American singer-songwriter Johnny Solinger best known as the lead vocalist of Skid Row from 1999 to 2015 has passed away at the age of 55. On May 8th Solinger revealed he had spent the past month in a hospital due to liver failure. On Saturday, his former band mates in Skid Row announced on social media that Solinger had died.
Johnny Solinger was born in the Dallas–Fort Worth area, where he was exposed to hard rock and country music, and fell in love with them. In 1990, he formed the rock band SOLINGER in Dallas, recording four independent records: Solinger, Solinger II, Chain Link Fence, and Solinger Live. He enjoyed live performance and radio success throughout the Southwest.
He rose to fame as Skid Row’s lead singer when the band reformed in 1999 following their 1996 split and the departure of Sebastian Bach. The musician featured on two of the band’s albums and two EPs: 2003’s Thickskin, 2006’s Revolutions Per Minute, 2013’s United World Rebellion: Chapter One and 2014’s Rise of the Damnation Army — United World Rebellion. In 2015 Johnny announced on his website that he was quitting Skid Row to concentrate on his solo career but bassist Rachel Bolan stated in an interview that they let him go as they wanted to change the singer due to musical & performance related issues though Snake Sabo stated at the time that the decision was mutual.
A friend of Johnny’s, Brian Lawrence, is believed to have set up a GoFundMe page back in May to raise money for his hospital bills after the rocker was diagnosed with liver failure. However, the page has since updated today confirming that Johnny has died. He wrote: “Update from Paula….Johnny has passed. I was holding his hand. He went in peace. Thank you all. I will take a break from everything but please know I am forever grateful for your love.” Johnny had been married to Argentinian actress Paula Marcenaro, who appeared to pay tribute to her husband on her Instagram stories.