SEBASTIAN BACH: 'AXL ROSE Throws Parties That Would Make Sodom And Gomorrah Blush'

Australia's The Metal Forge recently conducted an interview with former SKID ROW frontman Sebastian Bach. A few excerpts from the chat follow:

On filling in for Axl Rose for two songs at the final show of GUNS N' ROSES' European tour:

"That was the most surreal experience of my life. 'Cause Axl just had like a low blood-sugar thing happening and it happens to everybody. So they just ran up to me — the management and the road crew guys — and they go, 'Baz! Finish the set!' I go 'Finish the set?! What the fuck, finish the set?' So I run out there, I do 'Nightrain' with Izzy Stradlin and the rest of the guys. And it was insane, I thought I was done: I walk off the stage; I thought I was finished and then they go 'Paradise City', dude.' I go 'Jesus Christ!' . . . And there's so many words in that; and I know the melody just like everybody but to nail those fuckin' words, it's like...thank God for tele-prompters. 'Cause I just sang it and I read it at the same time and I think I did pretty good but it was like being thrust right into the fire, you know. And then I turn around and there's like midgets dancing all around me waving British flags. And then at the end I jump up in the air and when I hit the fuckin' stage all these bombs go off like boooom! And I'm like, 'Goddamn!' So that was really cool. Yeah, it was heavy, dude. It was the best tour I've been on since the 'Use Your Illusion' tour. I've played a lot of gigs with Axl, I'm very fortunate."

On Axl Rose:

"Axl throws these parties that would make Sodom and Gommorrah blush. He's like Caligula! He throws these incredible parties. In New York he did four shows at Hammerstein ballroom and threw these giant parties every night and everybody from Sean Penn to Lenny Kravitz to... I mean, you name it, they were there, just everybody famous just comes to see him play. It's just a lot of fun, you know. Axl definitely knows how to throw a fuckin' party, that's for sure."

On his vocal influences:

"The guy that made me want to sing was [Rob] Halford. I remember my friend had 'Unleashed in the East' and he brought it over to my house and I was listening to KISS and VAN HALEN then, and he goes 'Listen to this' and I heard the scream on the live version of 'Victim of Changes' and I didn't believe that that was a voice. I said, 'That's a guitar, right?' and he goes 'Dude, that's his voice' and I go 'Shut the fuck up! That's not his voice doing that!' I thought it was an effect or something. I was like 12 years old, you know. How can that be a voice? It sounds like a machine, you know.

"But I was the lead singer in my church choir when I was a little boy, like lead soprano. I had a pretty high voice too but I was singing in church. But then when I heard that I go, 'Oh my God, man; that's the most incredible fuckin' thing I've ever heard.' That made me want to sing, it was that album. And I put my Mom through many torturous, tortuous hours of trying to sing like that when I of course could not. And I remember... 'Turn that fuckin' shit down!', you know? Kicking the door and everything."

On the VH1 reality show "SuperGroup":

"No, it's not going anymore. The show was No. 1 rated show on VH1 during the summer. It's currently airing in England, Canada...uh, it just finished airing in Mexico, Chile, Argentina… it's worldwide show, so it's pretty cool. I hope it gets on in Australia. It should be. Maybe after I come down there and tour...I hope so. Because it's been on pretty much everywhere else. It's a crazy show, it really is. But it's...they...you don't know when you're doing those reality shows what they're gonna show in the final thing. Like, there's one segment of five minutes of me looking for my in-ear monitors 'cause the band's rehearsing and I'm just trying to get to fuckin' rehearsal, you know? And I'm like 'Where's my fuckin' in-ears?' I couldn't find them, you know? And they don't show any of the rehearsal when I actually find them and put 'em on. But it's five minutes of me walking around the house, slamming doors, looking for my things like I'm a fuckin' bad guy 'cause I fuckin' lost my fuckin' in-ear monitors and I just wanna go rehearse. 'That's horrible! Oh my god!' You never know what they're gonna show. But it's cool, you know; you sign up for these things and that's what they are: reality show's a fuckin' reality show. So, there's a lot of people getting drunk on it, getting in fights, fuckin' killer...great TV. "

On "Rock Star: Supernova":

"I watched that once and that just wasn't for me, that show. To me, that seems like karaoke or something. Like when somebody gets up and sings somebody else's song and...you gotta write your own shit, you know what I'm saying? I mean, I don't know...I only watched it once but I was pretty burnt out on rock and roll reality shows at that point.. But it was 'super' in the name: Supergroup, Supernova… Superthis, Superthat, fuckin' Superman, fuckin' Superman Returns. Super, Super, Super! I'd had enough of it."

Read the entire interview at www.themetalforge.com.