June 16, 2002. Providence Civic Center. The Rock Never Stops Tour. Skid Row, Jackyl, Vince Neil, and Tesla.
This turned out to be one of the more memorable concert experiences I’ve had. Not necessarily because of the performances, but because of what happened backstage. But first, a little background.
In late 1999, my buddy Dan and I started The Metal Show at the University of Rhode Island’s 90.3 WRIU. This wasn’t some campus station either. It reached all of RI, parts of MA, CT, and even NY on a clear night. We played the kind of metal you weren’t hearing on mainstream radio then. Dream Theater (the 20 minute tracks), Fates Warning, Anthrax, Megadeth, Overkill, In Flames, Nightwish, Edguy, Machinehead, Fear Factory, and countless others.
Dan was the thrash guy. I was the power metal guy. We met somewhere in between.
We also built the show’s hard-rock/metal record-label relationships from scratch. What started as a trickle of promotional music eventually became a mail crate full of CDs every week. We were getting music from labels like Century Media, Nuclear Blast, Metal Blade, and Roadrunner (thanks guys!).
And we weren’t just playing the music. We were interviewing the musicians.
A few weeks before the Rock Never Stops Tour rolled into Providence, we’d interviewed Skid Row bassist Rachel Bolan about the band’s upcoming Thickskin album and new singer, Johnny Solinger.
We’d also previously interviewed Tesla guitarist Tommy Skeoch.
Little did we know we’d end up hanging out with both of them backstage that night.
Before the Show: The Metal Show on WRIU
As stated, a few weeks prior to the Rock Never Stops show, we had done a phone interview with Skid Row’s bassist, Rachel Bolan. This was a unique interview (for him) because he was at a racetrack and had about 20 minutes before the race started, so once the engines started, the interview would be over. We talked about the new ‘Thickskin’ album, new singer, old singer (Sebastian is the man!) and more. Race started, interview over!
So we get to the Providence Civic Center (Dunkin Donuts Center is such a stupid name) and the guest passes we had set up through the radio station were messed up. This sucked, because by the time we got it all squared away after calling various promotion and label reps, we missed Skid Row’s set. But the passes, awesomely enough, were not just tickets as we expected, but all access passes. Back stage we went!
Meeting Rachel Bolan and Skid Row Backstage
While aimlessly wandering the hallways in the bowels of the civic center, Dan spots Rachel Bolan. I would not have recognized him, but Dan has a way of spotting anyone from any band it seems. Including bumping into Jim Matheos (I think) from the progressive metal band Fates Warning on two separate occasions. But I digress…
“Rachel!” Dan says. “Uh, yeah?” Rachel responds, obviously confused. Dan quick on his toes, “Yeah man. It’s Dan and Rob. We interviewed the other week over the phone. You were at the racetrack getting ready for a race.” Rachel quickly remembers as he probably doesn’t often do radio interviews from racetracks and said something like “Oh yeah! Hey guys, what’s going on? Did you enjoy the show?” We told him we missed his set because of a mix up with the promotions people. He made some comment about that, said “whatever,” and invited us to come “hang out.”
Backstage the whole Skid Row gang was in and out of the room. Rachel introduced us to the band, and offered us beers. It was the best damn Budweiser we’d ever consumed. If this was the 1980’s, I can only imagine the debauchery we may have witnessed, but this was well past their heyday. There were a couple “older” women (and all I mean is that they were older than me) hanging around and Snake Sabo (co-guitarist) was having some fun with them. We took some photos, got some stuff signed, and headed out to see the rest of the show before we overstayed our welcome.
Watching Tesla From the Side of the Stage
On our way back to the concert area, we bumped into a friend from a different radio station, and decided to hang out backstage a bit more. We somehow ended up chatting with Tesla’s tour manager, and he gave us the best seats I’ve ever had at that point to a show. We watched from the stage; lurking just out of view of the audience. It was pretty epic. As always, Tesla nailed it. They were such a tight band.
After Tesla finished their set, we got to meet them all and hangout backstage some more. Tommy Skeoch was still their guitarist at this time and we had also previously interviewed him on our radio show. He was so drunk and/or high when we met him though that he could barely stand up. I wasn’t surprised when he left the band for substance abuse a few years later. But he was still the man!
I believe we met Jackyl as well that night, but honestly, I wouldn’t recognize any of them in a lineup if my life depended on it (sorry Jackyl). Can’t imagine what we said to them that night. “Hey man. Sweet chainsaw playing out there.” I’m sure Dan would recognize every member of Jackyl, even today, because he’s gifted like that. In typical Vince Neil fashion, he locked himself in his dressing room like a fat douche and didn’t meet with any fans that day. Oh well. Skid Row and Tesla were who I went to see anyway.
A Ticket Stub With a Dark Connection
On another note, as I look back at this show and dig out the ticket stub, I see it was presented by Derderian-Julian Ent. I have to assume this is the same Derderian’s who owned the Station Nightclub when it burned down. That was another concert I went to 9 months after this one. And a much different story.
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