Jeb Wright of Classic Rock Revisited spoke with former Skid Row frontman Sebastian Bach. Excerpts appear below.
Classic Rock Revisited: There a lot of people on the internet that love to hate you. I think your solo career has been hit and miss. Some I like better than others. On Give ‘Em Hell I admit your voice is stronger than ever. This sounds as good as the Skid Row days, man.
Sebastian: That’s cool man. You’re not hurting my feelings. A lot of people have different opinions. Some journalists tell me they like Angel Down the best and some of them tell me they like Kicking & Screaming the best. If I have different journalist telling me they like different albums as the best one, then I win.
Classic Rock Revisited: The haters are going to say, “Bach sounds too good. He’s got to be doctoring his voice.”
Sebastian: If somebody thinks it’s an expression of hate to tell me that I sound too good then they have got to do better than that. That is my voice. If you’ve been listening to me since my first album…I wasn’t doing anything on my first album in the studio. I am not sure what ‘doctoring up my voice’ even means. What do they think I am going to do to it?
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 I’ll Remember You is not yelling, its 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 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 jokes on you (laughter).
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: Is there a tour coming up?
Sebastian: I am about to announce forty tour dates all across Europe, Canada and America. I am playing in London at Sonisphere with Metallica, Alice in Chains and Iron Maiden. That will be a big show. That is huge.
Classic Rock Revisited: Last one: Do you still collect signed memorabilia? I know you had a lot of weather damage to your house and wondered if that survived.
Sebastian: Yeah, I do. The house…I am still kind of dealing with my living situation, so I don’t collect as much as I used to. The weirdest thing was that I didn’t cry so much when I was at the house…it’s a five acre property. The time that I cried is when I was walking on the paths in the woods that I had cut. I am a runner, and over twenty years of living there, I had all my own paths throughout the whole woods that were all mine. I knew every rock, every tree, every leaf and every little piece of dirt…I knew where everything was in those woods. That’s what fucking hit me. When I was alone in the woods, walking through my paths, that is when I cried. That is kind of crazy because I still own the land and I can go walk on them anytime (laughter).
Read more at Classic Rock Revisited.
source: classicrockrevisited.com
7 Responses
On the whole his voice is still great and intact. He doesn’t sound strained and like the wind has gone out of his sails. Keep doing it dude.