During an appearance on a recent episode of “The BlackSheep Podcast”, SKID ROW guitarist Dave “Snake” Sabo spoke about how the introduction of the band’s latest addition, Swedish-born singer Erik Grönwall, brought about a rejuvenated energy and a burst of creativity that had been previously missing for quite some time.

“One of the great things about the way the band is now is that we’ve already started writing for the next record,” Snake said : “I mean, there’s four potential songs for the next record already. And who knows whether they’ll make it or not. We’ve never done that before. So that’s kind of where everybody’s head is at. We’re really staying in the moment, but we’re also utilizing this newfound energy, shall I say, to be really creative and productive.

“We always kind of went by write the record, record the record, tour, get off tour and get done with touring, write the record, record the record, tour. That’s been kind of the way that we’ve worked,” he explained. “But not this time. We’re actively writing. Erik is a very creative guy. He’s a really good guitar player. So it really helps. We’re exchanging ideas back and forth again and writing during soundchecks and things like that. So it’s been nothing but positive.”

Grönwall famously went from auditioning for the competition show “Swedish Idol” back in 2009 by singing a cover of SKID ROW‘s “18 And Life” to now fronting the band.

Grönwall joined SKID ROW as the replacement for ZP Theart, who had been in the group for more than six years.

In March 2022, SKID ROW released its first single with Grönwall, “The Gang’s All Here”. The song is the title track of the band’s latest album, which arrived in October via earMUSIC.

SKID ROW recorded most of “The Gang’s All Here” in Nashville, Tennessee with producer Nick Raskulinecz, who has previously worked with FOO FIGHTERS, STONE SOUR, HALESTORM, EVANESCENCE, RUSH and ALICE IN CHAINS, among many others.

Grönwall, who was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in March 2021 and was declared cancer free six months later after receiving a bone marrow transplant, released his cover version of “18 And Life” that same month via all streaming platforms.

Last May, Snake was asked by The Aquarian Weekly if it helped that Erik was a huge SKID ROW fan and knew all the songs coming into the band. He said: “Oh, he knew the songs. He did his homework. That’s another thing — he has this incredible work ethic. His story is incredible. He’s the one that deserves to tell his own personal path, but he has such an amazing appreciation for music and for singing. It shows. He’s not just up there singing and doing a job. He’s living it. He’s living those lyrics and owning all of that stuff. That’s one of the things that we noticed with the songs on the new record is that he owned it. He owned it. We finished the vocals while we were in Las Vegas (opening for the SCORPIONS in March and April 2022) because we had such great success with him doing it remotely from Sweden with our producer Nick Raskulinecz that we said we can do it on our days off to finish the record. We did a bunch of different vocal tracks and did some comping and stuff, but it wasn’t a lot of takes. That’s for sure. Rachel (Bolan, SKID ROW bassist) and I were in the studio and were, like, ‘Man, we don’t even need to be here.’ That’s how much he owned these new songs. You can see the live performances too. He owns our whole catalog as well.”