Sebastian Philip Bierk (born April 3, 1968), known professionally as Sebastian Bach, is a Canadian-American[1] singer who achieved mainstream success as the frontman of the hard rock band Skid Row from 1987 to 1996. He has acted on Broadway and has made appearances in film and television such as Trailer Park Boys, The Masked Singer and Gilmore Girls. He continues his music career as a solo artist.
Bach joined a church choir when he was eight years old, and found much joy in singing "Gloria in Excelsis Deo" with them. He knew while singing the hymn that he would sing for the rest of his life.[4][5]
Career
Kid Wikkid (1983–1985)
The members of Kid Wikkid were based in Peterborough, Ontario. Upon hearing of the band and unaware of their ages, 14-year-old Bach auditioned for the group, and was hired by guitar player and band leader Jason Delorme. Kid Wikkid moved back to Toronto, and Bach's dad eventually allowed Bach to move in with an aunt.[citation needed]
Skid Row (1987–1996)
Skid Row initially formed in the mid-1980s with lead vocalist Matt Fallon fronting the group, and they began playing at various clubs around the New Jersey area. Fallon left the band in 1987, leaving Skid Row in search of a lead vocalist. Bach was spotted singing at rock photographer Mark Weiss's wedding by Jon Bon Jovi's parents, who subsequently approached him and suggested he get in touch with their son's friend, Dave Sabo, who was looking for a lead vocalist for his band.[6] Bach was wary of joining another US-based band after briefly being a member of Detroit's Madam X. Upon hearing Skid Row's demo tapes, however, Bach flew to New Jersey to audition and became the up-and-coming band's lead vocalist in early 1987.
Skid Row achieved commercial success in the late 1980s and early 1990s, with its first two albums Skid Row (1989) and Slave to the Grind (1991) certified multi-platinum, the latter of which reached number one on the Billboard 200. The band's third album Subhuman Race (1995) was also critically acclaimed.
Bach has received criticism for a photo, taken in 1989, in which he is wearing a T-shirt reading "AIDS Kills Fags Dead", a play on the tagline at the time for the insecticide Raid, "Raid Kills Bugs Dead". In a 2003 interview, he stated about the controversy, "That was really stupid and wrong for me to wear that for one-half hour in my life. What nobody brings up is in 2000, when I was in 'Jekyll & Hyde,' and at an auction for Broadway Cares, I donated $12,000 of my own money to fight AIDS."[7]
Following disagreements over musical material and infuriating Bolan, Bach was fired from the band in 1996. However, rumors circulated that he had left the band due to his other bandmates believing they should not play as an opening act for Kiss.[8][9] Bandmate Rachel Bolan also had a side project, a punk band Prunella Scales who were playing at the same time as the planned Kiss show. The rift between Bach and the other band members subsequently led to his leaving Skid Row.[10][11] Four years later, Skid Row was one of the opening acts for the 2000 Kiss Farewell Tour, without Bach.[12][13]
Broadway and other projects (1996–2006)
In 1993, Bach shortly toured with Triumph after the release of their album Edge of Excess, providing lead vocals up until the band broke up later the same year.[citation needed]
In 1996, Bach joined The Last Hard Men, an alternative rock supergroup formed by Breeders lead guitarist Kelley Deal, which also included Frogs guitarist Jimmy Flemion and Smashing Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlin. The group recorded a full-length self-titled album for Atlantic Records, who then opted not to release it. In 1998 it was released on Kelley Deal's label, Nice Records, with no fanfare and a very limited pressing of 1,000 CDs. The band also recorded a cover of the Alice Cooper song "School's Out" for the soundtrack album of the 1996 film Scream.
In 1999, Bach released his debut solo album Bring 'Em Bach Alive!, his first release after his departure from Skid Row. Mainly a live album of Bach's Skid Row songs, it also presented five new studio recordings, including the single "Superjerk, Superstar, Supertears".
In 2000, Bach began performing in Broadway productions. He made his Broadway debut with the title role(s) in Jekyll & Hyde in April 2000. He also appeared as Riff Raff in The Rocky Horror Show in 2001. On November 28, 2001 Bach appeared at New York Steel, a benefit concert held in response to 9/11.[14]
In early 2002, he became the host of VH1's Forever Wild. In October of that year, Bach was signed to perform in the national touring production of Jesus Christ Superstar, playing the title role alongside JCS veteran Carl Anderson.
A DVD video of live performances called Forever Wild was released in June 2004. That same year, he reprised the title role(s) in another showing of Jekyll & Hyde.[15]
In 2003, Bach tried out for Velvet Revolver before the band found Scott Weiland, but was turned down because, according to Slash, "We sounded like Skid Roses!" From 2003 to 2007, Bach had a recurring role on the WBtelevision show Gilmore Girls as "Gil", the lead guitarist in Lane Kim's band, Hep Alien.[16] Members of Bach Tight Five (a project initiated by Bach in 2004, but dissolved shortly thereafter) lived with Bach and his family as documented on VH1's I Married ...Sebastian Bach, one of the "I Married ..." series. In 2005, Bach collaborated with Henning Pauly to be the singer on the Frameshift album called An Absence of Empathy, released in April 2005. He was recommended to Henning by Dream Theater's James LaBrie.
Bach performing in 2006
On May 12 and 14, 2006, at the Guns N' Roses' warmup show at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City, Bach joined Axl Rose on stage for the song "My Michelle". He joined Rose and the rest for a third time the following night (May 15) to sing "My Michelle" once again. He also joined them for their Pre-Download Festival show in the Apollo Hammersmith, London, singing My Michelle. Rose introduced Bach by saying that the two had rekindled their friendship in the previous week after 13years of not speaking. On June 4, 9 & 11 he again joined Rose on stage at the 2006 Gods of Metal Festival (Milan), Download Festival in RDS Dublin and in Donington, respectively. On September 23, 2006, he joined Axl on stage once again at KROQ-FM's Inland Invasion festival in California for a rendition of "My Michelle".[citation needed]
Reality TV and Angel Down (2006–2010)
Bach starred in the 2006 VH1reality showSupergroup, in which he, along with Ted Nugent, Scott Ian, Jason Bonham and Evan Seinfeld, were tasked with forming a heavy metal supergroup, with Bach as the lead vocalist. The seven-episode series was filmed during a twelve-day period when the musicians all lived together in a mansion in Las Vegas. The resulting band, originally called "Fist", was eventually named Damnocracy; both names were Bach's ideas. Damnocracy had no recorded output.[17]
In 2007, Bach announced a partnership record label with EMI to jointly create a label owned by him, including his album Angel Down, which was released on November 20, 2007.[18] Bach also recorded backing vocals for the track "Sorry" on Guns N' Roses' long-delayed Chinese Democracy, which was released in November 2008.[19] He spent the summer of 2008 playing with Poison and Dokken.[20]
Bach was the winner of the second season of the CMT reality show Gone Country, which aired in 2008.[21]
Kicking & Screaming and Sterling's departure (2010–2012)
Bach toured as an opening act for Guns N' Roses' "Chinese Democracy Tour" 2009–2010, and performed "My Michelle" with Axl Rose in Quebec City on February 1, 2010. On January 5, 2011, he was featured on NBC's Jimmy Fallon Show in a live performance and a subsequent video of "We Are The Ducks", a power ballad written for University of Oregon Ducks, set to play in the BCS national championship game Monday, January 10, 2011. In 2011, Bach was interviewed by British metalcore band Asking Alexandria in the March/April issue of Revolver. The band are fans of Skid Row and covered two of their songs the preceding year of the interview.[22] The same year, Bach performed "Youth Gone Wild" with the band live at the Revolver Golden Gods Awards and Rock on the Range.[23] Bach was also filmed in their music video "Closure".
Bach provided the voice of Prince Triton, King Neptune's rebellious son, in the SpongeBob SquarePants episode, "SpongeBob and the Clash of Triton" in 2010. On June 15, 2011, Bach revealed the title of his upcoming solo album would be Kicking & Screaming. On July 8, 2011 track list, cover art and title of the first single were revealed. It was released September 27, 2011 for North America and worldwide and September 23, 2011 for Europe on Frontiers Records. On August 13, 2012, Nick Sterling was fired by Bach after refusing to sign an agreement to appear on an undisclosed TV show.[24]
On April 30, 2013, Bach confirmed via Twitter that a new studio album was in the works. He went on to say that Bob Marlette would be returning as producer.[26] Bach had collaboration work for the upcoming album with John 5, Duff McKagan, and Steve Stevens. On January 13, 2014, Give 'Em Hell was announced with a prospective release date of April 22, 2014.[27] He also appeared in two Trailer Park Boys episodes from their 2014 season. In 2014, Bach completed his Give 'Em Hell tour and in 2015, Bach went on another tour titled the "18 and LIVE" tour.
In 2019, Bach toured behind the 30th anniversary of Skid Row's self-titled debut album, playing it live in its entirety.[28] On July 20, 2021, it was announced that Bach would be doing a tour in the fall for the 30th anniversary of Skid Row's Slave to the Grind.[29]
Child Within the Man (2023–present)
In 2023, Bach competed in season ten of The Masked Singer as "Tiki". He was eliminated in "I Wanna Rock" alongside Ginuwine as "Husky".[30] Also in December 2023, he released his first new song in nearly ten years, "What Do I Got to Lose?"[31]
In March 2024, Bach announced his forthcoming album Child Within the Man. It was released on May 10.[32]
Personal life
At one time, Bach lived in Red Bank, New Jersey.[33] In August 2011, his New Jersey home was damaged by Hurricane Irene and declared uninhabitable. Several Kiss and Skid Row artifacts (including Skid Row master tapes) were in the house, but none were damaged.[34] His father's art, comic books, and the Kiss gargoyles from their 1979 tour were also salvaged.[35]
In the mid-1980s, Bach began dating Maria Aquinar. The couple had a son, Paris, in 1988. Bach and Aquinar married in July 1992 and had another son, London, in 1994 and a daughter, Sebastiana, born in 2007. Bach and Aquinar split up in April 2010.[36]
In December 2010, Bach began dating model Minnie Gupta. They were engaged in April 2012 but ended their engagement in late 2014.
On December 28, 2014, Bach became engaged to Suzanne Le after two months of dating. They married in August 2015 and currently live in Los Angeles.[37][38]
On July 13, 2017, Bach underwent "singing-related" hernia surgery.[39] He started to recover a month later and then explained that the operation was needed, "because [he] literally screamed [his] guts out."[40]
Slave to the Grind is the second studio album by American heavy metal band Skid Row, released on June 11, 1991, by Atlantic Records. The album displayed a harsher sound than its predecessor and lyrics that avoided hard rock cliches. Slave to the Grind is the first heavy metal album to chart at number one on the Billboard 200 in the Nielsen SoundScan era, selling 134,000 copies in its opening week. The album was certified 2× platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in 1998 for shipping two million copies in the United States. It produced five singles: "Monkey Business", "Slave to the Grind", "Wasted Time", "In a Darkened Room" and "Quicksand Jesus". Skid Row promoted the album opening for Guns N' Roses in 1991 and as a headliner the following year.
Subhuman Race is the third studio album by American heavy metal band Skid Row, released on March 28, 1995, by Atlantic Records. This is the last Skid Row album with singer Sebastian Bach and drummer Rob Affuso, and the last one to be released on Atlantic. Despite receiving positive reviews, Subhuman Race was not as successful as the band's first two albums. Certain tracks from the album were remixed for the band's compilation 40 Seasons: The Best of Skid Row, given slightly cleaner mixes to fit better with the other tracks.
Roy Z Ramirez is an American guitarist, songwriter and record producer, best known for his work with Bruce Dickinson, Halford, and Judas Priest. He also is the founder of Tribe of Gypsies, a Latin-influenced hard rock band. Roy also helped write and produce the band Life After Death in 1996.
Skid Row is an American rock band formed in 1986 in Toms River, New Jersey. Their current lineup comprises bassist Rachel Bolan, guitarists Dave Sabo and Scotti Hill and drummer Rob Hammersmith. The group achieved commercial success in the late 1980s and early 1990s, with its first two albums Skid Row (1989) and Slave to the Grind (1991) certified multi-platinum, the latter of which reached number one on the Billboard 200. Those two albums also produced some of Skid Row's most popular hits, both in and outside of the United States, including "18 and Life" and "I Remember You", which peaked in the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100, and other charting singles such as "Youth Gone Wild", "Monkey Business", "Slave to the Grind", "Wasted Time", and "In a Darkened Room". The band's third album Subhuman Race (1995) was also critically acclaimed, but failed to repeat the success of its predecessors. Those three albums featured the band's "classic" lineup, which consisted of Bolan, Sabo, Hill, drummer Rob Affuso and frontman Sebastian Bach. The band had sold 20 million albums worldwide by the end of 1996. Amid rising tensions, Bach was fired and Affuso left Skid Row towards the end of that year, after which the band entered a three-year hiatus.
Bobby Jarzombek is an American musician of Polish and German ancestry who is currently the drummer for country music legend George Strait. Bobby also has been a drummer for Sebastian Bach, and progressive metal band Fates Warning. Guitarist Ron Jarzombek is his younger brother.
John William Lowery, who is known by the stage name John 5, is an American guitarist. Lowery first took the stage name in 1998 when he left David Lee Roth's solo band and joined Marilyn Manson. Lowery later became the guitarist for Rob Zombie, and in 2022, became the touring guitarist for Mötley Crüe, being promoted to a full member the following year.
David Michael Sabo, nicknamed The Snake, is an American musician best known as one of the guitarists of heavy metal band Skid Row.
Wolf Hoffmann is a German musician, primarily known as the guitarist and last remaining original member of heavy metal band Accept since 1976. His work in Accept influenced the development of speed metal genre. He is also one of the first players of neoclassical metal.
Thickskin is the fourth studio album by American heavy metal band Skid Row, released on August 5, 2003. The come back album is the first to feature new vocalist Johnny Solinger who replaced original singer Sebastian Bach and the only album to feature former Saigon Kick drummer Phil Varone. The album featured a change to a more modern sound.
Supergroup is an American reality television show which aired on VH1 in 2006. The show followed five well-known hard rock and heavy metal musicians over a 12-day period during which they lived together in a Las Vegas mansion owned by Nico Santucci in order to create, plan and perform a live show together. The show, which aired in seven segments, starred band members Sebastian Bach, Jason Bonham, Scott Ian, Ted Nugent and Evan Seinfeld. Doc McGhee, who had previously worked with Bach and his band Skid Row, appeared as the band's manager.
Damnocracy was a heavy metal supergroup formed on, and for, the VH1 TV show Supergroup in 2006. The members of the band ultimately dubbed their band project Damnocracy.
"Monkey Business" is a song by American heavy metal band Skid Row. It was released in June 1991 as the lead single from their second album, Slave to the Grind (1991). It was written by bandmates Rachel Bolan and Dave "The Snake" Sabo.
Bring 'Em Bach Alive! is the debut solo album by heavy metal singer Sebastian Bach, his first after his departure from Skid Row. It was released in November 1999. It is mainly a live album composed of Skid Row songs of Bach's era; however it also includes five new studio recordings which are the first five tracks on the album including the single "Superjerk, Superstar, Supertears" and the promo single "Rock 'N' Roll".
John Preston Solinger was an American singer known for being the lead vocalist of the hard rock/heavy metal band Skid Row from 1999 to 2015.
Madam X is an American hard rock band first active in glam metal during the 1980s. Originally formed by two sisters, Maxine and Roxy Petrucci, the band also featured male members John (Jayme) Grosjean, Bret Kaiser and Chris Doliber, and later included future Skid Row vocalist Sebastian Bach. Disbanding in 1988, the group reformed briefly in 1991, and has become active again after reforming for a second time in 2013. The band released a new album, Monstrocity, on October 31, 2017.
Rob De Luca is an American bassist and vocalist, best known for playing in UFO and as a founding member of Spread Eagle. He has also toured with Sebastian Bach, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Of Earth and Helmet.
Mark "Bam-Bam" McConnell was an American rock and heavy metal musician, best known for his role from 1997 to 2005 as drummer with Sebastian Bach, and later with Blackfoot and Southern Rock Allstars. Though almost exclusively a touring drummer, he was well known in the late 1980s and early 1990s metal scene.
Big Noize, also written as Big Noise, were an American rock supergroup, including members of Deep Purple, Rainbow, Ozzy Osbourne, Dio, Black Sabbath, Quiet Riot, AC/DC, Skid Row, Dokken, Kiss and Bon Jovi. Bassist Phil Soussan was the band's only consistent member.
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