The Next Version of Bowling for Soup

The next several years were about learning how to use the band's history without becoming trapped inside it.

Drunk Dynasty arrived as another independently made record, originally conceived on a smaller scale as an EP before growing into a full album.

Projects like Songs People Actually Liked allowed Bowling for Soup to revisit its earlier catalog, improve recordings from the rougher early years and—critically—create masters the band could actually own.

By the second volume, the situation was different.

The original songs already sounded good.

Re-recording them was increasingly about ownership.

Conveniently, Taylor Swift had by then explained the importance of owning masters to virtually the entire planet.

Bowling for Soup no longer had to spend ten minutes explaining it.

Going back through the catalog also had an unexpected emotional benefit.

Old chord choices triggered old memories.

Songs the band hadn't played in years suddenly came back to life.

Rob had already proved himself with the band before anyone imagined he would become a member.

He first filled in on drums when Gary needed to be home around the birth of his daughter.

Later, when Erik needed time away from touring, Rob became the obvious person to call on bass.

He could already survive a tour with Bowling for Soup.

More importantly, Bowling for Soup could survive a tour with him.

Eventually it became clear Erik was going to leave touring behind.

Closing that chapter was painful.

Jaret and Erik had a relationship far beyond simply sharing a band.

They had played pubs acoustically for tips when Bowling for Soup could barely draw elsewhere.

They had toured together as a duo.

They had been effectively homeless together.

They married best friends.

They called themselves Slice and Dice on karaoke night.

Erik was also, in Jaret's estimation, easily one of the finest musicians ever to be in Bowling for Soup: an exceptional singer, a distinctive bass and guitar player with a voice to match, and one of the people who understood how to volley with Jaret and Chris's stage banter instinctively.

By the time Erik moved on, Rob had already been doing the job.

There was never another candidate.

Even Erik was happy to know the role was going to someone he knew, loved and trusted.

Jaret's earliest instruction to him had been simple:

“Sing your ass off. Bowling for Soup is about harmonies!”

Rob did.

The band formally asked Rob to join while on a UK Christmas tour that also included his longtime band Patent Pending.

Patent Pending's band leader Joe Ragosta congratulated him with a baseball analogy.

Rob had been called up to the big leagues.

Rob initially tried to fill Erik's enormous shoes.

Eventually he stopped trying to be Erik and started being Rob.

That changed the band.

He was younger. Places Bowling for Soup had visited fifteen times were new to him. Huge crowds still made his eyes widen. He wanted to go places, eat things, see things.

He also challenged the setlist.

Why are we playing the same songs again?

Why not pull out some bizarre old Bowling for Soup song?

Eventually the other guys just let Rob start making the setlists. He brought back songs the others hadn't thought about in years.

He ran around the stage like a lunatic.

He brought new energy to the banter.

That respect for what came before never went away. Years later, while recording Songs People Actually Liked Vol. 2, Rob found himself studying Erik's original bass parts, openly admiring the playing and the choices Erik had made decades earlier.

Rob wasn't there to erase Bowling for Soup's history. He was becoming part of it.

By the band's 25th anniversary in 2019, Bowling for Soup was once again looking forward.

The anniversary itself became a multi-day party in Texas. Friends performed. There were magicians and cornhole boards with the band's faces on them. It was a party to be remembered!

Lance even returned and played a song, as he had done several times in the past.

Erik's absence was felt—by the band and by the fans.

But 25 years did not feel like an ending.

It felt like another beginning.