Brush Shiels on Bon Jovi: "I'm calling him out"

Having shared the rather distinctive moniker of Skid Row with the US heavy metal band once fronted by Sebastian Bach since 1986, legendary Irish guitarist Brush Shiels is finally looking to sort out the situation.

Shiels fronted Dublin's Skid Row, of which the late Gary Moore was also an early member, from the late '60s and is claiming that the band's name was used without permission or payment by Jon Bon Jovi (among others), when they put the American version together. He's now calling Bon Jovi out via the internet.

"It goes back 25 years when the boys stole the name on me," Brush told Hot Press. "The next program I'm on, I'm going to be saying they stole that name, which they did. Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora are the two I'll be mentioning in particular, because you expect managers to do something untoward but you don't expect fellow artists to do it."

"I've been chasing this from day one. When it happened first, I couldn't believe it, so I immediately went to one of the best-known solicitors in town and he told me 'I'll have a rocket on their desks in the morning'. Those were his very words, I'll never forget. I rang him the next week and he didn't get back for six months, at which point he said, 'I can't do anything for you.' That's how it all started."

Brush also says he attempted to meet with Bon Jovi when the band played the old Point Depot some years ago, but was told by security that he was barred. He says the dispute has nothing to do with Sebastian Bach or any of the actual members of the US Skid Row.

"They were manufactured by Bon Jovi, Doc McGee and Richie Sambora. My son was watching MTV and Sebastian Bach was on with John Bonham's son and Ted Nugent, trying to start a supergroup. They were being emailed in questions and one of them was, 'why did you use the name Skid Row when there was another Skid Row long before you?' and, on the air, Bach said, 'We gave Gary Moore $35,000 for the name'. I knew that was a complete fabrication. It's just a fucking smokescreen. Gary had rang me years ago, and told me that Jon Bon Jovi had rang him to ask him could he use the name Skid Row, and Gary said it was nothing to do with him whatsoever. Everybody knows it's my name."

Shiels feels the current situation is preventing him from having his new Skid Row material reviewed or taking to the lucrative classic rock circuit in the States. "I can't get any write ups in any newspapers. When they stole the name 25 years ago, no one knew there'd be a classic rock station, no one knew there'd be classic rock gigs all around the world, classic rock festivals." Shiels also says Kurt Cobain employed the name when he was being sued by '60s psychedelic act Nirvana.

"You know the name Kurt Cobain called himself for a few weeks, he did three gigs under this name? Skid Row. If I bumped into Iron Maiden tomorrow, they'd say, 'there's Brush Shiels, Skid Row'. If I bumped into Lemmy and Motorhead, they'd be delighted to see me. The history of this band, and we can't do anything.

" I'm calling [Bon Jovi] out, and Richie Sambora, and I'm telling them, they stole the name on me. And I want the name back. I want them to come out and say, 'I'm still alive'. I am fucking Skid Row. The American Skid Row are very nice lads, some of them are half my age, I'll challenge them to a Battle Of The Bands! Nothing matters. I'm in the Indian Summer of whatever I'm doing, but I feel good and I'm playing great."