SEBASTIAN BACH Says SKID ROW Gives The Audience 'The Exact Opposite Of What The Audience Actually Wants'

Full Throttle Rock recently conducted an inerview with former SKID ROW singer Sebastian Bach. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Full Throttle Rock: You have been working on a book for some time now. How is that coming?

Bach: It is coming along great. I am over 100 pages that are done. It is coming out on the same imprint as Paul's [Stanley, KISS guitarist/vocalist], HarperCollins, so that is awesome. It is the same publishers that are putting out my book. I want it to be a positive, fun, uplifting book. When I read a biography that is nothing but how fucked up somebody got, or how much drugs they did, or how drunk they got, I understand that — there is obviously going to be some of that in my book — but after, like, page 80 of the same thing over and over, I find that to be sad. Anybody can be a drunk, anybody can be a junkie, anybody can do coke, anybody can. It does not take any talent [laughs], so a guy like Neil Peart from RUSH, nobody can play the drums like that, so when I read one of Neil Peart's books, I find it more interesting than talking about how fucked up he got all the time. He talks about other subjects that I find to be more interesting, so I want my book to be an uplifting, fun, positive thing. Obviously, there is going to be a lot of craziness in it, but I do not want to talk about just booze and drugs for 400 pages. Anybody can do that. Nobody can live a life like I have lived, touring the world and playing music and making people happy. I wanted to reflect the happiness of music and the fun times not just all the rotten shit that people seem to focus on.

Full Throttle Rock: Over the past several months, you have been swapping verbal blows with [MÖTLEY CRÜE bassist] Nikki Sixx. Seriously, dude, what on God's green Earth is going on between you two?

Bach: Well, I cannot keep up with all of the hatred, you know. I mean, one day it is me, the next day it is Sully from GODSMACK, the next day it is Michael Sweet from STRYPER. I cannot keep up with all of it. There is a lot of hatred to keep track of. [laughs] There is a lot of hate going on. It is amazing; every day there is a new batch of hatred. It is hard for me to keep track of it all. [laughs]

Full Throttle Rock: To the best of my recollection, this all started over a comment you made, and correct me if I am wrong, where you were commenting that MÖTLEY CRÜE approached you to be their singer at one point. It kind of escalated from there.

Bach: I never said that. I answered a tweet on my web site, on my Twitter, with three words, like "Yes," to some fan, and I did not realize that the whole world is on my Twitter feed. I did not know that anybody gave a shit what I tweet. Like, I do not even put a lot of thought into it. It is like a conversation, but Vince Neil is the singer of MÖTLEY CRÜE, and Vince Neil will always be the voice of MÖTLEY CRÜE, no matter who else is the singer; that does not matter. That is what MÖTLEY CRÜE is — Vince and Vince's voice. The same way that I will always be the lead singer of SKID ROW. It does not matter what other guy is standing on the stage that day. When we are all dead and we are all gone, I will be the singer of SKID ROW, believe me. [laughs] That is the way it is, you cannot change that, this is the way it is, and Vince will always be the singer of MÖTLEY CRÜE. You can read my book for the rest of this story, you know. They tried out millions of singers in the '90s. It is not a big story, it is very old news. For anymore of this, you can check out my book coming soon. [laughs]

Full Throttle Rock: The subject of a reunion with SKID ROW at some point has been talked about to death, but from my perspective, listening to your last three albums, it appears quite clear to me that you don't need it. You seem very happy in Bachland.

Bach: Yeah, well, I mean making records and going on tour to me are so different, they are such a different thing. Making albums, in my world, is a creative personal experience where you look inside yourself and your feelings and your thoughts and you express your innermost secrets and emotions in a song. But you are just by yourself with a producer, and so it is a very insular process, which is amazing, because then when it comes out, the whole world gets to investigate, you know, how you are feeling. So it is a very cool thing, really, you can put it in your phone and listen on your headphones and you are really inside my head, like the song "Inside My Head", I am inside your fucking head when you are listening to this. [laughs] But touring, to me, is more of a physical test of just physically surviving it, with all the travelling and the physical part of being in shape and on stage for an hour and a half or two hours and travelling all night. So when you talk about a reunion with SKID ROW, you know, doing an album or doing a tour are two different things, and I do not know, it is very easy for me to step on stage and sing a SKID ROW song, so there is no reason why we cannot do that together, there is none. You would have to ask them why they would not want to. When I sing, "We are the youth gone wild," it does not make a difference to me who is playing the bass that day. Whoever wants to play the bass, go ahead. [laughs] I do not do anything different. If they want me to sing it, I will sing it. If they do not, what can I do? You would have to ask them. It is just insanity to me to not give the people what they want. I mean, if the people want something, you and me are both KISS fans, KISS lets the audience be the boss, SKID ROW does not understand that concept whatsoever. They do not, in anyway, acknowledge what the audience wants. [laughs] They will give the audience the exact opposite of what the audience actually wants. I do not understand. But what can I do?

Full Throttle Rock: I am interested in your thoughts on this. I remember a time when there used to be enormous loyalty between a band and the fans. These days every time I go on the Internet, there is someone, be it Dave Mustaine or Gene Simmons or Axl Rose or Geoff Tate or whoever, copping a barrage of abuse from so called "fans." Seriously, what is going on?

Bach: Well, you know, I cannot answer that. But it sure takes a lot of nerve to do this. [laughs] Just from my perspective, I spend a year, literally a year, working as hard as I can on something, and then you want people to like it, and I put it out, and every review is fantastic. I am No. 3 on the Billboard magazine top-selling hard rock albums in the United States of America, and that is great. But God forbid I can read Blabbermouth or comments or anything, because if I did that, I would not want to do this anymore, so I do not know what the point is to call yourself a "rock fan" but then hate rock. [laughs] I do not get that, I am a different kind of fan; I actually love this stuff and I will to the day I die. I do not look for a reason to not like rock music; I actually love it and enjoy it, so I do not understand all that, but I cannot change things. All I can do is keep calm and give 'em hell. [laughs]

Read the entire interview at Full Throttle Rock.