Asbury Park Press from Asbury Park, New Jersey • Page 122

1 Syr GREETINGS FROM AY TOMS RIVER i recalls. "My friends and I would hitchhike. If it wasn't raining, we'd hitchhike to Seaside. If it was raining, we'd hitchhike to the mall. "We'd just hang out, follow girls around and go to Camelot Music.

That was the one and only record store. I must have bought four Kiss records as they came out, and just about all the Ramones albums, the day they came out from that very store." Sometimes Bolan would travel to Asbury Park to catch a show at Convention Hall. "I remember the first time I was in Convention Hall was for a car he says. "I went with my father and my older brother. Being the hot-rod junkie that my brother was, I got infected right there.

I saw the Ramones there a couple of times." Then came the day in the mid '80s when Sabo and Bolan crossed paths at Garden State Music Center in Dover Township. "I'd been going there since I'd been playing bass, and he got hired," recalls Bolan. "So I was like, 'Oh, cool, another dude with long hair that's in a Whatever." From Sayreville to Silverton wasn't that a punishing commute for Sabo? "I couldn't get a job in Sayreville'; no one would hire me unless I was riding on the back of a truck," says Sabo. "I wouldn't do it. I knew that music was what I wanted to do.

Somehow I got hooked up with the people who own the music store down there. "Lo and behold, I went to work down there and Rachel walked in. I was like, 'That guy's a "I went in and we just started talking," says Bolan. "I guess we each saw the fact that the other guy was just as passionate about making it in a band. "We just hit it off.

We started writing songs. He had a band at the time and I had a band, which (guitarist) Scotti Hill was in. We just disbanded those and started looking for guys, and Skid Row was born." With founding singer Sebastian Bach, Skid Row released its self-titled debut album in 1989 (after a little record company arm-twisting by Sabo's onetime band buddy Bon Jovi). "18 and Life" was Skid Row's "Stairway to Heaven." After breaking up in 1996, Sabo and Bolan reunited Skid Row sans Bach. They found Bach's replacement, Texan Johnny Solinger, over the Internet.

Says Bolan of Solinger's audition: "Halfway through the first song we said, 'This is the But we didn't tell him for two weeks. He's a great singer. He's got some of that Dallas southern soul." Adds Sabo: "He had this 'devil may care' attitude." Now Skid Row is "back to being what it's supposed to be," according to Bolan. "When you're dreaming about getting into a rock 'n' roll band when you're a little kid," Bolan says, "you think, 'I get to escape from real life and live a fantasy and have a lot of And that's actually what we're doing now." 5 If, ff i 'he AND Above: Skid Row Bolan, singer Sabo. Far right: By MARK VOGER STAFF WRITER They may not have played up the Jersey angle like their mentor Jon Bon Jovi (or his spiritual mentor, Bruce Springsteen), but Skid Row is a dyed-in-the-macadam Garden State concern.

Take guitarist Dave "The Snake" Sabo Sayreville through and through. And bassist Rachel Bolan as Toms River as they come. 'Skid Row late-'80s hair metalists who survived that doomed movement through tenacious touring was born when these two met at a music store in the Silverton section of Dover Township. Before that, both musicians had their favorite local haunts, like anyone else coming of age in these parts. "Growing up in that town is not unlike any other small suburban town," says Sabo of Sayreville.

"It's just amazing to me all the people that have come out of that area. Obviously, Jon Bon Jovi and (baseball coach) Tom Kelly A buddy I went to high school with, Mike Wasko, was on the Olympic bobsled team. It just goes on and on. "This is a little, small town. So I don't know what's up with the water there, but God bless it, you know?" Where did Sabo hang out? "I was always riding dirt bikes in the clay pits," he says.

"Then when I was older, sneaking into bars like the old Fountain Casino (in Aberdeen) and hanging out at Simko's (in Sayreville). I mean, we owned Simko's for a while, you know? All the bars in town were great, because everyone knew each other. "My mom still lives there, so I still frequent there whenever I'm home. I still go down to Simko's and I'll go to Gianni's (in Piscataway) or wherever. I love it.

"I had a great childhood in that town. I have friends who I'm still extremely close with, who I see every time I'm home. They don give a about what I've done or what I'm doing; they just care about me as a person. It keeps your ego in check." Meanwhile, down the road a piece, Bolan graduated class of '82 from Toms River High School East. "Barely," he notes.

"I was never big on school." Where did Bolan hang out? "It was always Seaside (Heights), especially during the summer," Bolan says. "We'd stand out in front of a liquor store and find someone to get us a six-pack, and then we'd split it among 10 kids. Go under the boardwalk and hang out and watch the fireworks. Just typical stuff that everyone did. "And, you know, Six Flags when it was called just Great Adventure (in Jackson).

I would lo to see shows there. I saw Joe Jackson, the Ramones, Heart, Pat Benatar. The list goes on." Then there's the Ocean County Mall in Dover Township. "I was little and I remember that being built," Bolan of Jersey rockers kJJ Virs 7 today includes (from left) guitarist Dave "The Snake" Sabo, bassist Rachel Johnny Sollnger, drummer Phil Varone and guitarist Scottl Hill. Far left: Vintage Vintage Bolan.

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