SEBASTIAN BACH
by Monica Castedo-Lopez
Crazy Sebastian Bach is back in the UK. Two years after our first interview, it has finally happened - he's come on a tour! With his wild and outspoken personality, Sebastian told us about his current band, which includes our Fireworks friend Ralph Santolla (Millennium, ex-Iced Earth) and Steve DiGiorgio (Testament). He's also shared his excitement about headlining Bloodstock in the summer and playing Bang Your Head Festival again.
Unfortunately I must start this interview with a sad note. Where you friends with Dimebag Darrell?
"Yes, I brought him on our first ever arena tour, 'Slave To the Grind - A Vulgar Display of Power', and spent five months on the road with him. We also had a band together called Sebastian Bach's Rock Buds. We did a benefit for NORML, The National Organization for the Reformation of Marijuana Laws, and that was me, Dimebag Darrell, my old drummer Bam Bam, Rex Brown from Pantera and even, believe it or not, Andy McCoy of Hanoi Rocks. We all played together at this pot benefit. Dimebag stayed at my house and one of my best memories of him is when he was sleeping over at my house, I woke up in the morning and I couldn't find him. I was looking for him. He was in my son's bedroom teaching my kid guitar. He was sitting in this little kid's chair with all the toys around. My wife had made breakfast and I was 'Dimebag, breakfast is ready, dude'. And he was 'Hold on, dude, we're doing something here!' Then he came downstairs and we were eating these French toasts. I have a lot of memories like that, just normal, human stuff. It's completely fucking miserable what happened and it's very sad. It really fucked us up for a couple of days when we heard: lots of tears, lots of crying... I'm gonna write a piece on my recollections of him on my website so I don't forget them. It's gonna be really long and I'm gathering all my thoughts. When somebody dies I like to do that. When my dad died I wrote this really long piece and when I read it back there's memories that I don't want to forget."
It has taken its time but you finally made it. You're here in the UK for the first time with your solo band.
"Yeah! Although I wouldn't call the Mean Fiddler 'making it!' [laughs]. I didn't want to play here. I mean, last time I played here fucking Slayer opened up for me at Castle Donington! But I have to play this game that these English promoters have. They don't have the same games in Spain. I played in bigger places than Skid Row ever played in Spain, Turkey, Italy and America. But England is a different scene, so if this is where I've got to play this is where I'll play. I just wish there were fucking light bulbs in this dressing room! We're headlining one of the days at Bloodstock so I should change my attitude here. This will be the smallest gig you'll ever see of Sebastian Bach in London, I tell you that. We are also playing the Bang Your Head in Germany, which we played last year. It was fucking amazing, 35,000 hands in the air. So to do that two years in a row it's good and to headline a festival in England, Bloodstock next summer is awesome. I'm sure my dressing room will have light bulbs there! [laughs]"
Ralph Santolla (Millennium, Iced Earth) is now a member of your band after you met him at Bang Your Head Festival in Germany.
"Yes, we opened up for Testament and Iced Earth. Steve DiGiorgio was in Testament and Ralph was in Iced Earth and both of these guys are in my band now. Plus we've got Mark Prator. He did the Demons And Wizards album with Jon Schaffer and he did Iced Earth too. So I guess this is like Iced Bach!"
How did that come about?
"Good question. They wanted to play with me. I'm not complaining though! I'm very lucky for a guy from my era to play with the best fucking heavy metal players in the world in 2004. To me that says a lot and is great. "With these guys the old material has a new life cause they play metal precisely. Especially Steve DiGiorgio, who has this double neck fretless bass guitar. '18 And Life' with a fretless bass is fucking crazy. He's all over it. He's a virtuoso. It's really cool to play with players like that.
Tonight we're going to do a song called 'You Bring Me Down' which Ralph wrote and will be on our next record. But I don't like to do too many songs in the set that people don't know. We are gonna be working with the producer Zeuss - Shadows Fall and Hatebreed - and I just want to make a heavier record than 'Slave To The Grind'. I love that album and at the time it was a very cool heavy album. I'd like to do that now. I wanna have new songs for Bloodstock and all the festivals next year. I want you guys to have a record so we can do the new songs live."
But you haven't started recording yet. Do you think the album will be ready by then?
"We start in March, that's when Zeuss is available and the album has to be finished before the summer."
Coming back to Bang Your Head, you stated that that festival was the greatest show of your solo career. What was that special about it?
"To play with that many people as Sebastian Bach. I've only done that a couple of times, including the Milwaukee Summer Fest, where the picture of the cover of the DVD was taken. That's just the biggest show I've done as a solo artist and it just feels really good cause it's hard getting away from the brand name Skid Row. That name is so famous. So it takes a lot of work for me to fucking disassociate myself from that name. It's like Guns N' Roses, a famous catchy name. So I just have to really work hard to get past that."
However you are still playing Skid Row songs...
"They're my songs. It's like Ozzy Osbourne doing 'Paranoid'. I have to be disassociated from that name because I'm not in that band. People have to get used to that. Just like Ozzy when he started his solo career he was known as the singer of Black Sabbath and it took years and years for him to be Ozzy Osbourne. I have to do that, so help me out!"
Do you think you will now reach new fans due to the fact that Ralph Santolla is with you?
"Yeah, I do, cause they're famous people in their own right, musician wise. Especially Steve. I didn't realise he has a lot of fans that come to the show and I just think people say 'Sebastian Bach by himself, that's cool', but they also do wanna know who's in the band. They just don't want some fucking 'guy' that goes 'Here's my body'. People don't want that, they're like 'Yeah, we dig you but don't just put some guy up there, get players'.
"To tell you the truth Zeuss told me 'Look, man, to make the record that we wanna do, you need incredible fucking musicians.' He had a lot to do with these guys getting in the band. He has a very clear vision of what he wants to do with me as a producer and part of that is having incredible players."
You have had people coming in an out of the band. Is this the permanent line up?
I hope, I hope.
What happened to the other guys?
"I tried to answer that in the last question. Let's just say Zeuss didn't suggest to get new guys, he demanded it! You're the first person that I told that, but that's the truth. I played a gig in Albuquerque with Ralph and three other guys and Ralph is the only one that made it past. That's the truth. It's a tough business and only the strong survive. The guys I had before were really good looking guys."
Like the winged guitarist on the DVD...
Oh, no, that's a different line-up! That's just the dude in the Darkness! [laughs]. One day I realised that looks don't mean as much as music. Even some of the bands I used to love when I was a kid cause of their visuals they don't really stand the test of time like the guys of Judas Priest. The more you play the more you realise that. Plus I've been doing this for so fucking long that I can't play with someone that hasn't got the experience because being on the road is tough. We're doing eight cities in nine nights in four countries right now. Keeping your voice and trying to get to sleep is fucking tough. I don't want to complain or anything, but to do eight shows in nine nights you have to know what you're doing. And those guys were not as experienced in travelling as me."
How are people receiving the new band?
"Incredible! In Istanbul we played the most incredible gigs ever. Madrid was a tough gig because it was the day after Dimebag was murdered, but that was insane. It was tough because I didn't feel like going onstage because of what happened to Dimebag. I was picturing what happened to him and then I had to run onstage and be Mr Cheerleader, jumping up and down and fucking acting happy, but I was not. And I thank the fans in Madrid for being true metal brothers and sisters. We all came together and it ended up being a great show. It was very challenging to be emotionally happy when I was really fucking sad. I guess that's where my acting abilities come in!"
Last time we spoke you were all over the moon because you were doing the musical Jesus Christ Super Star. Then things changed. What happened?
"I did that show for six months, eight shows a week. I never missed a show and then they tried to change it and I don't do anything that I don't believe in. The changes that they were making to that show were to try and take off any sort of rock'n'roll aspects like me getting the crowd clapping. If you don't want the crowd to clap, you got the wrong mother fucking Jesus. I'll never do that. But I just actually made Jekkyll & Hyde again two months ago and I was hired by the same organisation that fired me from Jesus Christ. Broadway is controlled by Actors Equity, that's like a union and they control all of Broadway. When I walked out on Jesus Christ Super Star part of me was very worried that I had fucked myself up for the future on Broadway. But no, they understood that maybe Sebastian Bach makes a better Mr Hyde than Jesus Christ. Big surprise! When they hired me for that I was like 'Are you sure? You know me?' 'Yeah, you're perfect, you've got long blonde hair, it's great'. 'Oh, okay, that's cool!' I told them already when they hired me 'Look there's no way that I can do that for longer than six months' and they wrote all the contracts for a year. And I went 'Listen, I know myself. After six months my brain is not gonna be into it anymore'. I can't just do the same thing over and over and over. And that's exactly how long it lasted: six months."
Was it then your decision or their decision?
It was both. I walked out because they tried to take my curtain call away. I would come out at the end of the show and every mother fucking hand would be up in the air. One of the actors in the play thought I was disrespecting Jesus and Jesus would never do that and I'm not Sebastian Bach in a curtain call, I'm Jesus Christ. I'm not gonna get in a theological debate of whether fucking Jesus would not like people to clap. I go 'If it comes to this, bye! I'm out of here!' I don't need to do that, I'm not begging to do Broadway shows, they come to me. But I refuse to suck. That's why I'm not in Skid Row and that's why I'm not in that play. I can't just go suck. I have to love it, it has to be fun and cool. I'll never change that. I just turned down Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. They offered me to do that on Broadway and offered me tons of money. They wanted me to be the dream catcher, the evil guy. But I just couldn't picture myself going on the website 'Hey all you rock'n'roll mother fuckers, now I'm starring in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang' [laughs]. No! I'm gonna fucking rock Europe next summer with my band and that's what the focus is on."
Your TV career seems to be very productive: VH1 show I Married Sebastian Bach, one episode in the Gilmore Girls. Any other shows lined up?
"Well, VHI is begging us to turn I Married Sebastian Bach into a series and we're probably gonna do it cause it will promote the band."
[At this point Steve DiGiorgio enters the dressing room and Sebastian breaks the news to him:]
"I didn't tell you guys this. It's gonna happen."
Steve DiGiorgio: "No."
SB: "When you come to my house next time for rehearsal you're gonna be a reality TV star."
SD: "No! Why?"
SB: "Let me tell you why. Because MTV and VH1 don't play rock videos any more and the only way to get back on the channel is to do these fucking shows and it does make the band bigger."
Sebastian, this is the end of the interview. Your chance for a message to our readers.
"Go to my website
www.sebastianbach.com to know the latest, look out for the new record coming this spring and we are headlining Bloodstock, Bang Your Head in Germany and more festivals to be announced. Thank you Fireworks magazine!"
This interview was reprinted with permission from Fireworks Magazine.
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"If you could see it through my eyes, you'd know I tried to change it all. I've been trying all my life to stand up every time I fall. If you could see it through my eyes..."
© Copyright 2004
