SEBASTIAN BACH SAYS HIS FORMER SKID ROW BANDMATES, “F-CKING HATE ME”

Katy Kroll of Billboard reports:

“You only get so many 30-year anniversaries.”

So says former Skid Row frontman Sebastian Bach on why he’ll perform the rock band’s 1989 self-titled debut album in its entirety on a solo tour, despite a contentious 1996 split from the band and lingering animosity that has hindered a reunion.

The idea for the tour percolated when, in January, Rhino Records released a remastered 30^th-anniversary digital deluxe edition of the multiplatinum album, expanded with a bonus track and previously unreleased live recordings.

“It’s like it’s from a different time,” says Bach, 51. And indeed, 30 years is the span of a generation.

Since the release of Skid Row, grunge was born, nu-metal had its moment, emo experienced mainstream success, and rap rose to worldwide domination. But the appeal of songs like Youth Gone Wild, 18 and Life and I Remember You endures.

“The music has a life of its own,” says Bach. “When people hear it, they get an overwhelming sense of nostalgia, which you can take as a compliment or cringe. People especially have a lot of memories attached to I Remember You, which was the number one prom song in 1990, according to USA Today…”

…Despite two power ballads being its biggest hits [18 and Life and I Remember You], Skid Row fell more musically in line with Guns N’ Roses than, say, Poison. Yet it still often gets lumped in with other “hair metal” bands.

“It used to bother me,” admits Bach, “because I’ve played 100 times more shows with Guns N’ Roses than Poison. But when you get older, things change. I’m not an angry young man anymore. Now I’m just proud to be associated with musicians who go out and headline sheds every single summer. I make a great living touring on these songs…”

Bach [admits that he] has not been in a room with his former [Skid Row] bandmates (aside from [drummer Rob] Affuso) in 23 years because, he says, “they f–king hate me.” But he’s still hoping a reunion is in the cards someday. “For the fans, and for me as a fan, yes, I’d like to do it. My father died at age 57, and his father also died at 57 — and every time I go online, somebody in rock is dying or getting cancer or just getting too old to do it anymore. I don’t know if I’ll be around for the next 30 years, so why not do it while I’m still physically capable?”

What would it take to get to that point? “If they’d just let my manager, Rick Sales, take them out to dinner, the [original] band would be on the road again. But they don’t like dealing with managers. Unlike them, it is physically and mentally impossible for me to be mad at somebody for so long — 23 years. That’s like being mad at someone from grade school. But it’s a thin line between love and hate. I don’t love anything about the situation now with the band. But I love everything about when the album came out.”

Read more at Billboard.

Click here for more information,. and to view tour dates, for Bach’s 30th anniversary Skid Row tour.