| Sebastian Bach | |
|---|---|
Bach during the tour with Guns N' Roses, at Wembley Arena, London in 2006. |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Sebastian Philip Bierk |
| Born | April 3, 1968 Freeport, Bahamas |
| Origin | Peterborough, Ontario, Canada |
| Genres | Heavy metal, hard rock, progressive metal, glam metal, country rock |
| Occupations | Singer, songwriter |
| Instruments | Vocals |
| Years active | 1985–present |
| Associated acts | Skid Row, Frameshift, Damnocracy, Guns N Roses, James LaBrie, Dokken, Winter Rose |
Sebastian Bach (born April 3, 1968) is a Canadian heavy metal singer who achieved mainstream success as frontman of Skid Row from 1987 to 1996. Since his departure from Skid Row, he has had many television roles, acted within Broadway plays, and leads a successful solo career.
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Bach was born Sebastian Philip Bierk on April 3, 1968 in Freeport, Bahamas, and raised in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada. He attended nearby Lakefield College School in the same class as Michael Kulas, of the British rock group James, a year behind Felipe, Prince of Asturias and a year ahead of the comedian/actor Will Arnett. He is of Norwegian, French Canadian, and Native American descent. Bach's father was the visual artist David Bierk. He is the brother of retired NHL goaltender Zac Bierk, model/actress Heather Dylan Bierk, and Toronto-based artists Jeff, Nick, Alex, and Charles Bierk.
Skid Row initially formed in the late eighties with lead singer Matt Fallon. They began playing at various New Jersey clubs. Fallon would soon leave the band in 1987, leaving Skid Row without a singer. Bach was spotted singing at rock photographer Mark Weiss's wedding and the members asked him to join. He turned them down, but changed his mind after hearing the demo tapes of "Youth Gone Wild" and "18 and Life". He sent them a demo of him singing "Saved By Love." They loved it and flew him to New Jersey where they began playing gigs. Sebastian also recorded demos with Bon Jovi & Sabo's friend Jack Ponti. (The song "She's on Top" later came out on Jack Ponti Presents Vol. 1)
In 1989, Bach was criticized for performing wearing a T-shirt reading "AIDS Kills Fags Dead." Later he claimed he wore it without reading it first; it had been thrown to him by a fan. Although he made light of the incident in his original apology (stating that he would've been offended by someone mocking his grandmother's then-recent death with a "Cancer Kills Grandmas Dead" shirt), Bach has since repeatedly apologized for and disavowed the statement, "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."[1]
In 1990, Bach performed with Guns N' Roses and Metallica, on the same stage, at a party held by RIP Magazine, the improvised name for the band was: The Gak.
Bach was eventually fired when he booked a show where Skid Row would have opened for KISS in 1996. Other band members told Bach that Skid Row was too big to be an opening act and that they weren't going to do the show. Bach then left a message on a bandmate's answering machine telling him that you're never too big to open up for KISS, and subsequently left the band. Ironically enough, four years later, Skid Row was one of the opening acts for the 2000 Kiss Farewell Tour sans Bach.
In 1996, Bach formed a rock band called The Last Hard Men, with Frogs guitarist Jimmy Flemion, The Breeders lead guitarist Kelley Deal, 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 1000 CDs. This run may have been sold via mail order only. The album has since been re-released and can be purchased commercially.
In 2000, Bach began performing in Broadway productions. He made his Broadway debut with the title role in Jekyll & Hyde in April 2000. Although originally only contracted through early September, Bach received good reviews and was asked to extend until October 15. Replacing him was David Hasselhoff, whom Bach mentored slightly during rehearsals. 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. He appeared early in the show, left to perform on Broadway, and returned at the end when all performers gathered for a final song.
In early 2002, he became the host of VH1's Forever Wild. In October that same year, Bach was signed to perform in the national touring production of Jesus Christ Superstar, playing the title role alongside JCS veteran Carl Anderson (who reprised his familiar role from Broadway and film of Judas Iscariot). He has said if he ever did the show again, he would like to try the role of Judas next time. 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 and Hyde.
Sometime 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 WB television show Gilmore Girls as "Gil", the lead guitarist in Lane Kim's band, Hep Alien.
Members of Bach Tight Five (a project initiated by Bach in 2004, but shortly dissolved thereafter) lived with Bach and his family as documented on VH1's I Married ...Sebastian Bach, one of the "I Married ..." series. Stars also included Dee Snider, of the rock band Twisted Sister.
In 2005, Bach cooperated with Henning Pauly to be the singer on the Frameshift album called An Absence of Empathy, which was released in April 2005.
On May 12 and May 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 gang 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 13 years 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. He also appeared on several other tour dates during GN'R's European tour. 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". On July 30, 2006, Bach filled in for an ailing Axl Rose for “Nightrain” and the encore “Paradise City".
Bach starred with Ted Nugent, Evan Seinfeld, Jason Bonham and Scott Ian on the VH1 show Supergroup in May 2006. The musicians formed a band called Damnocracy for the reality show, during which they lived in a mansion in Las Vegas for twelve days and created music.
Bach announced a partnership record label with EMI to jointly create a label owned by Bach, including his album Angel Down, which was released on November 20, 2007. Bach also recorded backing vocals for the track "Sorry" on Guns N' Roses' long-delayed Chinese Democracy, which was released on November 23, 2008.
He spent the summer of 2008 playing with Poison and Dokken. He also did a solo Australian tour in May & has been working on new songs with Jamey Jasta from HATEBREED, for the follow-up to his Angel Down CD.
Sebastian Bach was the winner of the second season of the CMT reality show, Gone Country."[2]
Bach toured as an opening act for GNR's "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 spring 2011, Bach was interviewed by British metal 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.[3] Bach also filmed in their music video "Closure".
In June 15, 2011, Sebastian revealed the title of his solo album would be "Kicking & Screaming". In 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.
Bach lived in Lincroft, New Jersey.[4] In December 2010 Bach filed for divorce. 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 destroyed.[5] Currently he lives in a temporary home in New Jersey, and is dating model/actress Minnie Gupta.
In November 2010, Bach was arrested in Ontario, Canada, for assault and marijuana possession after biting a bar owner who was trying to keep Bach from leaving the bar.[6]
On May 10, 2011, Bach was arrested in Monmouth County, New Jersey, for marijuana possession after he was pulled over for "failing to keep right" and less than 50 grams of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia were found in his car. Bach was taken to a local jail but eventually released.[7][8]
1985 Kid Wikkid / "Maple Metal" / LP & cassette / Attic Records / "Take A Look At Me" / Canada
With Skid Row
Solo
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