SEBASTIAN BACH: Music 'Definitely Keeps You Young In Some Weird Way'

In a new interview with Australia's The Break Down With Nath & Johnny, former SKID ROW singer Sebastian Bach once again spoke about the inspiration for the title of his latest solo album, "Child Within The Man", which came out in May 2024 via Reigning Phoenix Music. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I don't know what it is about music, but it definitely keeps you young in some weird way. I don't understand why or how, but when I look at Angus Young on stage with AC/DC in 2025 and he's banging his head, or I look at Mick Jagger [THE ROLLING STONES], who's in his eighties, and he's running out there and he this little — he's so skinny and he's doing all his Mick Jagger stuff… I don't know what it is, but there is something about rock music. It keeps you young… I don't know what the hell it is, but when I listen to an old album, like ROSE TATTOO 'Rock 'N' Roll Outlaw' or RUSH or any music I listened to as a kid, it makes me feel the same way as I felt when I was a kid. I don't know what the fuck it is. But that's the title, 'Child Within The Man'. Rock and roll makes me feel like a child. [Laughs]"

He continued: "Physically, mentally… I'm not a guy who goes to the doctor all the time, but my wife makes me go and get checkups all the time. And I've been rocking for 45 years straight and my doctor tells me, he goes, 'Sebastian, you are the healthiest person in your fifties that we have ever taken care of.' And my wife's, like, 'That can't be right. This is bullshit. There is no way.' They go, 'Your blood sugar, your heart rate…' The doctor said, 'The enzymes that are coming out of your liver could not be healthier.' And if you knew what I've done to my liver in 45 years — so, I don't know if that's part of rock and roll. I don't know. I do hot yoga, but, man, I love drinking red wine. I don't drink anything else. I don't drink beer. I don't do shots. But I love a glass of red wine with a great meal at a great restaurant. I'm just saying a lot of rockers die young, and I'm still rocking. I'm still here. And rock and roll, I think, keeps you young. I don't know what to tell you. [Laughs]"

Bach previously talked about the inspiration for the "Child Within The Man" album title in an April 2024 interview with "Whiplash", the KLOS radio show hosted by Full Metal Jackie. He said at the time: "Well, my wife calls me man-child. That's kind of been a theme for me my whole career. I bring a youthful energy to the stage when I get up there. People are smiling and excited and hooting and hollering. But the line 'child within the man' is a line of one of the songs on the record. And I scream it like bloody murder. And it kept haunting me. "

Sebastian also talked about the "Child Within The Man" artwork, which holds special meaning since it was designed by Bach's father, noted visual artist David Bierk.

"I have a lot of my dad's artwork," Bach said. "He's no longer alive. And we all, all of his kids, we got a lot of his art when he passed away. And I unrolled a roll of paintings that I knew had the SKID ROW 'Subhuman Race' painting in it, and I wanna take care of it and make sure it's preserved. But in that roll was this painting that I remember my dad doing of me when I was 10 in a field next to this beat-up old Cadillac car in the field and then behind the car, it's Jesus ascending into heaven, and I'm running next to the car. It looks like an album cover. And then he also did a painting of me from Circus magazine, the first centerfold of me on stage at Giants Stadium. He did a gigantic painting of that, like 12 feet high. And so the cover is gonna be me running as a child into me on stage as a man, and it's child within the man. And it just reminds me of the '70s, like child in time, and it just reminds me of a good '70s album cover. And the fact that I can bring back a painting from the year 1978 and make it into artwork in 2023, 2024, that's really mind-blowing to me."

"Child Within The Man" was recorded in Orlando, Florida; produced and mixed by Michael "Elvis" Baskette; engineered by Jef Moll, assistant engineered by Josh Saldate and mastered by Robert Ludwig of Gateway Mastering. Bach wrote or co-wrote all the album's 11 tracks and sang all lead and backing vocals.

"Child Within The Man" features guest appearances from John 5 (MÖTLEY CRÜE, ROB ZOMBIE, MARILYN MANSON),Steve Stevens (BILLY IDOL) and Orianthi (ALICE COOPER, MICHAEL JACKSON) — who all co-wrote their respective tracks with Bach — and two tracks co-written with ALTER BRIDGE's Myles Kennedy ("What Do I Got to Lose?" and "To Live Again"). Devin Bronson (guitars),Todd Kerns (bass) and Jeremy Colson (drums) round out the players on the album. The album was made available on jewelcase CD, cassette, and double LP in a variety of colour options.

The album's first single, "What Do I Got To Lose?", was co-written by Sebastian, Kennedy and Baskette, the latter of whom also served as the track's producer.

Bach performed "What Do I Got To Lose?" live for the first time during his February 24, 2024 concert at Palace Theatre in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Bach released the official music video for "What Do I Got To Lose?" in December 2023. The clip was directed by Jim Louvau and Tony Aguilera. For the video, which shows Bach cruising through the desert in a convertible and performing with a full band, Sebastian was joined by his former SKID ROW bandmate, drummer Rob Affuso. The clip also features an appearance by actor and comedian Craig Gass and Sebastian's wife Suzanne, who plays a scantily clad car wash attendant.

Prior to the arrival of "Child Within The Man", Bach hadn't released a full-length disc since "Give 'Em Hell", which came out in March 2014. Like its predecessor, 2011's "Kicking & Screaming", the disc was released through Frontiers Music Srl, the Italian label which specializes in what's commonly called AOR, a term that once signified a popular radio format ("album-oriented rock") but nowadays applies to acts whose airplay is marginal.