At mid-afternoon on a Thursday, Spencer Thomas tends the counter at the Texas Pie Company in downtown Kyle. A longtime player in the Austin blues scene, Thomas knows that gigs seldom pay the bills. Even an under the radar gem like his 2007 CD Voodoo Dreams doesn’t quite cut it when it comes to rent and mortgages. Any way you slice it, he’s doing the right thing.
Thomas isn’t the only one finding life in Kyle appealing. The screen door opens and in walks Johnny Solinger, lead singer for Skid Row since 2000. Solinger sports the requisite flowing locks, scrunched cowboy hat, and cocky-friendly attitude of a rocker. He’s got a firm handshake and a smile for everyone and if someone whipped out a bandana for him to autograph right in front of the pie display, he’d grin and do that too.
Replacing Sebastian Bach was no small chore, so the New Jersey boys did the right thing as well and looked to Texas. That’s where they found Solinger, a native “of HEB,” as he calls the Metroplex area of Hurst-Euless-Bedford. He sharpened his vocals fronting Solinger and other bands while performing with fellow upstarts like Pantera. And when Skid Row called in 2000, he was Johnny on the spot.
Skid Row had sold 14 million records when Johnny stepped in. He brought a thunderous dose of Texas swagger to the band, a match made in rock & roll heaven. It’s the best of both for Solinger, living a life that sends him to the other side of the world to play sold-out stadiums in Jakarta and then deposits him back home in Kyle with “Team Solinger,” his wife and three kids.
Life in Kyle also afforded Solinger the chance to stretch musically. His new self-titled CD is a 100% Texas project, and the exuberant recording brought in David Grissom, Tommy Shannon, Lloyd Maines, and other local heavy hitters for a dose of what he calls “red dirt country.” He cites Cross Canadian Ragweed and Kevin Fowler as peers in the movement but brought his oeuvre full-circle by inviting his bandmates in Skid Row to join him on “You Lie.”
A new CD means gigs, of course, ones different from the festival circuit he’s used to. That’s all right with Johnny Solinger. Life today gives him two kinds of R & R: rock & roll or rest & relax.
This article appears in April 4 • 2008.