After Charlie Mills and Phil Varone, we now had finally the chance to talk to the original SKID ROW drummer Rob Affuso. Carol Anne contacted him to talk about the reason why he didn't take part in the reunion, his relations to Sebastian Bach and his plans for the future. Exclusive interview by Carol Anne Szel.
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So I hear you have a new band.
Can you tell me something about it?
I do, well I actually started it while I was in Skid Row. It's called SoulSystems, and it's a 12-piece R&B Funk band. I've always loved that music, Earth Wind and Fire and James Brown and The Temptations and the O'Jays to name a few. I was always a huge fan of that music, and when we were together in Skid Row I'd come offstage and we'd get on the bus to go wherever and I'd always put that music on in my headphones and chill out in the bunk. And I decided one day when we were on tour that the next time we had off I was gonna start a band. That happened back in 1991, you know we just played club dates and it was all for fun, and now it's turned into a business, we do major corporate events. We played the Super Bowl in Atlanta last year, we're going to Puerto Rico again next year, so it's a nice business. I have a lot of fun and I love the music, it pays well and I don't really have to travel all the time anymore. I can kind of keep my sanity more than I used to. |
So it's a far cry from your heavy metal lifestyle and all that comes with it?
| Well if people have been keeping in
touch with everybody's interviews (Skid Row) they'll know that Sebastian
said that I wasn't a real heavy metal drummer. But you know it's true, I
even told him that I'd never really played heavy metal until I was with
Skid Row. I still don't know if I'd even still consider Skid Row a heavy
metal band, but I was more into the lines of more progressive rock like
Genesis and Rush. And so doing Skid Row with the hard rock/ heavy metal
thing was a little different for me.
You didn't take part in the Skid Row reunion, can you tell me why? Well for one I don't think it was a reunion, it's certainly not a reunion it's a new Skid Row. A reunion would have been with all five including Sebastian and me, and it's not. |
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And basically I wasn't asked to do it. They wanted to do it differently.
What do you think about Phil Varone?
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I love Phil, he's a great guy and a
great drummer.
We've spoken before about the Skid Row/ Bon Jovi connection. As a matter of fact, I remember fondly the huge show you opened up for Bon Jovi at The Meadowland's in New Jersey and the backstage fun I had with all of you guys that awesome show. What do you think makes a band like Bon Jovi keep their staying power? Well one, it's the individual personalities. Two, it's the songwriting. And Jon, he's a huge personality, I mean he stays in the public eye and he's always trying to offer something new and he's able to make it work. They may have their own problems, I don't know what if they have problems, but they've been able to work it out for business. Rock and Roll can certainly be a lucrative business. Are you still friends with the Skid Row guys? Well, I have called Sebastian several times and he never calls me back, he hasn't called me back. |
Well, would you like to speak with him? Maybe he'll read this and call you!
| That's alright, I was just calling to
say hello and see how things were. But he's too busy talking bullshit
about me in interviews.
So you have not spoken to Sebastian? And what do you think about what he's doing on Broadway in "Jeckyl and Hyde"? Well I'm very happy for him, you know Sebastian needs to be doing. You know he was like a caged animal all those years not doing. I'm happy that he's found success again. I don't wish any of the former members of Skid Row any ill will. I wish all the bullshit would stop and we could just move on with our lives and be friends, whatever. But there's always all this bullshit in the media, you know interviews! |
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Well, like what?
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Well I just read something Sebastian
said again that just pissed me off so I'm a little bitchy about that. Ha,
ha, ha! So this interview could be good or bad timing from your point!
Well I go way back with both of you guys. Do you want to talk about what happened with Sebastian? I read this about three or four times in magazines. Sebastian called, well his wife Marie actually called me upstate when Bas was on tour with his band. And (she) said 'Sebastian wants to know if you want to sit in and play with him.' I said I'd love to, I was really happy about it. I said however, I am very busy with my band SoulSystem, we're working a lot playing. So she says, 'well we've got these dates, these dates, these dates.' And I said I'll see what I can do. And she said Sebastian wants to do rehearsals. I said 'fine, let me know and I'll try working it out.' And I never, you know maybe there's a misunderstanding, but I never called them and they never called me. It just so happens that I had jobs on those weekends and I was out playing, but I was gonna try and fenagle it so I was gonna try to play with Bas. |
But it never happened so he started this bad mouth campaign talking about me how I blew him off. How, you know, 'I told Rob we were gonna do rehearsals and Rob doesn't like to rehearse and I never heard from him again.' You know, stupid shit like that. I don't understand why he has to do these things. But he won't return my calls to talk to me about it, so I guess I have to talk to him via interviews. You know, he just comes up with a story and goes with it, he's always been like that. It becomes the truth to him, and that's not the truth at all. I've always wanted to play with him and they never called me back, they called me once.
| I spoke with Maria and I
agreed I would love to do it, you know they made me the offer and I was
expecting to hear back from them and I never heard back from them about
rehearsal dates or anything. You know I'm not gonna chase them around
begging. So that's the story and I'm sticking to it, ha, ha. And I just
hope he would stop talking bullshit. Tell him to call me!
So Rob, where can fans come and see you with SoulSystems? Are you playing out anywhere? I don't play a lot of clubs anymore, what I do are private events, so... And we can't have your Skid Row fans busting into those! That would be great, I would love that, in the Skid Row shirts, uh huh, yep! |
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Do you have a website with SoulSystem?
Actually I am building one, it's http://www.soulsystemorchestras.com/, because I'm developing a whole agency around this of my own. I'm certainly not wimpering here, actually my life is great.
Thanks alot for the interview, Rob.
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Thanks to Taka's Psycho Love site for the pictures. |