 Alan, a first. A first. You've never had Snake on before. We've had the other Snake, but we haven't had this Snake. Skid Row. I'm proud to be a member of the Snake gang, although there's only two of us. Gary on the Snake tradition here on the Metal Voice. Yes. From Skid Row, one of the co-founders. Finally on the Metal Voice. It's been a long time. Somebody on Skid Row on the Metal Voice. It's been too long. We've been waiting for decades. Well, I really appreciate you guys taking the time out and spending some time with me and allowing me to use this platform for all things rock and metal. That's right. You like my shirt? I love it, man. What a horrible loss. What a horrible. That guy had a hard time, man. I feel Steve, I feel so bad of what he had to go through and what his family is now going through. But he always seemed to have just such a positive, great attitude. And man, could he sing. Yeah. He was a good friend of the show, friend of me and Alan's, and this is a tribute to Steve today. Good. I think that's well deserved. All right. The gangs all here is going to be dropped October 14th via ear music. Yes. And we're here to talk about that. When was the last release? When was the last week? 2006, you guys? When we released two EPs, I want to say the last release was, I think, 2014, 2015. Let me be the first to say this is the greatest comeback album since it accepts Blood of Nations as far as I'm concerned. Wow. That's kind of praise. My gosh. I praise everything on this album clicks, man. We had, I mean, it's it's been quite the ride getting to this point. We've gone through so many different obstacles and potholes in the road to get to where we were able to make and finish this record in the way that we ultimately wanted it to be. And we're all, I mean, we're, of course, you know, any band that finishes a record that they've taken a long time to create and produce, they're going to sit there and say it's the most amazing thing they've ever done. And you're never going to hear anybody go, yeah, it's okay, but we could have done better. Yeah. For us, this is the record that we had envisioned in our head when we first started working on it. And it took a long time to get there. A lot of rewrites and a lot of soul searching and navigating through, as everyone had to do, through the pandemic and how that all played into the formation of this record, and then having to make a really difficult decision to get Eric in the band. And that decision wasn't difficult from a standpoint of his talent, because that absolutely speaks for itself. It was just, we had gotten to a crossroads where we, we were done with most of the record. I think we had maybe three or three vocal tracks on the record, but most of the music was done, if not all. And we just realized that we needed to make a change. And it was a harsh realization. There was no arguments or anything like that with ZP. There was no animosity. I think that it was, we both, and when I say we, I mean, ZP over here and myself, Rachel Scotty and Rob over here, we kind of just knew that we were all, we were just, the two sides were going in separate directions, to be quite honest. Was it hard? Was it hard? I mean, you were with him for many years, right? Of course it was hard because he's a really good guy. He's a really good guy. I had a lot of fun with him. Great singer, but it just, we were going in two different directions and it was inevitable. And so we had, we were recording the record, like I said, and we just felt like if we're going to make a change, we have to do it now. And it was not the most opportune time to make a change, being that we were in the middle of this record and we had this Scorpions residency coming up in Las Vegas. So it was really difficult and we only had one person in mind and it was Eric. And so when we made, when we figured out and made a decision and informed ZP what that, you know, we're going to go all our separate ways here. And like I said, I think everyone was well aware that we were traveling in opposite directions or different directions. But was it musical directions or? I think it was everything. I think that we were just as musicians, as artists, as people, we're just going down, starting to go down two different paths. And like I said, there was no blowout argument or anything like that. There was no nothing that anybody did that was, you know, like salacious or disrespectful, nothing like that. Stop leaving the toilet seat up. Exactly. Enough. Enough. I had enough of this. Eric would never do this. Stop pissing on the seat. No, no. It's good. And I feel that it was a case of serendipity coming into play where we literally, Rachel brought the idea of, of, of Eric and we were well aware of him through his initial recording of 18 and life to audition for Swedish Idol. That made the rounds and we were made aware of it. And across the couple of last few years, we'd have certain people go out to us and go, look, I don't think it should go really well with Z. What if you guys are ever looking for a singer? You got to check out this guy, Eric. So he was on the radar. And then we, 2019, I believe we were touring Europe and in his band, he happened to be on the bill as well. So we, we, we were aware of how great he's saying live because it was, it was very impressive, but we didn't really, we weren't really hanging out or anything like that. Kind of saw each other and passing. And then he had released an updated version, if you will, of 18 and life last year and we were made aware of that amongst other things, some Iron Maiden stuff and some, some Ronnie Dio stuff. And so when, when this came to pass, we, we, we realized that that was the guy that we needed to call. But being really guarded with, with, with Skid Row as a band and our material and whatnot, we just called him and said, look, we think you've got a really cool voice. We've got some songs we'd like to hear you sing on. Would you be up for it? So he said, sure. So we sent them the gang's all here and he sent them back 24 hours later, literally. And I was in a airport lounge traveling home with a group of our crew and stuff like that. And Rachel and Nick Rasky-Linitz, our producer, where the three of us were texting back and forth and, and they were like, have you listened to this yet? And I'm like, no, I don't have any privacy. And they're both like, you have to, you have to listen to this. It's, it's like off the chains. So I went into the bathroom and in one of the stalls and held the phone up to my ear and listened. And I must have listened to it like four times because I was like, this is too good to be true. And so I hit him back. I'm like, oh my gosh. And, and both Nick and Rachel like, man, this is, this is crazy. Like this is next level. And so we decided that maybe this is just an anomaly, but let's send them a couple more songs and see what he does for them. So we did. And he sent back the songs, you know, a couple of days later. And we were all like texting back and forth like, holy shit. And this is next level. And this is a game changer. And it really was, it really was. And so we had gotten on a Zoom call and Rachel and I with, with Eric and we're like, man, it's great. We have this residency coming up with the Scorpions. And then we're like, so we might as well just ask you, how do you feel about joining the band? And he paused inside and immediately Rachel and I thought, oh, he's going to pass. Now we're really screwed. And it's what that, that five second pause or whatever it was felt like eternity. And then he just looks up and he goes, I'd love to be in honor. And we were like, yes. But here's the thing that's really funny about that. All this time, from getting him to music, to him singing, to us asking him to join the band, to him accepting that invitation, we've never been in the same room with him. We've never jammed with him. We've never hung out with him. We've never done anything with him. And so online date, right? You don't know where you're getting. It was like heavy metal tinder or something. And it was really something because all of this is so unlikely. The whole process is completely unlikely. We're sending songs to a guy in Stockholm, Sweden, who we've never really met, who we don't really know as a person. We're asking to sing these songs, sight unseen and unheard, send them back to us, and then they're so good that we want him to be a part of the band, still having never been in a room with them, never had a beer with them. Don't know if he's like a closet serial killer, nothing. We have no, we're unaware of who he is as a person. So he flies in to New York on a Tuesday on the way to Las Vegas for the residency. I meet in New York because that's where I'm based out of. So we meet in New York City or New York at the JFK airport and at the airline at the Delta Sky Club. And I walk in and we sit down and we order a beer together. And I kid you not, for the moment we started talking, it felt like I had known this guy forever, like decades. He was so easy, easy going and so humble and just so honest. And you could tell that it just, his demeanor is such that he, you kind of gravitate towards the guy because he's got such a positive vibe about him. And he's got an incredible story of his own, as I'm sure you guys are aware, the story of cancer survival. And so he was just like one of the guys and I'm like, this is, this cannot be happening. Like Wednesdays, like all these events in sequence, everything is just falling into place and it's unbelievable. Too easy. Too easy, man, for real. So about an hour in, he and I are getting a little buzz going and we're just talking and laughing. He's got the same sense of humor is influenced by the same artists and bands, many, many of the same. And I'm going, how does this guy, like he's got this fantastic energy, great voice. I've seen him online perform great performer, just incredibly nice. Like this is just, just doesn't happen. So I call Rachel up in the, in the sky club and he's already in Vegas. I'm like, dude, I don't know what we're going to do. This dude's an asshole. I can't stand him. I don't even want to be in the same room with him. And Rachel's like, shut up, really. And I'm like, no, man, the guy's awesome. And so obviously we're all very excited about the initial meeting. So we fly to Las Vegas together. And that's the first time on that Tuesday when we met all five of us in a room. And it was great. Had dinner together again, felt like we had been together forever and we're all looking at each other like this is nuts. Eric included. So we, we go into rehearsal. We rehearsed Wednesday. He did his homework obviously because he was great. It was seamless. It was really unbelievable. Everything, all the background vocals that we all were in sync with one another. So we rehearsed again on Thursday again, much of the same. And we had to set down and two days we have to set down and we're like, I don't think we need to rehearse on Friday. We don't rehearse. Good work, ethic. I'm hearing good work ethic. Yeah. Light, humble, great voice. Unbelievable. Like what's going to go wrong? That's what you're thinking, right? Well, isn't it illegal to be arrogant in Sweden? Yeah, I hear right. I think you're right. I think they say I'm sorry more than Canadians do. And you could build furniture right on stage if you need it. Right. Right. We have our own IKEA construction worker there. It's great. So we went and played the first show on Saturday and it was awesome. I mean, obviously there was all these things like it's new territory with a new singer. You're finding your way on a stage. You don't want to be bumbling idiots, bumping into each other. And so you're finding your sweet spots and you're, how do we interact with one another where it doesn't seem premeditated? All that stuff just happens naturally. And that's what playing more and more does. You become more acclimated with each other. And this is how great he is. It's a Saturday night. We played a show. We're all very excited because it was a good show. Obviously there were things that needed to be addressed, but nothing cataclysmic. And he text out later that night, hey guys, can we get together tomorrow morning so you guys can let me know what I did wrong and what I should do better and what I need to work on. And I just found that to be phenomenally proactive. Here's a guy who just literally flew in four days ago and has played two rehearsals with us at one show. And it's not about a sigh of relief. It's about, I need to be better. How can I be better? And that's just indicative of his character. And so we went that, that, that residency could have been more of a blessing because it allowed us to grow as a unit. Again, everybody's footprint changes when you add a new member, especially a lead singer in the band. Everything that you're doing on stage up to that point is going to be different because you have a new energy there and he runs around like a maniac. Let me ask you this, were the Skid Row fans tired of the sort of like rotating singers over the years and you finally did it right? Was there a frustration there with the Skid Row fans? I think there was until they heard him sing and saw him play. I think that changed a lot of minds. Did it change everybody's mind? Probably not. I mean, that would be, that's nearly impossible to do once people are firmly entrenched in their own opinion and perspective. Very difficult to get them out of that position. But I think when people started hearing Eric and seeing him perform with the band and seeing the energy that the band as a whole put forth, there has been a lot of converts for sure. I'm listening to, I might get in trouble for saying this, but I'm listening to songs like When the Lights Come On and I'm like Sebastian who? So it's a question of after the residency, then he went in and did the vocal tracks because all the materials written? Before. No, he went in and sang eight of the 10 songs before we went out on that residency and then, right, in Sweden working with Nick Rasky Linnitz via remote. And then he, when we were in Vegas, we went into the studio in Vegas and he finished the last two songs. You're still waiting for your other shoe to drop? Like this is too good to be true. Look, it's really something. That's the cynical side or nature. Maybe that's been unfortunately developed over the last 40 years of being in this business, but just to see the way he is with the fans, with his family, with his friends, with us on social media. No, I'm not. I really confident that this is really, really who this guy is. And he's such a force of nature. And I really believe that his experience and his path has made him humble and grateful for all the good that comes his way, not just the music, but in life. Tell me about, okay, so we've heard a few songs already and most people have. Just summarize what people can expect to hear on this new album. If you had to sort of tell somebody what this album is like that they've never heard, you know, any of the songs in the album. How would you describe it to everybody? To entice everybody? I would describe it, you know, I would think that this is... Should have sent you the question beforehand. No, no, no, I'm sorry. I don't want to use the term throwback, but this sounds like, to me, the natural evolution from the first record and the second record, and then it would have been this record. That's what it feels like to me. And that's kind of what we heard in our head. And that's all credit due to our producer, Nick Raskulinets. I mean, he's got an incredible resume. Everyone's aware, Hailstorm and Food Fighters and Rush and Allison Chains and Stone Sour. He's just an incredible, another force of nature. And when he initially expressed his desire to produce a skid row record, Rachel and I were like, guy, he's just being nice because Rachel had started becoming friendly with him in Nashville. And so he, every time Rachel was seen, he was like, I'm really serious about doing a skid row record. So we finally took him up on it. We're like, okay, if you're serious, let's make this happen. And things fell into place from a business standpoint. And but his thing to us was, I want to reintroduce you guys to who you are. And it was like, wow, what a novel concept because as you sit there and we would think that's what it would be, right? Well, the thing is, is that here's what happens, at least with us, and I presume with a lot of other artists as well, with the exception of ACDC, is you release your first record. And as you go along, you kind of, you want to do something different than the previous record, because you don't want to be redundant. So all this time you're doing something different, something different, 36 years later or whatever it is, 30, 33 years later, you find yourself looking back going, wow, I'm pretty far away from where I was and where we were. And that's life. You know, that's life. You're 33 years older. You had 33 years of life under your belt. So he wanted to reintroduce us to the essence of why we started this band and begin with them and what this band was predicated upon. And it was, the light bulb went off immediately. And so what we did was, first and foremost, what we did is we left our egos in the parking lot of the studio. That was first and foremost. It was like, all ideas, everything that you've got, anybody's got, just throw in the pot and let's see what happens, but no egos. Like, don't be attached to anything. Let this process go where it goes. And so the four of us, Rob, Scotty, Rachel myself, along with Nick, set up all our gear in the live room of his studio and just started going through the songs. And what Nick did was he deconstructed with us the songs and then we all reconstructed them together. And it was really cool because he's well versed in our history so much so that he would say stuff like, okay, I love that riff and I love that, you know, that vocal right there and that chorus. But when you come out of that chorus, why don't you do the same thing that you did in the, something similar to what you did in the B verse of monkey business. And it's like, boom, light bulb. And so everybody starts, you know, and the challenge is on. And, but the challenge is in such a good way because Nick's the kind of guy where you want to attack that challenge and succeed at it because you want to make the guy happy. Like it's such a wild thing and thus make yourself happy because he's just that type of guy. His enthusiasm, his musical knowledge, his encyclopedic new musical knowledge. It's all valid. And so it's great to be tested by someone that you have such respect for. And that it believes in you. He knows you got this. Bring it. I test out, I test Alan all the time, by the way. I test them all the time. You know what, a light bulb just went off on my head. You actually were on the metal voice. You were interviewed by Neil Turbin back at Motor Fest in Mexico. And it was a quick little interview that Neil did. And that was a long time ago. Maybe I remember. I believe I remember it's a big backstage area. I remember. Well, was it Mexico or was it Indonesia? Motor fest, motor fest, motor fest. I could be wrong. I could be wrong. I remember the interview, though, because I never met Neil before that. Yeah. Yeah. And so there you go. So he has been on the show before, but not with us. Get back to what Snake was saying. I mean, that's what I took away listening. And I've been listening to it nonstop. Thank you. You know, it's hard. Like you said, 34 years of past and you don't want to parody yourself or copy anything you've done in the past. But it sounds relevant to today, but with the spirit of those 80 albums, it's really amazing. That's a fine line to have success with. Yeah, I would agree with Allian. I agree. Thank you very much. It's one of those things to where again, you want to get back to why you started doing this in the first place. And for me personally, and I think most of us, it's that essence of that 16 year old kid standing in front of a mirror with his guitar slung low pretending that he's ace freely. Exactly. Pretending he's ace freely or, you know, or Michael Shanker or Alex Lifeson or, you know, and it's that mentality that always will. If you, if you love the music that you do, you love the band that you're in, that essence burns. It's just a case of tapping into that again in as much as a purest, pure form as you can at this stage of your career. And that was really the magic of Nick was, like I said, it sounds so weird, but really just reintroducing us to ourselves. It's interesting. Go ahead, Al. Just sound like tear it down. There's the youthful anger that we've, you know, experienced on those first couple of skid row albums. It's still there after all these years, right? Well, I think the, I think the world gives you that. Yeah. I think that if you, if you have your, your eyes and ears open, especially in this day and age, I think that the world gives you that. Time bomb, which is probably the most melodic song off the album. You know, I kind of enjoyed that one. That's kind of fits in the same mold, I guess is what you just said, Alan. Or it's me. I mean, the gang is all here, those big chants of gang, gang vocals that we come to expect from the skid row, hell or high water, a great opener. Thank you. Yeah, I enjoyed it. We're not dead yet. Is that a mission statement now? Right? Without a doubt. I think, I think, you know, I think Eric has taken that song and made it his own as he's done with all the songs, but that, that really, that title says it all for him, especially being what he's been through. Yeah. Yeah. With his cancer recovery, that, that's, what a story. I mean, that's a movie in itself. That's a necklace. That show is man, like it put it, here's an interesting little thing that we didn't know until Eric made us aware, but the scorpions, first scorpion show that Saturday night was a year to the day that he had started his cancer treatment. So he had started his cancer treatment exactly a year before that show that just goes to show you the character and the will to live and to live a happy and fruitful life, that energy, that positive energy and the electricity that, that, that guy has, the exuberance. And also the unpredictability of life where on one side, at one time in your life, you could be at your lowest, thinking you're going to die. And then suddenly you're opening up for the scorpions with Skid Row, right? It's incredible. It's really an incredible story. And, you know, when we talk about it, it's really, it's amazing to me that it's, it's, it's a true story. Like it sounds, it sounds like a script. Yeah. Who's Bunksman? Yeah, dude, I feel you. I feel you. I, I'm just, I'm so thankful that I am a small part of this continuing story that it just seems to be getting better and, and, and growing in recognition every day. All right, Snake. I'm going to ask you a couple of non Sebastian Bach questions of your history. Okay. Because we're all sick of those questions. At least I am. Well, you should be me. All right. Is it true that the band paid Gary Moore and then $35,000 for the Skid Row name? Is that true? That's what, that's what we were told by our management back in the day. So I'm going to, I'm going to, yeah, I'm, as far as I know, yes. Did Gary have a name of Rush Shields? I think, well, we went from what I remember, our management went to Gary Moore, because I believe that Gary was the most prominent person associated with that band name at the time. And let me remind you, we had no idea, like I being, I'm a Gary Moore fan, but I'm not a Gary Moore fan. I know his history or anything like that. But we came up with the name Skid Row. We had, we had no idea that it was ever used before. And it wasn't until that we did a deep title search that we realized that, uh-oh. So we were literally, we were thinking of ways to, to alter the spelling of the name somehow, whether it was adding an E at the end of the row or, or, and luckily, luckily our management was able to secure us the rights to that name, of which we only trade one. Yeah, yeah. So okay, the first two albums, you sold something like 12 million copies, right? I know you, where I'm going with this. And to me just, it seized, every time you now an interview, somebody from the 80s, let's say that was super popular, they've never made a cent, you know, it's like the shittiest deals were signed. However, the brand name lived on, right? So you got something out of it, right? But I mean, how much truth is it that did you own any of the publishing on the first two albums? Oh yeah, absolutely. And you know, there's all these, there's rumors going around that we, we had to sell off all our publishing and all that stuff. It's not true. We, we did a business deal to, for part of our publishing to be owned by another entity, but no, not the whole thing. And yes, we've been very blessed and fortunate with the, with the financial return that we've gotten still to this day. Okay, we're setting it straight. We're setting it straight here. Okay, go ahead. Question for your snake. I mean, you guys, and it was, I mean, it's rare you see this, you guys had success right out of the gate. Like, I mean, you guys exploded. And looking back, is that something, you know, is there any regrets of having that amount of success that fast, rather than build like most bands do historically? Hell no. No. Here's the thing. You know, Rachel and I, we started the band, we realized that we were cut from the very same cloth. Our parents, blue collar, hardworking, labor intensive people, lower middle, lower middle class upbringing, but we were still with a really strong work ethic by the example that was set by our families. And so thus, we were also taught the value of humility and gratitude. When we went in to make the first record, excuse me, we had a few different goals in mind. The lofty goal was to sell as many millions of records as possible. The more realistic down earth goal was we just want to sell enough records where we could make another record to do this for a living. Yeah. That was when Rachel and I first started the band, one of the things we said to each other was like, man, we just want to make music for a living. Like if we can make music for a living for the rest of our lives, man, we're pretty lucky people. And so when the first record took off, I believe that that first year, 1989, because the record came out in the last week of January of 89, I think that we saw what was going on, but we were traveling on tour and so much and we were in such a bubble that we didn't realize, I didn't realize how much it actually was growing and how popular it was. Like we had all the indicators from MTV and seeing the people outside by the bus after the shows and seeing the reaction of the audiences when we're playing live. But you're still 12 guys in a bus and early on, you just, no matter how much the record's selling, that hasn't filtered down to you yet monetarily. So you're still eating macaroni, cheese and tuna fish and you're living out of a suitcase in a tour bus with 11 other people and it's packed in your sardines and you're living very modestly to say the least. And so the first indicator I got of how many people we were fortunate enough to reach was Christmas of 89. I went to a local mall in the town that I grew up in with one of my best friends, Mike, we were on Christmas shopping and we were maybe 20 minutes into Christmas, 15 minutes in Christmas shopping and a crowd started to gather. And so I started signing autographs, they wanted autographs. But within what seemed like five, 10 minutes, there was about 300 people there and I had to get escorted down one of the delivery alleyways by the security there because it was getting to be a nuisance for the mall. And I had no idea. I mean, I really, really, really had no idea. I was like, wow, people are recognized in me because of Skid Row and well, I guess we really connected with people. That was probably the first real life indicator for me. I remember when you guys, it's probably the summer of 89, I was with friends in Florida and watching MTV and those videos, the songs were explosive. You guys just connected with hard rock fans and pop fans and everybody, you know, but I do remember the music stood out, but I remember the thing that stood out the most was the connection of the ear, like the nose to the ear, right? That was nobody. We hadn't seen that before. Yeah, Rachel is, he's an original man. That's one of the reasons why I think I was so attracted to him when I first met him because he was just, and is, he's a rock star. And you see that, like he walked into the music store where we met and I'm like, that dude's a rock star. I got to get to know him and thus a partnership was born and thus Skid Row was born. But going back to what you said about the connection with people. Oh, big time. That doesn't get lost on us ever because we're those type of people that look at it in the sense of we were part of creating something, a band, a song in a basement somewhere or in a room in someone's parents house or in a room in our own house, creating something from nothing. And somehow it's reaching people in Russia, in Singapore, in Japan, in America, Canada, Mexico, South America, like, oh my God. Like to me, that is the most humbling thing in this whole story is that, you know, you truly see how music is the universal language, how it supersedes geographical borders, political borders, religious borders. It supersedes all that. Like to see someone in Estonia singing back the lyrics in a darkened room or something like that, I'm like, holy crap. Yeah, it's truly incredible. And that never gets lost on us. And that, again, is where humility and gratitude come into play. Yeah. All right. So, and I mean, just I just got to get to my favorite song on the album there. And maybe you can expand on it. It's an October song. I mean, that takes you right back. Solid. Thank you. That that song was the main riff for that song had been sitting around for quite some time. And I was in Rachel's house in Nashville, and we're, I was down there for a little while, we were writing. And I happened to get up and pick up an acoustic guitar, had the bedroom door open, I was staying in and started playing that riff just because it's a good riff to practice. It limbers up my fingers and stuff like that. Not thinking anything of it. A couple hours later, we're we go into his into a studio in his house and sit down and grab some guitars. We start talking for a little while because our writing sessions always start out as like a just a dialogue with each other. What's happening? What do you think about this? How about the Yankees? How about the Mets? No talk of the of the Blue Jays or anything like that. But we're the expose. Right. Right. Anyway, you know, so it starts off as a conversation and morphs into a creative session somehow. So way it's always been. So at some point in that conversation, I said, what do you feel like work on? He goes that riff that you were playing in the bedroom this morning, because it's been around forever. We got to do something with it. And that was the start of it. And then we started talking about the like, what does that invoke? What's the theme that that comes across? Do you have any melody lines? Okay, we have some melody lines now and start throwing lyrics back and forth. And he starts scribbling lyrics. And he's like, if we were traded, we're taking those lyrics that he's scribbling and fine tuning them. And we're like, okay, where is this going? And it's, you know, loss and rediscovery. And, and, you know, the light at the end of the tunnel, if you will, that seems to be a common theme that that we thrive upon where, you know, because it's it's really a life theme, you know, being born and being faced with adversities and loss and being able to be reborn and and always moving towards and epitomizing the hopefully the the greater good and living life in a sense that, you know, you're, you're of service, if you will, goodwill and and compassion and benevolence is all a part of it. And so we tend to gravitate to those sort of sort of themes, but in a metaphorical and colorful way. And so that song was an absolute another labor of love that took a really long time to put together, but was really, really well worth it. And, and it almost didn't make the record. Well, and I'll tell you why, because Nick seemed to feel like he's like, I don't want any balance on this record. And our argument was, well, it's not really a ballot. I mean, it's slow, but it's not a ballot. It's not I remember you, you know, a second time around, it's, you know, more akin to to quicksand Jesus, if anything. And all the guitar work that we did in there and stuff was just a labor of love with Scotty and I. And it's a slow song. That's what it is. It's a slow song. But the feel, the feel. I mean, I was surprised Nick would say that because it was like everything you've explained up to now, it's like you want to get back and reinvent yourself. And this song fits right into that vein as far as I'm concerned. I felt the same way. That's why we're we're pretty adamant about it, including another record. Yeah. All right. Did you guys get a call? I know, I know the scorpions lost whites, Nick. Did you guys get at that call saying, guys, what can we do here? Can you guys come and open up for us? I would love to. Trust me. Hey, we got our tickets. You know, one of the reasons I bought the tickets is a huge white snake fan. We got scorpions, a white snake. Now you need a heavy head to replace white snake, you know, and they haven't announced anybody. I'm a little peed off because, you know, the tickets cost what they cost and you expect it's almost a double bill, right? Yes, exactly. Sure. Love is and they and they haven't announced anybody. I would love to get that phone call. I'm hoping that we do at some point. It would be amazing. Time is running short. You're not far, right? Just set up the highway here to Montreal. Yeah, I mean, look, we had an amazing time with them in Las Vegas. They treated us with just absolute respect. And we've known them for a long time. So they're friends. And we think the world of them. So any sort of offer would be would be greatly appreciated. And obviously, we have such great admiration for them that it would be an honor to play with them again. All right, so clouds, clouds, pick up the phone, clouds. Who's calling? Who's calling October 14th? Yes, music, the gangs all here a new album. So you have tour dates as well, correct? Quickly? Yeah, we're we're we start up against September 6 and we're out for the rest of the year. I mean, if if anything should happen where we get in, we get an offer, we'd be able to switch some stuff around, but we're booked as it is. So you can switch it around. That's what you're saying. I believe so. August date's happening. That's right. Yeah, we we're going to we're going to be out for the rest of the year. We're going to Europe and the UK. We're going to be in Australia, New Zealand. So there's a lot of traveling going on, which is great. It's great to be able to be back performing again. Those 18 months were really, really difficult to navigate, I think, you know, for everybody, not just guys in the music business, but everybody. And I'm so grateful that we have an opportunity and continue to have an opportunity to be out on the road and and perform our music for people. And I'm so so blown away by the reception that this record has gotten so far. And it's just been nothing but positive comments. And I mean, of course, there's naysayers, but that's with anything. But the general consensus has been overwhelmingly positive. So I'm very excited about about to release this record. And congratulations again. It's a super strong album. And I mean, I guess we can consider it as a comeback album. And I mean, there's very few that, you know, people come back of the X amount of years that have an album that is this strong. So thanks, Alan. That means a lot to us. Thank you very much. All right. So everybody go pick it up. Thank you very much for being on the show, Snake. Alan, Jimmy, thank you so much for your time. I'm glad that we finally got to reconnect after while reconnect with the show. After Mexico after that fiasco in Mexico. Right. Whatever it was. But yeah, I'm glad that I'm still above ground so that we can do this. Good stuff. You're such a humble guy there, Snake. We got to have you back more often. We'll do a couple of top 10 lists with you down there. Yeah, it'll be my pleasure. Whatever you guys want. I love doing this stuff. You guys are great. Todd LaTorre says you're a great guy. You know, he's the friend of the show. Todd's always on. Sweet. Well, thanks, Alan. Thanks, Jimmy. You guys be well. Keep the fires burning up there. And hopefully I'll see you guys soon. All right. Have a nice day. Thanks again. Great interview.