SEBASTIAN BACH: Who Cares I Have 80,000 MySpace 'Friends'? I Want To Sell 80,000 Records

Rock Monthly recently conducted an interview with former SKID ROW frontman Sebastian Bach. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

Rock Monthly: Being such a veteran in the business what inspires to still come up with ideas?

Bach: Just the music itself, I love it way more than anything. That's what I enjoy. I don't enjoy the music business; I pretty much hate it, I don't understand it, I don't get it. I love the music, I love the feeling when I press play on the start of the song "Angel Down" all the way to end of "Falling Into You". That's why I do it. You thought seven years was a long time; I don't know how long the next one is going to take! (Laughs)

Rock Monthly: How do you think, with all the ups and downs in your career, you're still here after 20 years, and you may have put an album that could put you back on top?

Bach: Well…we'll see about that, but it's just my voice; that's it. And the fact that I've been fortunate enough to have a career outside of music, whether it be Broadway or TV, that gives me the money and the funds to actually make CDs. There would be no "Angel Down" if there was no "Gilmore Girls". I mean, the fans may not realize how much I love rock 'n' roll. Most musicians don't pay for their own albums; they pay for fucking Lamborghinis and coke and other bullshit…or not even bullshit like mortgages. I take my own money out of my bank account and buy you "Angel Down". That's literally what I did. And as the CD industry continues to die, there's going to be way less of these. Every rocker out there should know, when the consumer makes a choice of not buying a CD and downloading it on some BitTorrent site or burning a copy from your friend, there's not going to be any more CDs. That's just the fact of the matter. When I like HATEBREED, HELLYEAH, REBEL MEETS REBEL, or NEIL YOUNG, or SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE, I go out and buy the motherfucker on CD (laughs) because I want another one. I want to support the band, to support rock 'n' roll. Every time you make a choice not to buy a CD, you put another nail in the coffin of rock. It's up to everybody; there are no more CD stores, Wal-Mart and Best Buy have maybe one aisle left, and people ask me, "How come it took you seven years to do this?"… Who the fuck wants to do this? I love the music but the business part of it is completely miserable.

Rock Monthly: What's your whole take on MySpace, I mean…

Bach: It's OK, but the whole ironic thing to me is I have over 80,000 "friends" on MySpace but I have not sold 80,000 records; if you're my "friend," could you go fuckin' buy the motherfucker? (Laughs) Who cares if I have 80,000 "friends"?! I mean, who gives a shit! I want to sell 80,000 records! If every one of my "friends" bought my record, it would be great! Whatever! Some friend! (Laughs)

Rock Monthly: With SKID ROW, GUNS N' ROSES, and every band from that time frame, you all had to go through a school of hard knocks; the club circuit, constantly touring and now bands that have there song downloaded enough times are getting record deals…

Bach: Well, I'm doing this interview walking around my house with 22 platinum records on my wall. I'm looking at one right now and let me describe this to you; "Presented to Sebastian Bach to commemorate RIAA-certified multi-platinum of sales more than 5 million copies of the Atlantic Records album, cassette and CD 'Skid Row'" and that's just in America. I have never gotten better reviews, in my life, for the CD "Angel Down". I'm the guy that did all the interviews for the SKID ROW record, and "Slave To The Grind"… all of those. For the first SKID ROW record the interview questions were "you're a pretty-boy," "Bon Jovi gave you everything," "Why should I talk to you?" and there was not one good review ever of this record that sold almost 6 million copies. The reviews sucked! The next record, "Slave To The Grind"… "This is too heavy," "You guys are supposed to be a ballad band," "Where's 'I Remember You'?'" Nothing but bullshit in every interview. Number 1 album! "Angel Down"… "This is the best work you've ever done," " I can't put this down," "This is the greatest record of the year"… When I get another one of these 5-million-sold things on my wall, it would be nice for the reviews to match up with the sales.

Rock Monthly: I've heard the comparison to 5 million then is like 1.5 million now….

Bach: No; I'm not going to tell you because it's too embarrassing but it ain't 1.5 million, believe me. If it was 1.5 million I'd have another one of these fuckers on the wall!

Rock Monthly: With all the bands launching reunion tours like VAN HALEN, THE POLICE, and even LED ZEPPELIN reuniting last [month], would you ever consider a SKID ROW reunion?

Bach: No.

Rock Monthly: That was a quick answer… (long pause) Do you have any relationships with any of your old band mates?

Bach: Nope.

Rock Monthly: "Nope," not at all?

Bach: Just maybe Rob, the drummer. When you see the band SKID ROW now, there are only two out of the five original members left in the band. Snake's not even in the band! Snake manages DOWN now, he's not even in SKID ROW. So at what point does it become ridiculous? I mean, two out of five guys?? At what point do you say, "What the fuck?" Whatever, have a nice time. I hear William Hung is going out on tour. (Laughs)

Read the entire interview at Rock Monthly.