SEBASTIAN BACH Talks SKID ROW's Slave To The Grind - "Still To This Day, When I Hear 'Monkey Business', It Crushes My Skull"

December 23, 2016, 8 years ago

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SEBASTIAN BACH Talks SKID ROW's Slave To The Grind - "Still To This Day, When I Hear 'Monkey Business', It Crushes My Skull"

Former Skid Row vocalist Sebastian Bach is featured in a new interview on Yahoo Music's Backspin. In a series of video clips he discusses the first three Skid Row albums, his solo career, and his new autobiography, 18 And Life On Skid Row. Following is an excerpt from the transcripts:

On "I Remember You" becoming a smash hit:

Bach: “I remember specifically when ‘I Remember You’ was a big hit on MTV, we were playing in Daytona Beach. I was walking around on the beach before the gig, and two guys were walking around and they recognized me, and they started going, “IIIII reeemember yoooooouuu,” like mocking me. But I was, like, mocking myself with them — because I was sick of me, too. We knew there was a lot of goofy bands in metal at the time… and we were bugged by them, too. So our way of being different than all the goofy bands was to be pretty much a real heavy metal band.”

On Slave To The Grind:

Bach: “There was pressure from our label to repeat the success of the first record, but we knew what we had to do. And then we had people in the industry years later say, ‘You guys were ahead of your time. You knew what you were doing back then.’ Because not a lot of bands would have gotten heavier on their second album. Still to this day, when I hear ‘Monkey Business,’ it crushes my skull. I have to hold my head in my hands and go, ‘How do you ever beat that one right there?’ That is a monster jam. I defy you to put that on and not bang your fuckin’ head. I remember Lars Ulrich (Metallica) being in the studio with me when I cut that vocal. I was literally looking at him, going, ‘I’m gonna show you somethin’ right now, buddy.’ I asked him, ‘How is it?’ He said, ‘It’s roaring.’”

Go to this location to watch the video segments and read the complete transcript.

In a new interview with Michael Christopher for Vanyaland, Sebastian Bach discusses his new autobiography 18 And Life On Skid Row, his love of KISS, and the ongoing rumors of a Skid Row reunion. A couple of excerpts follow:

Michael Christopher: I’ve interviewed people that I’m a huge fan of, and sometimes - and it’s extremely rare - they pull an attitude or act like a dick, I mean, maybe they are having a bad day, but it taints my opinion of them a little bit. You talk in the book about how bummed you were that Paul Stanley didn’t stick around when he came to see Jekyll & Hyde and in fact left mid-performance. Did that do anything to dim your love of KISS?

Sebastian Bach: “No… I won’t let anyone take my love of KISS away from me, not even - anybody - at all [laughs]. I flipped a switch in my head when I was a little kid… I love that, it’s my favorite kind of thing, I collect it. I was just sad because I’m the biggest fan and I just wanted to tell him how much I respected him and looked up to him and all that. But I really think this book, at the end of the day, one of the things about it, it’s like a love letter to KISS. I was really inspired when I saw the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame and Tom Morello’s speech where he inducted KISS and the way that speech hit me, I was like, electrified and in tears like when I was a kid because he really captured the excitement of that feeling. I said, “Oh my God… I have got to fucking write down and put into words my side of that,” because I was a freak [laughs]. And I know I did, because every time I read that, it’s always emotional and very hard for me to read — there’s a bunch of parts of the book that are like that — that’s how I knew I was done the book.”

M.C.: This book’s release has been really high profile, and of course it’s got people talking about the topic of a Skid Row reunion. My question about that, which I haven’t seen asked, is, obviously there is some resentment or anger from certain members preventing it from happening. Would it matter to you if the reunion did happen, but it wasn’t based out of burying the hatchet, but because various managers were able to work it out? I mean, the fans win either way, but personally, would you rather you be on great terms rather than five separate dressing rooms?

S.B.: “I can’t answer that. All I can say is in recent days, when I said before that the managers [of Bach and Skid Row] “are talking,” I have to say now that the managers “were talking” [laughs]. I’m sorry! I’m sorry!  Wah, wah, wah, wah, wah. It’s kind of actually… I don’t know really why, but it’s taken a turn in the other direction unfortunately. You can bust the bad news to everybody. I’m really so busy, that it’s beyond comprehension. I would love to do that, but if it doesn’t happen, I’ve got a lot of other things on my plate to tackle. So whatever happens, happens, but it’s not even up to me whatsoever at all — it has nothing to do with me — it’s just me.” [laughs]

Read the complete interview at Vanyaland.com.

18 And Life On Skid Row was released on December 6th through Harper Collins. In his memoir, Bach recounts lurid tales of excess and debauchery as he toured the world with Bon Jovi, Aerosmith, Mötley Crüe, Soundgarden, Pantera, Nine Inch Nails and Guns N' Roses. Filled with never before seen photos from his own personal collection, 18 And Life On Skid Rowis the story of hitting it big at a young age, and of creatively reeling from a band that broke up in its prime.

From a man who achieved his wildest dreams, only to lose his family, and then his home, this is a tale of perseverance, of wine, women and song, and of a man who has made his life on the road. 18 And Life On Skid Row is not your ordinary rock memoir, because Sebastian Bach is not your ordinary rock star.


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