It may have taken 40 years for Rachel Bolan to release his debut solo album, Gargoyle Of The Garden State, but it has certainly been worth the wait. Powered by guests Corey Taylor, Danko Jones, Nuno Bettencourt, Damon Johnson, Steve Conte, as well as fellow Skid Row members Scotti Hill, Dave ‘Snake’ Sabo, and Rob Hammersmith, Bolan’s debut is a really great album, and one that he is justifiably proud of.
Over his distinguished career, Rachel Bolan has always had it in the back of his mind that it would be cool to release a solo record someday. “But 40 years went by like that,” Bolan told MetalTalk. “That sounds really weird to say, but it went by really fast. I had a few of the songs written for fifteen years, but most of them are new.
“I had a conversation with my friend Nick. I played him a couple of the songs, and he said, ‘You should do a solo record.’ I was like ‘Yeah, I kinda have time now, don’t I?’
“I reached out to the label [earMUSIC] to see what they thought of it, and they were into it. So here we are, finally putting out a solo record 40 years into my career.”
Rachel Bolan has sung throughout his career, notably covering Psycho Therapy by The Ramones for Skid Row’s B-Side Ourselves EP in 1992, as well as performing it during their live shows. Handling the majority of the lead vocals on Gargoyle Of The Garden State “was fun.”
“I had a couple of other bands, one called Prunella Scales and another called The Quasimotors, and I sang in both of those bands. I was the primary singer, so I’m used to it. But this is on a new scale where I’m putting out a full-fledged solo record. I’ve always expressed myself through my bass. Now I’m expressing myself through my face.”
Bolan has, for sure, done a really great job. Heavily influenced by the punk scene, these influences are very prominent on the Gargoyle Of The Garden State. Were there any bands or albums in particular that really affected the way he approached making this record?
“Not really,” Bolan says. “I just approached this record as honestly and as true to myself as possible. The songs I wrote, I knew they wouldn’t fit with Skid Row. Skid Row is my life. That’s my day job, what’s been driving me all these years, and it’s part of me. So I know when I write a tune that doesn’t fall into the Skid Row category.
“So it wasn’t any particular band or album. It was just all my influences coming through. I think it sounds that way because it’s so different from Skid Row.”
Working with multiple guest stars, Bolan says the collaborations came organically and were a natural progression. “I knew I wanted to have friends share in this monumental moment of my career,” he says. “As each song came along, I was like, ‘You know who’d sound really good on this tune? Corey [Taylor]. Corey would sing the hell out of this song, or Danko [Jones] or Steve Conte. It just kinda went like that.
“My friend Damon Johnson did five solos on it, and everything was very natural. Everyone involved is a friend of mine. Nick Raskulinecz, the producer, he’s my bud. Brian Cook and Paul Taylor, who sang backup, they’re some of my closest friends. Damon, I’ve known since 1996. Nuno, I’ve known for well over 35 years. Rob Hammersmith, Snake Sabo and Scotti Hill were all involved as well. I have cool friends. They all said yes. I didn’t get pushback from anyone.
“From an artistic standpoint, it is great because it came out sounding exactly as I envisioned it. And from a friendship standpoint, it’s amazing. All my friends showed up.”
As a huge Extreme fan, I was very excited to see that Nuno was featured on the album. Jet Black Universeis one of my favourites from the album. “The solo he did is absolutely insane,” Bolan says. “He did it in a hotel room, I believe.
With three singles released, At War With Myself, Anything But You and Memory, are there any other particular tracks he is excited for fans to hear?
“The one with Corey, Big Stick, is really cool,” Bolan says. “I like them all for different reasons. But I think the song Bridges, a lot of people are gonna like. It seems that the people who have heard the record have gravitated towards that track. Maybe ’cause it’s a little different than everything else that’s on the record.
“I just hope everybody likes every single song, you know what I mean? See You On The Other Side is definitely one of my standout favourites, as well as the first two singles. Whatever song resonates with anyone or is their favourite, I’m fine with any of them.”
While there are no plans for a solo tour, currently, Rachel Bolan says that is the objective. “I would love to do that, so we’ll see what happens when the record comes out. I just want to make sure I can get the guys that I wanna get to play in the band.
“This whole thing, believe it or not, is kind of a learning experience for me. I have to make sure nothing intersects with Skid Row once we find a singer. I have to make sure both things have their own lanes and that they never crash into each other. I think the songs would translate really well to the live stage, so I hope it happens.”
Earlier this year, Skid Row put out a worldwide search for a new vocalist. “We’ve had over 300 submissions through the Sweetwater campaign,” Bolan says. “There’ve also been a lot of people that we heard about through friends, like, ‘Oh, man, I saw this guy singing,’ that kind of situation.
“So through all of that, there’s a lot of really talented people out there, and a lot of really, really good singers. Some are great, but they’re not right for Skid Row, you know what I mean? There were some of them where I’m like, ‘Man, I gotta give it to this guy or this girl.’ It’s like they are just putting themselves out there. There are a lot of great people out there.
“Now we’re going into the second phase with a few guys. We’ll get them to demo a few songs, we’ll listen to it and break it down. Get in a room with these few guys. That’s where we’re at right now. The second phase is to see how it translates in a room altogether. See how their voices sound live, no studio magic. There’s also the hang. That’s a huge part of it. You want everything to be good.”
Gargoyle Of The Garden State is a deeply personal debut, raw in attitude, rich in storytelling, and unmistakably rooted in the New Jersey streets that shaped Rachel Bolan. Forty years is a long time to wait. But then, some records cannot be rushed.
Rachel Bolan releases Gargoyle Of The Garden State on 12 June 2026 via earMUSIC. For more details, visit bolan.lnk.to/GargoyleoftheGardenStatePR.
Rachel Bolan – Top 5 Desert Island Albums
Rock ‘N’ Roll Over – Kiss
Rocket To Russia – The Ramones
For Those About To Rock – AC/DC
Damn The Torpedos – Tom Petty
The Cars – The Cars
