SEBASTIAN BACH: 'I Don't Have Too Many Regrets In My Career'

Niclas Müller-Hansen of RockSverige.se recently conducted an interview with former SKID ROW singer Sebastian Bach. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

RockSverige.se: Do you have any regrets in your career?

Sebastian: Yeah, definitely, but more in my personal life than my career. Actually, I don't have too many regrets in my career, but in my personal life, I've gone through some shit that I can't explain. Losing your home in a hurricane is brutal. Just to go through that… I'll never really get over that. I hope I do, but I haven't yet. I still have to get up in the morning and fucking read e-mails about that shit. Deal with money, insurance, the government, the city and zoning and the cops. My fucking life isn't what you think it is. When you ask why I have lyrics like these, I have to deal with so much fucking shit! I want people to listen to my music and have fun, so I don't really wanna describe it all. I still own the house and I still have to deal with it, you know. It's still mine and it's fucked up!

RockSverige.se: I recently read an interview where you said something about being the last one putting out CDs?

Sebastian: Not the last, but I honestly don't know if there will be another one. I probably will, but I don't think that format's gonna be around. It's gonna get rare and rarer. I feel it going away and it's not fun. I read Nikki Sixx — who I've been in a war with about fucking nothing, just complete garbage — but he said something even I agree with. There's your headline! "Sebastian Bach agrees with Nikki Sixx!" [Laughs] "The war is over!" He said, "No fan understands the amount of effort, time and money we put into these fucking albums." You can't imagine! Over six figures and I wanna say this, because I don't think people know that. It's a ton of money. I could've bought another fucking house, but instead, I did this album and I love it. The amount of time you put into it and the amount of effort and hard emotion and money you put into it, in the current state it doesn't equal because there's nowhere to play it. Nikki said that classic rock stations will play MÖTLEY CRÜE and SKID ROW, but those same stations won't play "Give 'Em Hell" or "Saints Of Los Angeles", and it's bullshit! They made their whole fucking career on playing our shit, and it's like they owe it to us to play the new shit! The fans fucking love it, and it's just stupid. Like the song "Temptation" and the video, it's fucking amazing! It's killer, and also "Saints Of Los Angeles", it's fucking classic CRÜE! Then he said that the active rock stations won't play that, so he's, like, "Wow, this fucking sucks!" [Laughs] I'll always make music somehow, but I don't know in what form it will come out. That's beyond my control.

RockSverige.se: I guess kids today think you make an album in your bedroom, put it out and make tons of money.

Sebastian: They don't understand. I'm not exaggerating when I say that I worked on "Give 'Em Hell" every day for over a year. I make playlists on my iPhone of whatever riffs I've got to sing to, John 5, Duff McKagan, Steve Stevens, and I put these on my phone and arrange them. I started a fucking year and a half ago and then every day I'd go running and listen to it. I don't listen to other bands or the radio. I just listen to that fucking playlist until I like it and it's torture! And the fans don't get it! Well, they do get it though, but what they don't get is how long and how many hours are put into it. It's insane! It's like making a movie or a TV show. You're in there every day, in the studio, figuring it out and shit. The results are killer, but it would be nice if there was a radio station that could just play it. There are so many rules that just sucks, like Nikki Sixx said. [Laughs]

RockSverige.se: Still, metal fans are the ones buying albums and sticking with their bands.

Sebastian: My ultimate dream would be to be Neil Young or Willie Nelson. It is what I am, actually. I roll around the country, have a fucking smoke, get up there and play like shit. [Laughs] They play on huge stages and they can breathe on that fucking stage. I hate that sometimes people think that a SKID ROW reunion would somehow be better than what I just did, because these players I have now are fucking incredible! If anything, I play better with like Bobby [Jarzombek] on the drums. Every time I step on the stage with him, he makes me better as a frontman and a singer. He's one of the best drummers on the planet. I went to see Neil Young two years ago at the Hollywood Bowl and it was $350 to see and 25.000 people. He's ancient and he's just up there being himself and that's what I want. That's my ultimate dream and I hope when I'm 65 the fans will come out and let me sing to them. My voice has got a life on its own; it's a fucking instrument.

Read the entire interview at RockSverige.se.