Skid Row Guitarist Opens Up on Relationship With Jon Bon Jovi, Recalls Promise Bon Jovi Made When They Were Young

“I grew up three streets away from Jon Bon Jovi, and we’ve been friends since I was about 11 years old.”

Skid Row co-founder and lead guitarist Dave “The Snake” Sabo looked back on his childhood friendship with Jon Bon Jovi and explained how it led to Skid Row being managed by the iconic Bon Jovi manager Doc McGhee, who’s also worked with the likes of Kiss and Mötley Crüe.

As the musician who first wielded the ax for Bon Jovi in 1983, Dave Sabo was an important contributor to his friend’s band during its earliest days, but Jon Bon Jovi too had a role to play in Skid Row’s rise to prominence. Speaking to “80s Recycle Bin” in a recent interview, Snake recalled how Jon, two years his senior, would often show him a guitar lick or two when they were growing up.

While sharing their love for music, the two also made a pact that Jon would help his younger friend out if he ever rose to fame first (transcribed by Ultimate Guitar):

“Well, I grew up three streets away from Jon Bon Jovi, and we’ve been friends since I was about 11 years old. That’s about 143 years. And he started playing guitar before I did. And once I had an opportunity to start playing, he would show me some chords, and then he turned me on to his guitar teacher, who became our mentor, this guy Al Parinello…
“And we and we always had this thing, he always said that if he gets to a certain level, he would help me out and whatever band I was in – if we were good, that was the caveat…”

True to his promise, Jon Bon Jovi introduced the still bandless Snake to his manager Doc McGhee after Bon Jovi started making waves:

“So he was being managed by Doc McGee. I’m a 19-year-old punk. He goes, ‘You gotta come up and meet my manager.’ I go up there and Doc’s sitting in a lounge chair. And all of a sudden, I find that everyone’s left, and it’s just Doc and I. So I go, ‘This is my moment, I’m going to lay my spiel on this dude.’ I’m 19 years old, and I’m like, ‘I’m the best guitar player in the world. I’m gonna be a rock star, and bla bla bla bla; I’m the greatest thing and everything, and you’re gonna manage me.’
“So he indulges me for like, 10 minutes, and I’m laying it on. And finally, I’m done. And then, he goes, ‘That’s great. You want to get me a beer?'”

However, Snake and Doc McGhee would cross paths again in the near future under different circumstances. Several years later, after Snake and Rachel Bolan got Skid Row going and recruited Sebastian Bach for the cause, the famous manager got very much interested in the fledgling band. Snake said:

“Doc came in, had a meeting at Jon’s house with Rachel and I, and we’re just sitting there, talking, and all of a sudden, he starts laying out this game plan. Rachel I kind of look at each other, confused… And then we go to lunch, and we finally get up the nads to go, ‘Are you managing us?’ And he goes, ‘Yeah, I’m managing you guys. like always no.
“And that, to us, was one of the most amazing things that happened in the process of our career. Because we were the guys that would look at the back of albums and read the liner notes. And we knew everybody; we knew the assistant engineers, the engineers, the producers, the mixer, the mastering guy, the management, the record label people, and we studied those things. But they were characters in a fairy tale to us. It wasn’t reality.”