RONNIE RADKE Blasts 'Rude' SEBASTIAN BACH For His Comments In Twitter Feud Over Use Of Backing Tracks

Ronnie Radke has blasted Sebastian Bach as "rude" after the two engaged in a war of words on Twitter over FALLING IN REVERSE's decision to cancel a festival appearance due to "missing" laptops.

Just hours before FALLING IN REVERSE was supposed to appear at the WIIL Rock festival on Saturday, September 24 at Lake County Fairgrounds in Grayslake, Illinois, the singer and his bandmates scrapped their performance because their laptops — which the musicians use to "run" their "show" — were lost. At the time, Radke said in a video message that he and his bandmates had "no other option" because "as a band in 2022, you need your laptops. It's like driving a car without an engine."
A couple of days later, SiriusXM radio personality Eddie Trunk, who has been a vocal critic of rock bands using pre-recorded tracks at their live shows, blasted FALLING IN REVERSE for canceling the concert, writing on his social media: "How much longer are fans, promoters , media, just going to accept the epidemic of live rock shows… not really being live? Paying your hard earned money to see a band play 'live' that's not truly live?!" In response, Radke wrote: "@EddieTrunk so you wanna talk hella Shit about laptops but go watch kiss lip sync, Steven Tyler plays the piano then half way through the song he stands on top of piano while it sill plays yet here we are acting like they all don't use tracks you fucking idiot. Literal moron". He also shared a video of Trunk introducing Bach's solo band at a performance, and he included the following message: "@EddieTrunk introducing @sebastianbach using tracks, both idiots talking Shit about me using tracks can't make this shit up." A short time later, Bach fired back, writing: "Wow dummy are you trying to say that you believe that I use tracks on stage? @EddieTrunk how f****** funny is this". Radke then responded: "There's a fake audience cheer in your intro tracks and also fake drums the fuck you mean? that shit isn't real you are using a fake audience cheering as you walk out on a fucking track hence you using tracks."

Things escalated further when Bach tweeted "Watch what happens when track bands call real musicians idiots", prompting Radke to write: "The fuck is your bitch ass gonna do? You disrespect an entire generation of people after you that use synths laptops and backing tracks all while using a fake audience on a track as you walk out, fuck you and fuck Eddie trunks bitch ass". Sebastian later added: "It's always so much fun to show someone what the world was like before the internet existed get f****** ready. Virtual reality is so much fun until you have to deal with actual reality. In your face. Can't wait to meet you in person. Name the time and the place and I will introduce you to rock and roll in person man".

Radke addressed his feud with Bach in a new interview with Meltdown of Detroit's WRIF radio station. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I stand my ground and I just stand by what I believe in. [Sebastian] was so rude; he's rude. Some prominent people in music DMed [direct messaged] me. It made me feel a lot better. I don't wanna call them out. But they were on my side. Even some famous wrestlers — some huge legendary wrestlers — hit me up too. And they were, like, 'He's always been an asshole.' I'm, like, 'What do you mean?' I didn't know this. I had no idea. He was, like, 'Yeah. Look.' And he shows me his screen[shots]. I'm, like, 'God, he's so rude to a lot of people. Oh my God."

Regarding how the war of words between him and Bach began, Radke said: "It started because I said I couldn't play a show 'cause our laptops are like our engine, and I stand by that. Our biggest song is almost multiplatinum, and it was No. 1 on the radio, and 60 percent of the song is literally a rap beat. Am I supposed to, like… They don't understand that; they just don't get it. It's not like SKID ROW or MÖTLEY CRÜE. Even MÖTLEY CRÜE — Nikki Sixx came to my defense, man. I think that's super cool. He defended me too."

"For anybody that's a dinosaur that doesn't understand what I'm saying right now — that's literally a dinosaur — every single band that you heard in the past 20 years has laptops. KISS — I mean, all these older bands have laptops.

"We use laptops," Ronnie confirmed. "I will not go on stage without a laptop. It has a click track to keep the time. It has rap beats that we cannot perform without. Our biggest song, fans will be very let down if we don't play 'Popular Monster' or 'Voices In My Head'. It's just a new mix; it's like a different way to operate. So it is — it's like the engine. Without it, we can't operate. We're the part of the engine, and it helps. I mean, yeah, I can sing a cappella; it's not gonna sound as good. I don't know what they want from me. I think they're just mad. I don't know. They're mad."

According to Ronnie, "all" his fans had his back when it came to the Bach feud. "I'm, like, 'Bro, if you think I'm faking it, just go on YouTube and watch any video. Tweet me a video where it looks like I'm faking it.' And nobody can," he said. "There's no faking it. We're not faking it. We need our rap beats. We need our synths. We could have, like, 25 people on stage, if that's what makes Sebastian Bach happy. I'm sure nobody else would care. Six different fucking keyboard players. Let me get two more buses on tour, which will cost 250 thousand dollars, and their pay and hotels, just so Sebastian Bach is, like, 'That's real.'"

Radke went on to clarify that his lead vocals are always one hundred percent live. "I dare anybody to go try to find a video of me ever lip syncing," he said. "From 2005 all the way to now, you're not gonna find it. I refuse to lip sync. I'll just cancel the show if my voice is gone or something. I would never do that. It's not about the money. And that's why people get mad that I cancel shows. I'm not gonna lip sync. So I challenge anybody to try to find a video of my lip syncing. You can't. And some people, they'll call me out and say, 'You are.' And I'll be, like, 'No, that's my vocal.' And then it's like a huge compliment for me, 'cause I'm proud of being able to sing, and stuff like that, live. You can tell. If you've been doing this a long time and been to a lot of shows, you can tell the difference. It's just usually people on the Internet that say that — nobody at the shows."

Back in 2019, Bach weighed in on artists who use pre-recorded tracks at their live shows, saying that "it's becoming very rare" to see bands "not miming or doing silly moves while a tape is running." The former SKID ROW singer told Consequence Of Sound: "I don't know how much longer I can say to you that I don't use tapes onstage, because I don't, and I never have. And I still don't. I'm not going to for this tour. I feel like I'm one of the last people. When I have opening bands, and they're using tapes, and then I come out and I don't use tapes… sometimes, it makes me feel stupid, because I'm like, 'What am I doing, when all these kids half my age can come onstage and do all of my moves, but they don't have to warm up for an hour before the show, or weeks, before the first show?' Sometimes, I'm like, 'Why do I even bother, if the public is so used to this other way'?”

"I just did this cruise, called the Legends Of Rock cruise, and there were all older bands — like KANSAS and Edgar Winter," he continued. "These guys come onstage and destroy you with their musicality. None of these bands on this cruise used tapes. And KANSAS, I was hanging out with that dude with the eyepatch [guitarist Rich Williams], and he said, 'I tell people, 'Come see this while it still exists,'' because it's becoming very rare to come see a good band that's actually a real band — that's not miming or doing silly moves while a tape is running. It just becomes more rare as the years go on."

Asked why he thinks artists using pre-recorded tracks live seems much more prevalent nowadays, Bach said: "Because everybody films everything on their phones, and then posts it all. That's the reason. Nobody wants to jump around too much and then hit a bad note, and then have it be posted on the internet, and people say, 'He's not singing it like the record.' Well, nobody is jumping around when they're on the record. So, you can either freeze or sit in a chair — that's how you make a record — and if you want to do that, it's going to be a pretty boring show."

He went on to say: "Most performers say, 'Singing is too hard.' I'm not from that school. I've done four Broadway shows — I don't transpose the keys down; I can still hit all the notes. I might not hit them all just like the record on any given night. I might not be as good as I once was… but I'm good once as I ever was. [Laughs]"

Bach previously defended KISS against claims that the band is using pre-recorded tracks during its farewell tour. "I listened to Paul Stanley sing his ass off LIVE," Sebastian tweeted after witnessing KISS's concert at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. "I have seen way more obvious use of backing tracks than with KISS… KISS is not lip syncing," he added. "There are too busy putting on the greatest rock show you will ever see."

In July 2020, Bach accused FOZZY frontman Chris Jericho of using pre-recorded lead vocal tracks during live performances. The former SKID ROW frontman initially claimed Jericho was "miming to a tape" at FOZZY concerts in a social media post. In response, the wrestler-turned-rocker insisted that he had "never mimed anything ever" and challenged Bach to a "singoff" with "no effects, no tuning, no bullshit", saying "Bas is a great singer...but I'm better".

In the months that ensued, Bach brought up Jericho's alleged lip syncing on several occasions, most recently in January 2021 in an interview with The Aquarian Weekly. Asked specifically about his feud with Chris, Sebastian said: "I have an open mind about everyone. If I read on Blabbermouth.com [sic] that some band says, 'We're the future of rock 'n' roll and we are the next thing after THE ROLLING STONES,' I think, this must be incredible! What have I been missing out on? So, I checked out one video during which the singer was 100% miming to a tape on stage at The Rockpile in Toronto. I thought to myself, 'That's weird, that's not the next ROLLING STONES.' So, I watch another video where he was opening up for NICKELBACK in an arena and, again, he's miming to a tape. You can go watch it for yourself. Then someone said, 'Here's a clip of him singing live. Legit, bro.' And it's him miming to a tape again. It's crazy obvious. It is not my opinion, it's fact. It is not me starting a fight. But don't tell me what singing live is, 'cause I have never used tape. I don't even know how to do that."