developed by Rachel Bolan and Snake Sabo.
9.“Tricky Little Vicky” is a line that can be heard in this song and it is a kind of homage to some previous works, as it first appeared in the song “Rattlesnake Shake” from the band’s first album in 1989.
10.Regarding the “October’s Song,” Snake had the music for this song many years ago. He used to use that opening riff to warm up on the acoustic guitar. The band members had been urging him for years to make something more of that riff. One day, they did it at Rachel’s house. It is the longest song in Skid Row’s discography and it’s about losses in life from which something completely new is reborn.
11.For the opening song, “Hell or High Water,” Snake came up with a riff that Rachel heard in reverse in his head until the drums came in.
12.The song “Nowhere Fast” was done in collaboration with lyricist and producer Johnny Andrews. It had a different timing, and the chorus was written by Scotti Hill in his very own and unique style.
13.“Not Dead Yet” is a song that was written towards the end of the pre-production period. They did it in one day, and according to the band members, it was exactly the song they were missing. The former singer of the band, ZP Theart, was also credited on this song, which is the only song on the album that he contributed to and his only contribution to the Skid Row discography.
14.“Time Bomb,” for which a video was also made, was a song for which Rachel came up with the main riff. When he brought it to rehearsal, everyone agreed that it was a monster riff.
15.“Resurrected” was a song that was changed the most among the songs from this release. It even had an acoustic version despite everything. Producer Nick Raskulinecz was the one who finally sorted it out.
16.In the song “When the Lights Come On,” Rachel Bolan recalls his youth spent in New York City. The song is about delinquency and experiences from the streets of the big city. Tommy London is mentioned in the song.
17.“Tear It Down” is a song about building and tearing down bridges. Marty Fredriksen also co-wrote this song. After Johnny Andrews and Paul Taylor, he is the third person outside of Skid Row to receive credits on this album.
18.It was Snake who came up with the riff for the song “World On Fire” that closes the album.
19.During the writing process for the album, the band also collaborated with Lzzy Hale from Halestorm and Corey Taylor from Slipknot/Stone Sour, among others, but those songs did not make it onto the record. According to the band members, we can expect to hear them on a future release.
20.“The Gang’s All Here” is the first Skid Row album released after their 2006 album “Revolutions Per Minute”. There was a 16-year gap between the two albums, which, for example, exceeds the infamous 15-year wait for the release of Guns N Roses’ “Chinese Democracy”.
That was all we could find out about this marvelous release. This album was not only one of the best releases of 2022 and probably one of the best in recent years. Skid Row really did a great job, and hopefully, we did too. Anyway, if you know any more interesting facts about this album, feel free to write them down in the comments section. We would love to hear them all.
You can listen to the whole album here or wherever you prefer!
