Rachel Bolan co-founded Skid Row with Snake Sabo back in 1986. Over the last four decades his creative energy has gone to that band. Now Rachel is ready to release his solo debut album “Gargoyle Of The Garden State.” The album is set to hit on Friday, June 12, 2026. We recently caught up with Rachel to discuss the album and a lot more.

A good jumping off point for our conversation seemed to be the album’s very cool name. Rachel shared that originally, he was just going to call it “Gargoyle.” But once he moved back to New Jersey, he knew he wanted to include Garden State there as well. That brought us to discuss what gargoyles mean mythically. He even told me that his sister had gotten him a thinking gargoyle because he is such a hard thinker. There are many different types of gargoyles and “They all serve a different purpose, but no one really knows until it serves them.”

That brought us to the album’s first single “At War With Myself,” which features the guest, Danko Jones. Rachel spoke about taking a step back and listening to the people around him in making some decisions for the album. The people included his wife, management, the record label and more. We got into the other guests on the album, Corey Taylor, Nuno Bettencourt, Danko Jones, Steve Conte, and Damon Johnson and his Skid Row band mate Snake Sabo. Some of the guests made their contributions to the album remotely, while others showed up in person to lay down their parts.

One thing that really stood out to me about “Gargoyle” is the obvious punk influence. When asked about his punk influences the first band Rachel mentions is The Ramones. “They were the first band that I heard from America, you know, under the punk title that just grabbed me right away.” Then he mentions bands that came next like The Dead Kennedys, The Dead Boys and The Sex Pistols.

Part of the punk feel is there in the tempo. That made the track “Bridges” stand out. It is by no means a ballad, but I would describe its pace as deliberate. I mentioned to Rachel that it made me think of the David Bowie track “Heroes.” “Bowie is one of my idols and one of my songwriting huge, huge inspirations” is how his response began. He did express that any discernible influence was not conscious. He went on to say that what influenced the song was the John Hughes films he was watching when he wrote it. He did mention the movies “Pretty In Pink” and “Sixteen Candles.” Rachel mentioned a lot of different instrumentation on that track, including the sitar, which he played.

The song “Memory” did share that punk feel but also included pop elements at the same time. Rachel doesn’t shy away from admitting that the song is pop. He mentions all kinds of music being around growing up with him as the youngest of four. He even drops the name of The Bay City Rollers during discussion of the tune.

There are a couple of songs on the album that feature a co-writer with Rachel. Mostly though, the tracks are all written by himself. But one cover does show up on the album. That is the Oasis song “Rock And Roll Star.” Rachel heard the song on the radio and really keyed in on the lyrics. He related an experience he had with a fan that he felt fit the storytelling of the tune.

I did ask about a solo tour or shows, the desire seems to be there, but it appears at this time, nothing is concrete.