SEBASTIAN BACH Says His Solo Albums Sound More Like Classic SKID ROW Than SKID ROW's Post-BACH Records Do

Jeb Wright of Classic Rock Revisited recently conducted an interview with former SKID ROW singer Sebastian Bach. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Classic Rock Revisited: One of your strengths is that you a have a unique sound to your voice in a genre and a time period that does not have a lot of unique-sounding vocalists.

Sebastian: The way I sing is not the typical heavy metal way. I don't shout and yell. I save all of my power for those high screams. I know how to focus my energy into those high screams. Sometimes if you watch me on YouTube and I am yelling at the monitor man, it is because it is frustrating on a rock and roll stage for me because if I am in a situation where I am yelling over the drum kit, or the bass amp, then I am not singing. If I come off like I am mad at the fucking monitor man, it's because when I am doing a record like "Give 'Em Hell", I am singing in the studio and I am not shouting over the cymbals or the drum kit. You know what I'm saying? When you say I have a unique sound, then I have to remind you that the sound on a song like [SKID ROW's] "I Remember You" is not yelling, it's singing, and it is different than shouting at the top of your lungs. It is a totally different style, and that is how I got to do Broadway. I know how to do that, but when I listen to [my new album] "Give 'Em Hell", I could not be more proud of my voice. If somebody wants to put me down by telling me I sound too good, then the joke's on you. [Laughs]

Classic Rock Revisited: You strike me as a positive person, even though it has not been an easy ride. Of course, I get that you're Sebastian Bach and you're a rock star with a hot girlfriend and all that, but there is another side to the story.

Sebastian: When I was a kid, my parents got divorced when I was ten years old. Any kid that goes through that knows it is a painful experience. My reflex right when that happened was to become a KISS freak on the level of obsession, like a lot of kids in the '70s were. I was a complete fanatic. Every inch of my room was covered in KISS. I had everything you could get. I didn't have a lot of money, but I would find ways to get KISS stuff. The reason I did that was because I had no family anymore as a little boy. It was gone. I subconsciously said, "Nobody is going to take rock and roll away from me. This is going to be mine. I love it more than anything. I will never let anybody take this away from me." When I lose things like a house, or whatever, it is so big that it is almost hard to fathom. I have my rock and roll, still. I escape into rock and roll, just the way fans do. When I put the headphones on and I listen to "Give 'Em Hell", I don't care that I lost my house; I don't give a shit. I put the fucking headphones on and all that I feel is rock music. I love it, and when it sounds the way I want it to sound, then nobody can take that away from me. Rock and roll is the most permanent thing in my life. Maybe I am not always positive, or in a great mood, but most of the time when I am doing interviews and I am talking about rock music, then that is my favorite thing, so you get me in a good mood. [Laughs] When I put the phone down and I have to deal with buying plane flights for guys that can't show up to the airport, or whatever other garbage that I've got to deal with, then I am not always in a good mood. When I talk about the album "Give 'Em Hell", then I am in a great mood.

Classic Rock Revisited: I love that rock and roll attitude. It makes me wonder why some people go out of their way to piss you off.

Sebastian: I kind of understand. I've been told in the past that it is fun to piss me off. Tommy Lee [MÖTLEY CRÜE] used to tell me, "Dude, it is so fucking hilarious to watch you get wound up and go off." I said, "What are you talking about?" and he would just laugh, and he would wind me up 'till I was mad and going, "This is fucking bullshit, fuck this shit!" He would just be laughing. [My fiancée] Minnie tells me the same thing. She says when I get mad, I just go crazy, and she says it's just hilarious. I remember an episode of "Supergroup", the VH1 show, I completely didn't understand why they did an entire episode about us trying to rehearse and I couldn't find my in-ear monitors. All I was doing in the episode was looking for my monitors so I could go to rehearse. The whole show ended up being ten or fifteen minutes of me being mad because I couldn't find my in-ears. I was going, "Where's my fucking in-ears? I've got to get to rehearsal." As soon as I found them and walked into rehearsal, then the show was over. I was, like, "How is it that me, looking for my in-ears, is more worth putting on TV then when I find them and we start rehearsing?" How is that what gets to go on the show and not us actually jamming? What does that say about me? Am I really that entertaining?

Classic Rock Revisited: You are a genuine person. The good, or the bad, you are genuine about who you are. Has that hurt you at times in your career? You are honest to a fault.

Sebastian: That is the reason my old band isn't together with me. You just hit it on the head; that's the reason. If you listen to the records that I do without them, and the records that they do without me, which, honest to God, would you rather fucking listen to? I am not saying I am better than anybody else. I know that my solo records sound more like classic SKID ROW records than the SKID ROW records that I am not on. That is a fact. When somebody comes to me with a song and it is not as good as "I Remember You" or "18 And Life" and I am expected to sing it, but I don't feel it, and I am the guy that has to tell somebody that I am not going to sing their song, then they hate my guts. They hate me. I have no choice. I really don't have a choice. I don't know how to sing a song that I don't like. I don't do that. I didn't get into rock and roll to sing songs that I don't like. I don't. I can't. I can't do that. I have to love it. I have to fucking believe in it with all of my heart, or I am not going to show up. It is not going to be me; it is going to be somebody else. So, in that way, that has hurt me, but when all is said and done, and you put the CDs on, and you listen to them, it has helped me.

Classic Rock Revisited: You do stuff sometimes that you are not supposed to do.

Sebastian: I don't drink anymore, so maybe that had something to do with it. What is the saying they say? I don't get in trouble every time I drink, but every time I got in trouble, I was drinking. This is the first record that I've ever done in my whole career not drinking. It is the first one, so maybe that will be something that you would want to put in the article. Maybe that is the reason it sounds so great… I don't fucking know.

Read the entire interview at Classic Rock Revisited.