John Parks at Legendary Rock Interviews recently caught up with SKID ROW guitarist Dave "The Snake" Sabo. An excerpt from the interview is available below:

LRI: I love the passion (former vocalist) SEBASTIAN BACH has for everything, he’s almost exhausting to talk with but it’s always fun. Why did things get so bad between Sebastian and the rest of you guys?

Snake: "I think a lot of times what happens a lot times in these situations is that people’s idiosyncracies or characters can become masked or hidden when you are experiencing a certain degree of success. When that success starts to fade certain character issues will come out and rear their head be it in a positive way or a negative way."

LRI: You start seeing a different side of someone when you go from playing sold out arenas to sold out clubs.

Snake: "Yeah and to be honest it never really bothered me, John. I’ve said this a hundred times in interviews so it’s really no news flash, it never really bothered me. I can’t say I was totally unaffected by it but not to the degree that it affected Sebastian. It really, really affected him when that happened at least from my vantage point. It angered him and he tended to act out and create personal issues with the band at that point. The way he treated Rob was particularly awful at that time and I think a lot of it had to do with us being very cognizant of our waning popularity. Sebastian, for some reason, just took that whole thing very, very personally. I think we all did but I know that I never looked at any of our success or acclaim as a birthrighth or that the world owed me it, I understand that level of fame does not last forever. I looked at every bit of it as an absolute gift and still do to this day, including talking to you. To be able to still be involved in this very tough business is amazing and I am very, very grateful. I think it is a blessing that all five of the original members of Skid Row are still in the business even though some of the band are doing their own thing. I never got into this to be a “rock star”. I wanted to be a guitar player and write songs and the fact that I am still able to do that is incredible. To be able to write songs that people enjoy or relate to is amazing. I truly am thankful to be able to play to any sized audience and accomplish what we continue to do."

LRI: Sebastian seemed to think your reliance on you and Rachel’s material was your downfall and you were opposed to outside writers or other people’s ideas.

Snake: "I don’t remember ever voicing any public opinion about not wanting outside writers although to be honest I might have. It’s not to say that I was opposed to using outside songwriters or controlling it all but just that I thought, maybe not rightfully so, but I thought that given what we had done with the first two records that we were capable of writing all of our own material. What I didn’t take into consideration was the fact that our relationships to each other was growing toxic. Like I said, I was very adamant that we were able to and capable of writing our own stuff whether that’s true or not is another story. It’s not to say that Rachel and I thought everything we did was gold as Bas says because we were always open to writing with other people if for no other reason than continue to grow and learn. We never thought we couldn’t learn from other writers. We would write all the time with bands we were out on the road with. We wrote on the AEROSMITH tour, we worked with Paul Stanley writing for the Revenge album and obviously working with guys like Richie and Jon. We were not at all against the idea of learning through collaboration. Maybe this is my ego talking but it’s just that I definitely wanted to keep as much of Skid Row’s writing 'in-house' as possible."

Click here for the complete interview.

Skid Row are currently in the studio working on their next album. Footage of bassist Rachel Bolan and drummer Rob Hammersmith working on a demo is available below:

The band have announced a string of live shows for 2012; confirmed dates are as follows:

March

30 - Havana - New Hope, PA
31 - Starland Ballroom - Sayerville, NJ

April

20 - Revolution - Ft.Lauderdale, FL
21 - GASC Grounds - Cape Coral, FL

May

12 - M3 Rock Fest - Columbia, MD

June

8 - Riverfest - Gasden, AL

July

12 - Rock USA - Oshkosh, WI

August

23 - Wolf Den - Uncasville, CT