SEBASTIAN BACH: VELVET REVOLVER Can't Do 'Welcome To The Jungle' Because WEILAND Can't Sing It

Ross Raihala of TwinCities.com recently conducted an interview with former SKID ROW frontman Sebastian Bach. A few excerpts from the chat follows:

On what it's like to be back playing arenas:

"It was the most amazing thing for Axl to ask my band to join the tour. It's something I've waited for for a long time. I get offers to do those package tours, the nostalgia-oriented ones, but I always say no. But GUNS N' ROSES, that one I'll do. I'm very, very lucky. There's a lot of firsts on this tour for me. We got to play a sold-out Madison Square Garden. There have been a lot of places I've never played before, and for an old guy like me, it's great."

On what Axl's like behind the scenes:

"He likes to laugh. He likes to joke around, like, a lot. And he's got the most unique voice I've ever heard. His speaking voice is this low baritone, Clint Eastwood kind of a voice. And then when he laughs, it's like a boy soprano's highest note that comes out. You know, he's singing better than ever now, and that's a fact. That's one thing about Axl people forget. He is one of the best rock 'n' roll singers that ever lived."

On the sometimes long wait from his solo set to "My Michelle":

"Well, I've been on the road since June. And, you know, that whole 'My Michelle' thing is great. I sing my own stuff, then wait two or three hours and jump up there and scream even harder. I've been doing that every day. It's good work if you can get it. The one thing I've learned about myself — and I learned this when I did 'Jesus Christ Superstar' — is that my voice is probably the strongest part about me. It's the rest of me that gets tired. My legs and my eyeballs and my arms and my brain. But my pipes are fine."

On his appearance on "SuperGroup":

"My favorite part of it was when I tell the powers that be to f— off. I just love that. And when they brought that stylist in, I'm, like, 'No, I'm not cutting my hair.' They tell me she cut Jennifer Lopez's hair. Dude, Sebastian Bach has cooler hair than Jennifer Lopez. I look at music as a form of self-expression. I don't need a stylist. Why doesn't she have her own band if she's such an expert? Whatever. My father was a famous painter, and as a little boy, I watched him wake up every day, get his paintbrush and paint all day. He did that 'til the day he died. My microphone is my paintbrush. That's what I do."

On getting the call to star in "Jekyll and Hyde" on Broadway:

"I was, like, 'Do you have the right phone number? Why are you calling me?' They sent the script, and I was on the road with my solo band playing some f——— dump. I was looking around at this club and thinking, hmmm, Broadway or this place? Honestly, though, I didn't think I could do it. The script is so thick, it's like 300 pages or some s—. It's all in old English, and there were these words I'd never heard before in my life. There's 17 songs, and I'm in every scene. But I had a lot of encouragement from people. And I loved doing it. It really was the highlight of my life."

On those who say the 2006 version of GUNS N' ROSES isn't the real thing:

"You know, you've got Slash and Duff doing STONE TEMPLE PILOTS songs with Weiland (in VELVET REVOLVER). They can't do 'Welcome to the Jungle' because he can't sing it. Let's be honest. Then, you've got Axl doing 'Sweet Child o' Mine' and 'Rocket Queen' with some other dudes. I'd rather see Axl singing GUNS N' ROSES songs than Slash doing STONE TEMPLE PILOTS songs. Nobody can sing 'Paradise City' like Axl Rose."