Sebastian Bach says that he threatened to quit SKID ROW after he and his bandmates signed away their publishing rights to Jon Bon Jovi when SKID ROW was first starting out.
Despite the fact that the 1989 debut album from the Bach-fronted SKID ROW went five times platinum and produced several hit singes — including “18 And Life”, “I Remember You” and “Youth Gone Wild”, there was a lot of bitterness surrounding its success, largely due to the fact that in return for the helping hands of Jon Bon Jovi, SKID ROW reportedly had to enter a publishing deal with the BON JOVI frontman’s newly established Underground Music Company in which they waived their rights to publishing royalties. All money was paid to Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora. After a public dispute, Sambora gave his share of the money back to SKID ROW.
Bach reflected on the dispute with Bon Jovi during an appearance on a recent episode of the “Wild Ride! With Steve-O” podcast. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Here’s the honest-to-God truth. That is true that we signed a publishing deal with [Jon] and in order for us to sign it, he would take us on his tour. And we were just a bunch of nobodies. So, ‘Let’s go on tour in arenas.’ I mean, that doesn’t happen every day.”
Bach continued: “All I can say about it is that there were so many bands at that time. There were so many bands. And the ones that made it were very far and few between. Making it was like a unicorn. But here’s what we did. I quit the fucking band. When I understood what we signed, I said, ‘I’m not doing this again. I’m not doing this. I’m not doing this again.’ So we had a big meeting with the lawyer, who’s now Jay-Z‘s right-hand business guy; he was our lawyer then. And I said, ‘I’m quitting unless we’re redoing the whole thing with Bon Jovi and I get 25 percent of everything in the band.’ And there’s five guys in the band, so that was kind of ballsy. But they said, ‘Okay.’ So we redid that. We got out of that. And then our next record debuted at Number One.”
Back in August 2012, Bach said that he was “friends” with Jon Bon Jovi again after he didn’t talk to the BON JOVI frontman for many years following the aforementioned dispute over money. Speaking to ArtScenics TV, Bach stated: “Bon Jovi took us on our first tour and we signed some papers with him that he got a cut of, if we made it big, that he would get compensated for helping us out. Nobody expected us to get as big as we got. Nobody thought that we would become a big band. That happens all the time in the music industry. Jon was, like, ‘We’ll take you on tour, but if you guys make it big,’ then he gets a cut of it. So I was bitter about that for awhile, but then I realized that we probably wouldn’t have made it as big, or maybe at all, if he didn’t take us.”
He continued, “I actually had dinner with Jon a couple of years ago. We were staying at the Mandarin Oriental in London — me and Axl [Rose, GUNS N’ ROSES singer] — and we were sitting there. And the waitress says, ‘Hey, guess who’s over in the corner.’ And me and Axl go, ‘Who?’ She said, ‘Jon Bon Jovi.’ And I go, ‘Get the fuck out of here.’ He was in the corner. And I didn’t know what to do. ‘Cause we had had words… Most of them were mine. [Laughs] So I go, ‘You know what?! Fuck this. I’m gonna go over there and say ‘Hi’ to him.’ ‘Cause we used to be great, great friends; I had Christmas dinner at his house and stuff. So I stood up and walked over towards Jon, and Jon was looking at me, going, ‘Are you gonna be a dick or are you gonna be nice?’ He’s looking at me, like, ‘What are you gonna do? What are you gonna say?’ And I was like, ‘Hey, man, how is it going?’ And he was, like, ‘Hey, man?’ And we stood up and we hugged and then he came over to me and Axl‘s table and we drank about 15 bottles of red wine, had a great time. He gave me his phone number and I’ve texted him a couple of times. He’s a good guy. We’re friends again.
This past November, Bach released a new single, “What Do I Got To Lose?” The song was co-written by Sebastian, Myles Kennedy and Michael “Elvis” Baskette, the latter of whom also served as the track’s producer. For the single’s accompanying music video, Sebastian was joined by his former SKID ROW bandmate, drummer Rob Affuso.
For the release of “What Do I Got To Lose?”, the singer, songwriter, author, Broadway star, and actor teamed up with Reigning Phoenix Music.
Among the other musicians who have assisted Bach during the writing and recording process for his new music are Orianthi (ALICE COOPER, Michael Jackson),John 5 (ROB ZOMBIE, MARILYN MANSON),Steve Stevens (Billy Idol),Brent Woods, Eli Santana and Jeremy Colson.
Bach hasn’t released a full-length disc since “Give ‘Em Hell”, which came out in March 2014. Like its predecessor, 2011’s “Kicking & Screaming”, the disc was released through Frontiers Music Srl, the Italian label which specializes in what’s commonly called AOR, a term that once signified a popular radio format (“album-oriented rock”) but nowadays applies to acts whose airplay is marginal.
