Life On Broadway, Returning To 'Gilmore Girls' & Singing His Guts Out

Sebastian Bach has gotta be right up there as a contender for Hottest Man In Rock. His enviable flaxen mane still hangs luxuriously halfway down his back and Bach is just so damn affable! When asked what he imagines it would have been like if Skid Row was coming up in the age of social media, he opines, "I gotta be honest with you, like, we invented the internet and technology in '95 and here we are in 2017 and the way I see it is that a lotta celebrities and rockstars are shutting off the social media and, you know, it's like we invent all these things as human beings - and we're always looking to invent the next thing - but some of the things we invented were fine the way they were, like vinyl records. You could never have ever said ten years ago that we would all be buying vinyl again - but we like vinyl, like, as rock fans we dig it, we like it - so that was a good invention. And you only discover that after years of living with things, right? And I think, I gotta say, the way I feel now is that the internet is pretty much mostly negative and the way the political climate is now, the way climate change is, the amount of horrible news stories that I wake up to; lately I've been just saying, 'You know what? I'm gonna turn my phone off today'. HAHAhahaha." Bach's infectious, maniacal laugh often unexpectedly makes an appearance, but is always welcome; even when he's making one of his rare serious observations. "And let me tell ya, all you people out there, listening to this interview, try it. Try it. Because it's the best feeling. You wanna give yourself a great day? Turn that shit off.

"Rock'n'roll when I was a kid was about buying, like, rock magazines; this is how we knew about rock, like, we would buy, in Australia Hot Metal and in America, Circus and Cream. And it was about fun and it was about, like, supporting the bands and telling the fans about how great their album is, or their show, and putting up a good picture of the band next to the article - this is what rock used to be. Now if you go on websites, it's mostly, 'Well this guy said this guy's an asshole'/'This guy said this guy's a jerk'/'This guy hates this guy' - none of that has anything to do with music, none of it. And it's almost, like, all just gossip and fighting and, like, negativity. And I can't take it anymore!" This final sentence is spoken with mock exasperation before that trademark cackle returns, "HAHAhahaha". We're tipping Bach's spirit animal is the kookaburra. 

Bach attracted a whole new generation of fans when he was cast as Gil in Gilmore Girls, a role he reprised for this year's reboot. So how did he feel returning to the set? "It was fun," he tells. "Um, people really like that show and what was really interesting - it was like stepping back in time, because it was the same cast, same crew, same writers, you know? So it was really, really - it was like, 'Wow!' HAHAhahaha. 'I'm doing this again!'" On whether it was a deja-vu experience, Bach offers, "Yeah, but that opportunity doesn't present itself in life too much, you know? Like, to totally do something you were doing ten years ago with the same people at the same studio; we filmed it at the same building, like, it was crazy! The same building that I did my very first scene in the Gilmore Girls back in 2006, or 2004, or whatever it was - that's the same building I did the reunion scene in. That's so cool! That attention to detail to give the Gilmore Girls fans exactly what they were hoping to see, you know? It was awesome." If you're picturing reels of outtakes where Bach cracks his fellow castmates up, though, think again. "I mean, I come from Broadway where there's only one take... that's how I got the Gilmore Girls was 'cause I was on Broadway. And, um, I do like to joke around, but I take my work super serious. HAHAhahaha. To the point of torturing people around me. HAHAhahaha. Like, I love what I do. I like to celebrate it after I'm done, but while I'm doing it I'm pretty serious about it." 

In case you weren't aware of Bach's Broadway past, he was cast in The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Jesus Christ Superstar, but probably his most memorable stint was playing the dual lead in Jekyll & Hyde. There's video footage on YouTube (we particularly recommend 'The Confrontation' scene. You can thank us later.) "Doing a show is like being in a band," Bach points out. "You have a chemistry with the cast of the show and then also, behind the scenes, you're on the road with, you know, 50 people and the crew and all that. And our team, our cast and crew in Jekyll & Hyde, was one of the most - the most chemistry I've had in my life as far going on the stage and kicking ass. Like, we were fucking - we killed it up there every night. It was so much fun and it was like being in a comic book of all the costumes and smoke bombs and fights and, you know, production - that was my favourite one."

Acknowledging that performing in a musical is "completely different to a rock'n'roll show", Bach reveals, "The hardest thing for me to do - I talk about this in my book [18 And Life On Skid Row] - was to be still, and not move around on stage, and the director would flip out, like, in rehearsal, because I didn't know, HAHAhahaha, how to not move around on the stage, because I didn't know how to just stand there and speak. Like, I would fidget, I would move my hands and my legs, you know what I mean? It was so challenging, because in rock'n'roll you just go crazy up there, you know? So, HAHAhahaha."

We suggest that if a rock'n'roll performer is standing still up there on stage there's obviously something wrong. "Well, you know, in the past I would've said that," Bach considers, "but with the way the internet is now you can't really move around the way we used to, because everybody's filming everything. But the whole energy of rock'n'roll is energetic and Broadway is more controlled, like, to say the least, you know? HAHAhahaha."

He took a bit of time out this year to recover from hernia-repair surgery, about which he hilariously commented at the time: "I literally screamed my guts out." A doctor diagnosed Bach about ten years ago, as Bach remembers. "He says, 'Does it hurt?' And I go, 'No,' and he goes, 'Well, you should just leave it then, because if it's not hurting you then it's not the end of the world...  So over ten years it gets worse and worse and worse, and it's not the most attractive thing in the world! HAHAhahaha. I don't really wanna get into this - it's a little gross - but just say I fixed it and I don't like having surgery; it's not one of the things that I enjoy to do, but I did it for the sake of rock'n'rock and my gut." We express concern that this will affect Bach's booming vocal tone, but Bach reassures, "It's nothing to do with my throat. It was all my belly button." 

On when he first discovered he was blessed with the gift of voice projection, Bach recalls, "I remember in school, like, in the third grade at Christmas in choir, the choirmaster said, 'Ok, class: who in the class has a loud voice?' And, like, 99% of the class turned around and pointed at me and they all go, 'Sebastian!' HAHAhahaha. But I didn't even know that. I was like, 'I do?' And they're all like, 'Yeah, you do man!' And I was like, 'Wow, ok'. So right away I was in demand in the choir from the get-go. I write about that in my book. I sang a Christmas hymn called Once In Royal David's City in front of the whole congregation, all by myself, I was like nine or ten, and so I've been singing since I was a little boy in the church."

We're pretty stoked to discover there's already an audiobook version of 18 And Life On Skid Row available. On writing his memoir, Bach tells, "I was interested in doing it myself". Initially, HarperCollins suggested using a ghostwriter, but Bach wasn't having it. "So I said, 'Dude, you're an intelligent person, you can put a sentence together, why don't you just try to write it?'" he continues. "I said, 'I wanna write it.' And they go, 'Ok, smarty pants, well you've never done it so why don't you write something and show it to us.' And so I locked myself in a room for two weeks and I wrote what ended up being the very start of the book. And I presented it to them when I thought it was good, and they liked it, and they go, 'We really, really like it. So you go ahead.' And that meant a lot to me, that was like: I had to prove it to a publishing company that I could actually write a book. And I like a challenge like that, and I look forward to doing another one after I make a new record; I'm gonna try and do another one."

Bach singles out Keith Richard's Life ("The way he speaks - all the words that he uses are totally unique and that really was key") and Lonely Boy by Steve Jones as memoirs by other rock legends that he rates. "[Jones] uses, like, these English slang terms that I have no idea what they mean, but they sound cool. HAHAhahaha," Bach adds. "You really get a sense of the place and time they came from when they use words that you've never ever heard, you know? And that's the case of Keith Richards' and Steve Jones' books."

Bach is famously quoted as saying, "You're never too big to open for KISS," after booking Skid Row to support the legendary rock band. All other Skid Row members refused to open for KISS, which resulted in Bach leaving the band. (Ironically, Skid Row re-formed four years later, without Bach, and opened for KISS alongside Ted Nugent on their Farewell Tour of 2000.) But we're curious to hear whether Bach would place any other bands in this same category. "Well, one of the most unique shows I ever did in my career was actually in Australia a couple of years back," he divulges, "which was Kings Of Chaos. We got to open up for Van Halen and Aerosmith on the same day! HAHAhahaha. But it was such a weird gig, because there was nobody at the gig and these are the biggest bands in the history of rock. I don't know what happened, like, I don't know what that was all about. But, um, when you say: what other bands? Van Halen and Aerosmith, that's the other two. HAHAhahaha. It was strange, like, when we played with Rose Tattoo and Guns N' Roses we sold out every arena in Australia. So, how could that have happened that time? I don't know. That was very weird." 

On days off during his upcoming Australian tour, Bach says he'll hit the record shops. "When you're digging through the bins, nothing else matters, you know? It's like, 'I'm on a hunt for this album,' and it's just so relaxing and so, I dunno, it's just a good way to spend your time." So does Bach have a massive record collection? "I lost a lot of my collection when I lost my home in a hurricane," he reveals. "Well, that was a long time ago. It was six years, or five years, ago or something. But, ah, I am building it back up. I am definitely building it back up. HAHAhahaha."