SEBASTIAN BACH Says Current Lineup Of SKID ROW Is 'Wrecking The Name'

Denise Britt of Sonic Shocks recently conducted an interview with former SKID ROW singer Sebastian Bach. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Sonic Shocks: What does this new record [Kicking & Screaming"] mean to you?

Sebastian: Well, you know, all I want to do is put more songs in your iPod to go with the songs you already have in there like "Youth Gone Wild", "Monkey Business" and "18 And Life". I really feel like "Kicking & Screaming", the whole album is If you liked "Slave To The Grind" and "Angel Down" and the [other] SKID ROW albums, you're going to like this album. I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel or anything; I'm just trying to make another kick-ass rock and roll record. I'm very, very happy with it.

Sonic Shocks: The cover art kicks ass. What does it represent? What's it all about?

Sebastian: Well, I just got divorced after 18 years and a lot of the songs on the album are about breaking up and relationships and/or finding a new relationship. The goddess Kali (the Hindu goddess associated with eternal energy),she's got eight arms and she is dragging me into hell and cutting me with knives, and that's kind of what the divorce feels like. [Laughs] You know, a lot of the songs in rock and roll were written about girls and relationships, and a lot of the songs on this record have to do with breaking up or finding love, and that is pretty much what the album cover is.

Sonic Shocks: What does [the song "Dream Forever"] mean to you personally? Were you writing it about a relationship or what?

Sebastian: Just thinking of the things I could have been before I close my eyes. Like when you get divorced and you have kids, the last thing you want to do is hurt you kids and put them through hard times, and divorce is hard times, you know?! There are a lot of feelings I have. My parents got divorced when I was 10 years old and I swore to God that it would never happen to me and now it's happening and that's just life. You know, my buddy John Rich, the country artist, told me, "Sebastian, never be afraid to write what you feel because there is always somebody that is going through the same thing with the same feelings as you." And it's true. As you get older, you find out that love is the most important thing. At least to me it is, and that is what I was writing about on this record.

Sonic Shocks: So I saw you at Rocklahoma this year and was totally impressed by your guitarist, Nick Sterling. Where in the world did you find this kid?

Sebastian: This guy is a rock star and a totally talented musician. I saw him in a Guitar World magazine and then I went to his web site and heard some riffs and I couldn't believe what I was hearing, so I went to his MySpace page and emailed him and asked him, "Dude, do you want to join my band and go on tour with GUNS N' ROSES and travel all over the world?" He was like, "Uh yeah."

Sonic Shocks: To be honest, you wereSKID ROW; no one else in the band existed for me. Now I see that SKID ROW is out and about again with a new singer. Does that bother you? It bothers me as a fan and a music lover because to me, YOU were SKID ROW.

Sebastian: It bothers me because they are wrecking the name. If they called themselves something different then we could save the name of SKID ROW as something cool. But whatever, I can't control it.

Read the entire interview from Sonic Shocks.