Sebastian Bach plays
But the 50-year-old Bahamas-born, Peterborough-raised metal rocker is not exactly feeling festive this week. His old band, Skid Row, used to tour with another pioneering group of head-bangers, Pantera, and last weekend, they lost their drummer, 54-year-old Vinnie Paul, with whom Sebastian was joined at the hip.
“Pantera changed how heavy metal was to be played,” Sebastian tells BarrieToday. “Our first arena tour was with Pantera, and Vinnie was like a brother to me. He came to my 50th birthday party (on April 30), and I didn’t realize that that was the last time I’d ever see him.”
The silver lining behind the cloud? “The fans have been there for us. The support they’ve shown has been wonderful.”
Still, “I feel lucky to be alive. It’s been a rough couple of days,” he said.
Turning to something more cheerful, Canadians will be able to buy pot legally this fall, and the rocker who was born Sebastian Bierk couldn’t be happier. “It’s the way it should be,” he says, “I moved out of Canada to California in 1986 to where it’s pretty legal. It’s going to be good for the economy, good for jobs. I might even consider moving back to
Bach joined Skid Row in 1986, taking over the vocal chores from Matt Fallon, around the same time the New Jersey-centred band (co-founded by guitarist Dave Sabo) was climbing the charts with another ensemble Sabo used to play in with boyhood chum Jon Bongiovi (that’s right, Bon Jovi).
For their part, Skid Row watched their self-titled album rise like a Saturn rocket in early 1989, going quintuple-platinum, with tunes like 18 and Life and I Remember You.
Slave to the Grind and Subhuman Race followed in quick succession, and made Skid Row a force to be reckoned with in the heavy metal world. But rock wasn’t the only place it was at for Sebastian Bach, and he quickly accepted a role in the Broadway musical Jekyll and Hyde.
“It was kind of a Marvel Comics experience,” he says with another laugh. “I’d collected Marvel Comics growing up, and thought it was a great chance to play a comic book.”
Playing Riff-Raff in a revival of The Rocky Horror Show was also a lot of fun.
Playing in Jesus Christ Superstar? “Not so much,” he said with another laugh.
Bach is non-committal on a favourite song. “I listen to all kinds of music for different reasons, never to the same music for too long.”
The list of bands he admires is a lengthy one: “as a little kid, Rush, KISS, and Harlequin. As a big kid (there’s that laugh again), I was a fan of Goddo, April Wine, Max Webster – all incredible bands.”
The Sebastian Bach show on Thursday, June 28, is but another coup staged by the folks at Mavricks, a place Bach has never been, but he’s heard it’s a “nice venue, has that little theatre atmosphere about it.”
What’s more,
And occasion for some celebration, even in the midst of grief.
Mavricks is located at
