Rock My Monkey: Hello, you are listening to the Rock My Monkey netcast on RockMyMonkey.com. If you are listening to the audio version, please go to RockMyMonkey.com to get the full featured version. Today we are honored to speak with Sebastian Bach. How are you doing today?
Sebastian Bach: Alright. Rolling down the highway, somewhere in between Portland, Oregon and Sacramento, California, on our way-been on the road since May, and mid-December. Definitely a different way of life.
Rock My Monkey: Well, be careful in the Oregon mountains, man. I just had a-somebody I’m a big fan of, a tech guy, that actually passed away, died in the mountains real recently. A guy named James Kim.
Sebastian Bach: Oh, man. Sorry to hear that.
Rock My Monkey: Now why the name Angel Down? What’s the inspiration?
Sebastian Bach: Oh, wow. Well, it’s a song that is on the record that’s, I have no idea when the new record is going to be coming out, so it’s really weird for me to talk about it right now. But there’s been a lot of stuff on the record about, kind of the war was on my mind, having the country at war, and also having a nineteen year old son. It’s kind of what the youth of America have in the back of their mind. Are they going to get drafted? It very well could happen. It’s a scary thing. So that was kind of on my mind when I was writing the lyrics for this record.
Rock My Monkey: Okay. This is, as far as I’m concerned, the heaviest lineup of your career. How heavy will the cd be?
Sebastian Bach: I don’t know. It’s pretty heavy. Slave To the Grind is a pretty heavy record, too. I think, just it would be, not, you know, it’s not death metal or anything. But I don’t really like to generalize so much about music. I just try to make good songs, you know?
Rock My Monkey: How many ballads?
Sebastian Bach: I think two.
Rock My Monkey: Oh, there are two ballads. Okay.
Sebastian Bach: Yeah.
Rock My Monkey: How many songs do you have written so far? Is it totally done, and you’re just waiting for the legalities to be finished?
Sebastian Bach: We have fourteen songs. The business side of it is really making me miserable right now. I don’t know, man, when it’s going to come out. I have no fucking idea, truly. It’s bumming me out.
Rock My Monkey: Other than you, what is the most metal thing about Gilmore Girls?
Sebastian Bach: (laughs) Nothing. (both laugh) Nothing. Not at all, about the Gilmore Girls.
Rock My Monkey: Now, do you look at that as an artistic thing, or is that pretty much the job that allows you to do the art?
Sebastian Bach: Well, it’s called a career, you know? I mean, I’m very lucky. I have a career where I can do other things other than just sing rock and roll, which I love to do. It’s my first love. Fortunately I’ve been able to step outside of that and do other things. I consider myself really lucky to be able to do that.
Rock My Monkey: I don’t know about how you feel about this, but watching the show Supergroup, one of the most frustrating things about that show, was the publicist that they had on that show, hired for that show.
Sebastian Bach: Yeah.
Rock My Monkey: Was that just editing, or were they really about as clueless about rock and roll as you could get?
Sebastian Bach: Well, you know, they’re used to the Backstreet Boys, you know? It’s just so different than heavy metal. I don’t know. The whole thing about heavy metal is people don’t tell us what to do. I think that boy bands are a hundred percent told what to do by millions of people. Nobody fucking tells me what to do, you know? (laughs) There’s where the tension lies with that. I don’t think about what I say. I don’t try to think up some angle, or contrive some thing. Just ask me a question, and I answer it. That’s pretty basic. I don’t think boy bands have the same attitude as metal bands.
Rock My Monkey: They’re coached before interviews. (laughs)
Sebastian Bach: Well, how can you coach me? I mean, jeez, only I can put my foot in my mouth like I can. (both laugh) Only I really know how to do that.
Rock My Monkey: Now, the editing, again, the editing of the show made you out to be a drunk. So I want to have on the record, how many glasses of alcohol do you drink, say, in an average month?
Sebastian Bach: I have no idea. I can’t answer that question.
Rock My Monkey: They made it look like every day you’re getting plowed. But you said in many interviews that that’s not the case.
Sebastian Bach: If you really looked at what they showed, I would drink wine with dinner. That’s when I would start. And that’s what they showed. And then by two or three in the morning I would be drunk. I guess that’s wild. I guess that’s crazy. I know my aunt who’s 93 years and lives in an old folks home in Cleveland, Ohio drinks a bottle of red wine with her meal every day. So I guess my 93 year old aunt is wild, crazy drunk. Maybe she should have her own reality show. But, as far as I know it’s a free country. I’m 38 years old. If I want to have a glass of red wine with my meal, to me that’s not crazy or wild. But I guess to some people it is.
Rock My Monkey: Would you, after the experience with Supergroup, how quickly would you jump on another VH1 show?
Sebastian Bach: Not that quick.
Rock My Monkey: Really. So Supergroup did kind of burn you out on that a little?
Sebastian Bach: Yeah. That’s a good way of putting it. (laughs) (phone cuts out again)…two different things. Somebody does that to me, I’m not very quick to repeat that experience.
Rock My Monkey: As a fan of all the bands that have been involved in the current tour that you’re on, and there’s certain drama associated with one of them, I’ve got to ask, ‘can’t we all get along?’
Sebastian Bach: Well, as far as I knew, The Suicide Girls got along great. I don’t know what you’re talking about.
Rock My Monkey: The first band that was replaced by Helmet.
Sebastian Bach: Oh, the Eagles of Death Metal?
Rock My Monkey: Yeah. Did you get along with them? Did they seem okay with you?
Sebastian Bach: Yeah. I got along with them great. They were very nice guys. The one thing I haven’t read in the press, but they don’t tell anybody, that everybody knew that that was their first ever arena show. And we were all chuckling at them in sound check, because they set up their amps like, one foot behind their feet, like they’re playing CBGB’s on this arena stage that was half the size of a football field. And we were going, hey dudes, you can set them up back here, you know (laughs). They had never played an arena stage before. The first time I played an arena stage, I sucked, too. They came on stage, and had never done that, and it was evident to everybody in the whole place. That’s the way it goes. I’ve been playing for fifteen years in arenas, and they wanted to go on after me, and the public did not accept that. That’s just the way it goes in rock and roll.
Rock My Monkey: Well, the first show I ever played live as a singer, I got pickles thrown at me. (laughs)They at least didn’t get pickles thrown at them.
Sebastian Bach: You can’t underestimate what it’s like to step onstage in front of ten thousand people and command them. You can either can do that, or you can’t. And that night they couldn’t. Maybe in the future they will be able to, but that night they did not.
Rock My Monkey: It seems the new GNR, the Chinese Democracy, might come out around the same time as your new cd. Does this mean even more touring with GNR in 2007?
Sebastian Bach: I hope so. That would be great. That would be killer. Nobody has done for me what Axl has done, as far as establishing me as a solo artist. Axl Rose has been the biggest help to me in that respect. I would definitely love to keep opening for Guns in 2007. Definitely.
Rock My Monkey: Cool. I got to ask, have you heard the new Skid Row, and do you care?
Sebastian Bach: No.
Rock My Monkey: Okay. With your solo career finally getting some decent exposure, is your Broadway career done now?
Sebastian Bach: For the moment, but you know, I look at that as something I can do when I’m 64 years old, or 70 years old. I can do a Broadway show. In the future I hope to do more of that, but right now I’m concentrating on the rock.
Rock My Monkey: Cool. Again, with your solo career going ballistic, but you’re also on one of the most popular shows on tv. How do you balance the shooting of that with the touring and the recording of your solo career?
Sebastian Bach: Well, you know, I’m always busy. It’s very exhausting sometimes. I just shot another episode of the Gilmore Girls. I’m on my fourth season of that show, and I had to miss the one concert on the Guns Canadian tour in Halifax.
Rock My Monkey: You recently said that you’re negotiating a deal with one of the biggest labels in the world. Does this mean your time with Spitfire is done?
Sebastian Bach: Yes.
Rock My Monkey: Could I make a stab and say that it’s possible Sanctuary Records is one of them?
Sebastian Bach: No.
Rock My Monkey: (laughs) Does that mean I can’t make a guess, or that’s not it?
Sebastian Bach: I don’t know. It’s fucking miserable for me to talk about this right now, because it seems like it never ends, and it just takes so long. I’m on the road talking to fucking fifteen thousand people, and I don’t have a record out. It’s really-I’m in a bad mood about talking about all that. I’m a creative guy, and it feels like by the time I put this album out, I’m ready to have another fucking album done. Which I guess isn’t a bad thing, but for me as a singer, I just, god, it would be perfect to have it out right now with this Guns N Roses tour. That would be perfect timing. I wish these fucking business people would just hurry up.
Rock My Monkey: Do their job!
Sebastian Bach: To answer your question, you know, every journalist asks when it’s coming out. I don’t know, man. I’m not a business man. It makes me sick. I’m just so tired of it.
Rock My Monkey: I can say this as a fan, we’re just as biting at the bit to hear it. And also with your new enthusiasm, with you going on bigger tours, I’ve noticed as a fan, a lot of people that I grew up with, when they get that extra jolt in there, the new album sounds so much better. So I’m expecting one of the best Sebastian Bach albums that you’ve done in a decade, because of this new jolt that you’ve had to your career. So I’m totally excited to hear it. Now, would you, what would be the estimated release date of your book? You’ve hinted that you’re going to be doing a book.
Sebastian Bach: My book. (laughs) There is no book. I’m writing-what I’m doing is, I used to just write my thoughts on my website, and just kind of put it out there on the internet. What I’m doing now, especially because this tour is so interesting, is that I’m keeping a record of everything, but I’m not just putting it on my website. I’m kind if just keeping it to myself, and it’ll come out some way, some day, some form. Maybe that’ll probably be in book form, I imagine. But there’s certainly no book right now.
Rock My Monkey: What’s that now?
Sebastian Bach: It’s a Bach log. (both laugh)
Rock My Monkey: Is there any plans to do something with the name Savage Animal?
Sebastian Bach: Well, there was when the show was on. I mean, that’s really taken on a life of its own.
Rock My Monkey: Is there any chance of a Sebastian Bach DVD from this current tour you’re doing?
Sebastian Bach: Yeah, that’s a very, very big possibility. We’ve been filming-a lot of the nights Guns N Roses has a full camera setup. A three camera shoot, pro sound, Pro-Tools on the board. I’ve worked out a deal with the company that’s on the road with them where I’ve got like, I can shoot whatever show I want, full camera setup and full good sound and everything, and I worked out a deal so I can do that. So I got about fifteen shows on video that I can definitely make a DVD with. It’s very good quality stuff, so I hope to do something with that, definitely.
Rock My Monkey: Cool. You’ve been extremely tolerant with doing this interview, and you seem like a really casual guy, so I got to ask, and I hope this is okay, but why all the stress over Metal Sludge?
Sebastian Bach: I don’t really have any stress over Stevie Rachelle’s show’s website. If you care what the lead singer of Tuff has to say, then good for you. I was never a big Tuff fan, you know? Wow, the lead singer of Tuff has a website about how jealous of the lead singer of Skid Row, Stevie Rachelle is jealous, and wants to rip on Sebastian Bach?
Rock My Monkey: What is your Christmas wish? What does Sebastian Bach want for Christmas?
