The Original Voice Of Skid Row Sebastian Bach On His Return To Australia

The Original Voice of SKID ROW Returns to Australia for a High-Octane Celebration of One of Rock’s Greatest Debuts! Rock legend Sebastian Bach, the unmistakable original voice of Skid Row, is set to reignite Australian stages in 2025. This time, he’s bringing a full-throttle performance of the album that launched a rock revolution – Skid Row’s self-titled debut, performed in its entirety for the first time on Australian soil.

This tour is a massive celebration of a record that changed the face of hard rock and heavy metal – delivered by the voice that made it unforgettable. Fans can expect an explosive set featuring hits like Youth Gone Wild, 18 and Life, Big Guns and I Remember You. The legend Sebastian Bach talks about his upcoming Australian tour this November.

We’ve definitely missed you, and it’s so good that you’re coming back for your first tour in quite a while.
Yeah, we’re playing Adelaide on November 25, which is six months from now. Wow! And Melbourne – I got to say it correctly. It’s already sold out. That’s the night after Adelaide, and we’re playing The Gov, so that’s a small place. So, I would suggest getting your tickets, because I’m pretty sure it’s going be a sellout too.

We’re doing the first Skid Row record in its entirety, which we haven’t done in a while. We were booked to play Australia way back in 2020, and then 2020 happened, so we couldn’t come. The promoter was like, “Please, please do the tour,” so we’re doing it again. We are doing it in Australia. I also have a new record, Child Within the Man, which is a great album. The first Skid Row album’s only forty five minutes long, so we’re going to be doing some new songs as well.

Australia has always been one of my favorite places to play. I’m Canadian, so when I walk around the streets of Adelaide or Sydney or wherever, all the street names are the same. You guys have HP Sauce, which I grew up on. There’s a lot of similarities to me between Australia and Canada. Canada is very British, you know, the Queen is on the dollar bill and all that, and I just feel like I’m in Canada… with way better weather though!

Playing Skid Row, probably one of the greatest debut albums in rock history, how do you feel about that album now, when you look back on it?
Well, it has a life of its own. The manager of Skid Row, Doc McGhee, back in 1990 when we first came to Australia, he was one of the first managers that would have his artists tour in places that didn’t get a lot of tours. Of course, Skid Row wasn’t the first band to tour Australia, but if you look at history, we actually were one of the first bands to tour all the cities, not just Sydney. We played everywhere and he did the same thing in Brazil, Japan, Europe, he had us touring in places other bands weren’t hitting.

I think back to Skid Row in Australia, Calder Park and Eastern Creek. Those shows that we did with Guns N’ Roses and Rose Tattoo, those were absolutely legendary concerts that I still hear about from people who were there, decades later. The songs I Remember You, 18 and Life, Youth Gone Wild, they are part of rock history. They have a life of their own, and I still love it. My heart is really with the new music, because that’s what I just made. But my heart will always be with 18 and Life, even when I’m not eighteen… I’m fifty seven. 57 and Life.

The legacy itself is astounding. It must blow you away that generations of new fans are picking that album up for the first time. That must be kind of mind-blowing to see that sort of impact?
Well, you talk about impact, the biggest movie in the world right now is Minecraft, and it has like twenty seconds of I Remember You in the movie. One of the featured songs is I Remember You by me and Skid Row. That makes me cool with the people in my family, my cousins with kids and stuff, they’re like, “How are you in this movie?” So it keeps going, man.

I know you guys have a TV show in Australia called The Trailer Park Boys. I’m in that, which is hilarious. Gilmore Girls, Worst Cooks in America… I was on The Masked Singer recently. I actually just turned down a TV show, I don’t do every one I get asked to. I just got asked to do I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here. They wanted to pay me so much money, I’m not going to say how much, but it was obscene. So I Googled the show, and they take you to the outback of Australia and drop you in the middle of the woods. You have to live on the land and eat bugs, snakes and stuff. I googled some clips, and it was like, they pour cockroaches in your pants, or you put a helmet on and rats go inside. I go, you know what? I’m not doing the show.

I go, “Where do you sleep?” They go, “In the woods.” I go, “Okay, well, I’m not doing that.” And then I go, “What other kind of things do you have your people do?” And they go, “Well, we have one challenge where you walk on a tightrope between two apartment buildings.” I go, “I’m never gonna do that.” So I guess they go, “Do you have any more questions about the show?” I go, “No, no, that’s enough for me.”

I think you’ve dodged a bullet there and made a good choice. With the Skid Row album, particularly the time that it was released, those moments still stand out proudly for you?
I have memories of those times, like the first time we came to Australia, we did an in-store at a record store in Sydney, and it was a mob scene. It was like the whole city came out. There were so many people, they were trying to break the doors down. They had us go down into the basement of the record store and hide so nobody could see us. The cops came and escorted us out. There’s news clips about this.

I just have memories of such intense fan participation from Australia. It was incredible. Motley Crue was in town at the same time, we were friends with them. They rented a boat in Sydney Harbour and took Skid Row out on a boat ride in the sun. We were drinking and partying, and somebody said, “Sebastian, why don’t you go for a swim?” I jumped off the boat, hit my leg on the propeller, and was bleeding in Sydney Harbour. Everybody’s yelling, “Get the fuck out of there! There’s sharks!” Tommy Lee’s mom and dad were on that boat. I was hanging out with Mr. and Mrs. Bass, and Tommy’s like, “Hey Sebastian, come hang with my parents.” Just crazy memories.

Vince Neil actually rented a speedboat and took me and Snake out zooming around. I remember touring with Guns N’ Roses and Rose Tattoo… Rose Tattoo’s one of my all-time favorite bands. I remember being nine or ten years old, walking into a record store in Canada and seeing the Assault and Battery album. I’d never seen tougher-looking dudes. I had a dollar, and the record was on sale for ninety eight cents. I thought, “I can get an album!” I love Rose Tattoo. I love AC/DC too, cool shirt, by the way.

They’re announcing a tour here in Australia, and so are Rose Tattoo.
Well, I just played with them on a Monsters of Rock cruise and we did the song We Can’t Be Beaten, which to me is one of the all-time greatest rock anthems. We Can’t Be Beaten, Rock ’n’ Roll Outlaw, Scarred for Life, so many good songs. But my favourite one is We Can’t Be Beaten. I don’t know why, but it just really rocks for me.

You’ve had an incredible career and done so many awesome things. Is there any advice you’d have for your younger self?
My younger self… well, I’m a big guy. I’m 6’4”, very tall. When I walk into a room, I sometimes don’t realise that just because of my size, I attract a lot of attention. I’m really tall, and when I look back, maybe I should have been shorter! What I mean is, sometimes without realising it, I overshadow other people, like in my band or in relationships. I’ve been married twice, and every girl I’ve ever been with tells me that after a couple of years, they just become “Mrs. Sebastian Bach,” because I kind of overshadow them.

I have a nature with a lot of energy, and sometimes maybe I should back off a bit, but it’s in my nature. My dad was an artist who painted every day, and I like making rock and roll. If I’ve taken away attention from other band members or something, I’m sorry, I’m not trying to do that. I think if Skid Row ever reunited, I’d be very conscious of making it a band thing, giving credit to the other guys.

Do you think anything could ever happen with a reunion? Or is it better to just move on, since you’re already doing great things?
We’re all still alive. So, whenever someone asks me that question, I say there’s no reason we couldn’t be together again. If people say, “Oh, he was crazy in 1996…” I don’t even remember 1996. Do you? That’s a long time ago. People change. People get older.

I go on stage now to sing, I’m not out there to head bang. I actually can’t head bang anymore; my neck is messed up. Like Tom Araya or James Hetfield, they all had to have neck surgery. So I just go out there to sing. I’m not there to jump in the crowd or get in a fight, I’m just there to play the music and I play with everybody. I’m in a million corporate bands with Matt Sorum, Billy Morrison. So there’s no reason we couldn’t be together. The fact that we’re still alive gives me hope that maybe we could get back together sometime.

Is the intention to play the album start to end on this tour? And how do you find that process of performing it that way?
Well, we’re doing every song, but not in order. I organise my set for my voice. A song like I Remember You or 18 and Life, I don’t do 18 and Life at the end of the show because, after screaming, my voice sounds better if I do it near the beginning. So I organise the set to suit my voice. We don’t have any tapes, we don’t have a click track, we don’t use computers. We’re not AI. We’re just… us.

When you look back at the album, would you change anything, or does it just capture that moment in time?
No, I wouldn’t change anything about it. I think when bands remix, remaster, or redo their old albums, it’s never better than the original pressing. People get attached to the production, the sound, even the hisses and pops of the vinyl. I wouldn’t change a thing. It captures 1989 perfectly.

The new album, you’ve got to be really stoked with that. From start to end, it’s just brilliant.
We only have one… well, we have the Future of Youth video featuring Orianthi from Australia. That’s my first collaboration with an Aussie. You can see that video on my YouTube page, me and Orianthi. I’m very proud of it. It’s great to make music with an Australian.

Orianthi is an Adelaide gal as well.
Oh, cool! Check the video out. We’ll be doing that song at the show, so check it out.

Was it close to the vision you had for the album, or did it change as you worked through the songs in the studio?
Well, people can believe what they want, or whatever other accounts are out there, but I did the same thing on Child Within the Man that I did on the first Skid Row record. I don’t just show up and sing what someone tells me. That’s not how I make records. I have to love everything I put my name on or I won’t release it. It’s the only way I know. A song like Hold On to the Dream or What Do I Got to Lose?—that song sounds so cool to me. The video’s almost at two million views on YouTube. Back in my day, two million meant double platinum. That’s a lot of people watching it, or one person watching it a lot.

How did it feel listening to the whole album start to end for the first time?
What you’re hearing is a combination of producer Elvis Baskette, he totally helped me make the record. He’s produced Alter Bridge, Myles Kennedy, Wolfgang Van Halen. He’s the top producer right now and the mastering was done by Robert Ludwig, who mastered Led Zeppelin II in 1970, and also Kiss Alive, The Eagles, Steely Dan.

I was neighbors with Adam Jones from Tool. We became good friends, and he brought over the new Tool record. I saw the credits and it said, “Mastered by Robert Ludwig.” I said, “This can’t be the same guy who did Led Zeppelin II.” And he said, “Yes, it is. He’s eighty three or whatever.” I told my label, “If that guy’s still mastering records, I want him,” and they said okay. So thank you to Reigning Phoenix Music, they made it happen.

So you’re hearing the guy that did Led Zeppelin and the guy that works with Wolfgang Van Halen. Since my record came out, Robert Ludwig has retired. One of his last-ever albums is Child Within the Man. He did Jimi Hendrix. That’s what you’re hearing, a combination of the best from now and the guy that Zeppelin chose. I can’t take all the credit. I can take credit for being a fan of vinyl and knowing who makes the best-sounding albums. It’s crazy that I’m a fan of my own record. It sounds exactly how I wanted it to sound and now Robert Ludwig isn’t mastering records anymore.

Was it hard not to be in awe while making it?
I wanted to fly up for the mastering. I wanted to interview Robert Ludwig about his career, about Led Zeppelin II and Jimi Hendrix. But his wife got on the phone and said, “He doesn’t want to do interviews, he’s not into that. But he does want to master your record.” So I said, “Okay, fine.” I got to talk to him on the phone, which was incredible. I think there’s a fascinating story with that guy. When he mastered Led Zeppelin II, he put so much bass on it that the needle would skip on vinyl players in 1972. So Atlantic Records remastered it with less bass. The version he did originally, with more bass, is now worth hundreds of dollars to collectors. I wanted to ask him about all that stuff… but he’s retired.

When you approach the album with that much energy, does that make it easier? Albums can be challenging to make, but did that energy help push you through?
I have to put everything I make up against the first Skid Row record. I have to put out music that can sit next to 18 and Life, Youth Gone Wild, Monkey Business, and Slave to the Grind. People love those albums, so I don’t take making a record lightly, it has to be incredible. If I’m putting my name on it and I listen to a song like What Do I Got to Lose?, that’s exactly the kind of good-time rock and roll with high screams that I want to put out.

What you’ve done this time, especially collaborating with Orianthi, does it get you thinking about what might be possible next time?
I always ask myself after I finish a record, “How am I going to top this?” But with this one, I really mean it. I spent ten years on this album, so the next one will have to be incredible. I do have songs in the works, I’ve got one with DJ Ashba that’s amazing, kind of like Saints of Los Angeles by Mötley Crüe. I’ve got more songs with Devin. I was at the Night Ranger show in Vegas talking with Brad Gillis, Ozzy’s guitar player from Speak of the Devil, and we’re going to work on stuff too. I’ll be working with Elvis Baskette again because he really helped me. But don’t hold your breath… this album is so good, I really don’t know how I’ll top it. I’ll do my best, though.

Even the artwork is incredible, it’s a great art piece.
It’s very ‘70s. That painting my dad did of me, he did it in 1978. That’s me at age ten, running next to a beat-up Cadillac in a field and the photo next to it is me on stage in 1989. There’s a line in the song Everybody Bleeds that says, “Child within the man,” and that line stuck with me. So I took the painting of me as a child and paired it with the photo of me as a young man and that’s the cover. My favorite era of music is the ‘70s. I like ‘80s music too, but the music I collect is mostly ‘70s KISS, Rush, Rose Tattoo, AC/DC, Aerosmith, Van Halen. I love that music. I wanted to make a record that could have come from that era.

Have you found any really great vinyl pickups recently that made you go, “Wow, I found that”?
I just got all the Van Halen master recordings of their original albums, the deluxe two hundred dollar versions. I like collecting new records, but for me, it’s really about the old records, the first pressings. Like I’ve got seventeen copies of KISS Alive! Guess who mastered it? Robert Ludwig. I’m the kind of collector who’s always looking for the “hot pressing.” Certain pressing plants sound different, and there are collectors out there like me who try to find the ultimate copy of a record and that hunt never ends.

Interview By Rob Lyon

Catch Sebastian Bach on the following dates, tickets from Metropolis Touring and DRW Entertainment…