The original voice of Skid Row Sebastian Bach has spent the last few years wowing audience around the world with shows that has seen him re-create the band’s self-titled album to pure acclaim.
Now Bach is heading to Australia to bring the shows here and he has added a special show in Melbourne that will see him perform the band’s Slave To The Grind album from start to finish. He has also promised that the encores for each of the shows will be made up of other Skid Row hits and tracks from Bach’s solo albums.
As excitement around the shows grow this week I had the opportunity to sit down with Bach and chat about what he has in store for his Australian fans.
“The album itself came out in 1989,” says Bach as we begin to chat about the iconic self-titled album. “So the 30th Anniversary was 2019 and we were able to do a full US tour for it. Then we had Australian tour booked to do it in 2020 but then 2020 happened and we couldn’t leave the house. So the tour got cancelled until now. The promoter has been asking me for ages ‘can you do it, can you do it’ so here we are six years later.”
“The other big thing since 2020 is also that I have a brand new album called Child Within The Man,” he continues. “And that has been extremely well received so apart from the first album I will be doing some tracks from Child Within The Man so it is going to be a rocking night in Australia.”
As we begin to talk more about his music we delve further into Child Within The Man – Bach’s fifth solo album.
“I come from the AC/DC school of just wanting to more songs into my catalogue… songs that fit in with my other tracks,” he says laughing as we discuss the foundation of this album. “For a guy like me there is no difference from what I did on my first album to what I did on my latest album. I’ve always done songs that I love – whether it be 18 Or Life or What Do We Have To Lose – if I love a song I can sing it in a way where I can’t hide my excitement.”
“That’s the way I am – that is my personality,” he says still laughing. “And that isn’t just me when it comes to music – that is me as a human being as well. I wear my heart on my sleeve and you can feel that in the music when I record. I’m not capable of recording a song that I can’t feel in my heart. So with these tracks it was almost like I had to record them. Like on the new album Hold Onto The Dream is one of my favourite recordings that I ever made. And that is the same with the first Skid Row album – I Remember You – has lasted the test of time and people love it. So with these shows you are going to get 36 years of rock in one show.”
That answer sees the two of us begin to talk about how Bach’s music has helped people within their own lives and also provided precious memories for them over the years. As we discussed it further I ask him what that means to him as an artist.
“It’s kind of like music has a life of its own,” he explains. “Music is such a visceral art form. I can watch an old movie, like I can watch Jaws or Close Encounters Of The Third Kind or Star Wars, and I will get a feeling from that that is pretty heavy but it is nothing compared to what I feel when I listen to Rock & Roll Outlaw by Rose Tattoo or We Can’t Be Beaten or Shout It Out Loud by KISS. I don’t know about you but when I listen to a song that I have been listening to for my whole life I still feel the same feelings as I did when I first heard it. It is the weirdest but most powerful thing”
“Music is so powerful,” he says continuing. “And then you read all the drama between band members, and that includes my own band, it is indicative of just how powerful music is. It shows just how much we feel so attached to it that we argue about it. We’re like – no it has to be like this, no it should be that – and it is all because we love it so much that we want it to be the very best that it can be but that requires compromise and nobody wants to compromise. I think the whole drama of bands not getting along and breaking up is directly relative to how much the musicians love the music itself – they will fight to the very end.”
So, what does that mean for his memoires and now going back and revisiting that original Skid Row album?
“For me that memory is one of innocence,” he says with emotion in his voice. “I was still pretty much a teenager when we put it together – I think I was 19 or 20 – so when I was working on 18 Or Life I think I was about 18. So yeah, there is that feeling of innocence and as a vocalist sometimes we do Slave To The Grind in its entirety, which is what we are doing on the second night in Melbourne, it feels different. What I have learnt is that the first album is about singing and the second is more about screaming.”
Whether it be Bach screaming or singing this tour is guaranteed to be special and that is promise to both you and me.
