The Gang’s All Here TourSkid Row & Buckcherry
with Kurt Deimer
The Rust Belt | East Moline, IL
September 19th
Skid Row
emember that first time you heard Skid Row?
“Youth Gone Wild” was on MTV. “18 and Life” was a summertime hit single and the band was on the covers of Hit Parader, Circus, and Metal Edge magazines. That exhilarating sound of being young was everywhere. We saw and heard ourselves in the band and rallied around their oversized choruses of camaraderie and rebellion.
Rob Hammersmith saw himself in that gang mentality. “I was looking for that,” he remembers. “Everybody goes through that phase of me against the world, where you just have to stand up and assert yourself. Every kid goes through that, and Skid Row made you realize that you’re not alone.”
Snake Sabo realized he wasn’t alone after striking up a songwriting partnership with Rachel Bolan. “I saw all this talent he had — and has — and he brought something out of me. It made me go, man, this is the start of something. I’m like, yeah, this is where we’re supposed to be at this moment in our lives. It was the birth of what would be Skid Row.”
That something — and that name — represented the unrelenting impulse of rambunctious kids, channeling their love of punk and metal into something understood by a worldwide audience of other kids just like them.
“Right when we came up with the name — Skid Row — that’s when I realized we were going to build something really special that really drew on our influences,” Rachel remembers.

Buckcherry
Buckcherry is unique, complex, simple, passionate, explosive, original, and always a good time. BC has been my love, my pain, my passion, and I’m so proud of what we have accomplished. I never knew when I started this that dedicating myself to music would be taking on so much responsibility. For a guy who never thought he was going to live past 30 this has been an incredible journey. Our ninth record HELLBOUND marks 22 years since our debut self-titled release and what an amazing roller coaster we have been on. From hit songs to platinum and gold records and millions of fans worldwide – all during a time period when traditional sounding hard rock bands didn’t exist – except for Buckcherry. We beat the odds and built our reputation on the live shows, and our “one of a kind” approach to every opportunity.
When the pandemic hit, we had to shift gears like everyone else and it was anything but comfortable. The good news is when this band is backed up against the wall, we produce our best music. HELLBOUND reflects just that. Teaming up with Marti Fredrickson again was so inspiring. He really brings out the best of us and becomes the sixth band member when we are together. There is this mutual respect and passion going on that makes it effortless and fun.
Kurt Deimer
In a world that seems to spiral further and further out of control every day, Kurt Deimer is just trying to create order in the chaos.
“There’s too many people trying to tell everyone how to be today,” says Deimer, drawing on a cigarette and pausing before continuing his thought… “I’m just a simple guy. I support the people that make my life better, and I try to make their lives better in return. If we all just worried about that and not everything else that we can’t control, the world would be such a better place.”
Enter “Hero,” Deimer’s new single, and the follow-up to his debut EP Work Hard, Rock Hard, which was released in November 2021 and featured the single “Burn Together,” an acclaimed collaboration with former Queensryche frontman Geoff Tate. He sang about the ills of the 21st century on the EP and offered solutions instead of excuses. He promised change instead of cataclysm. And he delivered hope instead of hubris. In his new single, he casts a spotlight on the everyday people that make a difference in everyday life.
“I wrote ‘Hero’ to honor and thank all of the men and women who are frontline workers, first responders, and our military and our veterans,” explains Deimer. “Without them we could not live free, live safe, or be able to live peacefully in this world. I also wrote ‘Hero’ to point out that anyone can be a hero – your neighbor, the kids playing at the park, a co-worker. Everyday people. No matter where we are, the situation may arise to step up and be a hero. That is the essence of this song. Look deep inside, help others whenever you can, don’t be selfish, be kind, and be a hero.”
The video for “Hero” builds on that theme. “Director Paul Boyd came to hang at my Cincinnati studio, and I told him that I wanted the video to focus on real life heroes, which you see throughout the video. We shot Phil X with me in L.A. before he left for a Bon Jovi tour, and our producer Chris Lord-Alge even showed up for a cameo! Heroes are on call 24/7, and we wanted our video to have that same vibe. We show the heroes in color and our performance video in black and white – we’re the same color as newspaper print, and we are telling the story of heroes.”
“I saw something completely different in Kurt, and that was the lure for me,” says Lord-Alge of his work with Deimer. “He isn’t a typical rock or country artist – I love hearing him talk and narrating a story, and I was drawn to taking those stories and helping turn them into music. He’s a personality, he’s someone you want to talk to, and his combination of narration and singing really works for me. He can tell a story as well as anyone I’ve ever worked with, and I love that we aren’t working within a certain format – I like being outside the box, that’s what makes it fun.”
“I’ve worked with so many artists on so many different levels, it’s nice to be in a situation where you feel full creative freedom, and that’s what I’ve found with Kurt Deimer,” says guitarist Phil X of their musical partnership. “It started with recording ‘full-on Phil X’ uncensored guitar parts and has evolved into writing music that would have never materialized if Kurt hadn’t sent me his lyrics in his style.”
Despite making his mark in the business world, Deimer didn’t feel complete – so at an age when most people start thinking about slowing down, he started to speed up. Inspired by the artists that helped shape him – Boston, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Bob Marley and AC/DC, to name just a few – he started writing song lyrics. And inspired by his love of movies and acting roles in films including the 2018 ‘Halloween’ remake and John Travolta’s ‘Trading Paint,’ he filmed his feature length movie aimed to launch his ‘Hellbilly Hollow’ horror franchise and has recorded dozens of songs with Phil X and Lord-Alge. He is a Renaissance man of sorts, a beat poet for the modern age – a throwback to a simpler time when troubadours traveled the streets and sang about what inspired them.
“When people listen to my music, I want to help them decompress and feel better after a brutal day. That’s what music always did for me, and that’s what we need more of today,” says the frontman, taking another long drag off his cigarette… “After a long, hard day of work, just come to my show and jam. We need this in our lives to fight the stress. We work hard all day, we deserve to rock hard.”