Rachel Bolan may be able to vent his ire on another former member of Skid Row. Former Skid Row drummer Phil Varone's movie Waking Up Dead is scheduled to be released in March on Demolition Records. This film has already caused some controversy as it depicts an unedited story of rock n' roll excesses and Varone's fall into serious drug addiction.




There is a trailer for the movie at the Waking Up Dead site and this quote from director Fabio Jefet sums up the essence of the film:

"After a while I was looking at 200 hours of tape, and I knew that Phil had a great story. As a metal fan growing up, you have these huge views of these guys; they're larger than life, they live the rock lifestyle. Never in your wildest dreams do you ever think they're broke, divorced, pressed, drug addicted. They basically can't function. Being a journalist, it was a great story because here was a guy who people are paying $35 a head to go and see, the girls are lining up for hours, and little do they know he lives in a box, has no money, he's a drug addict, and his life is spiralling downward. It was a fascinating story, but it didn't start out that way. It was a case of 'Phil's my friend, how can I help him?'"

Rachel Bolan has already disclaimed this film in a recent interview with Sweden's Metalshrine.

Metalshrine: I've just seen the trailer for it and is that in any way true image of what touring is like? Because it seems like it was just drugs and girls.

Rachel: You know what, that's his world! I don't do drugs and the guys in the band don't do drugs. I don't endorse it. That's his world and he wanted to put our image in it and being the fact that the guy was only in the band for two years. The fact that he thinks he has the right to go out and use the SKID ROW name is preposterous. Yeah, that's his world, not ours!

Any movie that can generate this kind of controversy is probably worth seeing. There are some pretty thorough reviews of the film online:

Waking Up Dead Press Review Page
Glam-Metal.Com Interview with Phil Varone