In 1987, guitarist Dave “The Snake” Sabo; bassist Rachel Bolan and drummer Rob Affuso waited anxiously in the kitchen of the New Jersey house that was owned by the Sabo family. Guitarist Scotty Hill had been sent to the airport to meet an important arrival, which would be their longtime singer, Sebastian Bach.
Sebastian Bach was a missing piece of the puzzle that made the band a world-class act but the singer seemed to be a lightning rod for problems and controversy and would be a constant source of irritation to his bandmates.
Adored, Banned, Sued, Lauded and Never Accepted
Skid Row would be adored, banned, sued, lauded for entering the Billboard album chart at number one or never accepted by the rivals. Either way, the band always made headlines. Skid Row burnt brightly for a relatively short period of time and then imploded.
“The guy walked in wearing a red beret and a pink leather jacket and he looked like a frickin’ star.” – Dave Sabo
The band’s story began in 1986 with a chance meeting between Dave Sabo and Rachel Bolan in a New Jersey guitar shop where Sabo worked. Sabo recalled fondly, “I’ll never forget that moment. The guy walked in wearing a red beret and a pink leather jacket and he looked like a frickin’ star. I just had to strike up a conversation.”
Sabo and his school pal, Jon Bon Jovi, had made a pact as seven-year-olds to become rock stars, swearing that whoever made it first would use their influence to help the other. Sabo will go on to say, “It was obvious that Jon was gonna get there first but he said when our band was right, he would go out on a limb for us and he was true to his word.”
Bolan proposed Scotty Hill from a previous group he’d been in and Sabo brought in Affuso from one of his earlier bands.
Manager Doc McGhee would sign the band. Bolan said the group “pounded the New Jersey, New York and Connecticut scene until people got sick of us” but singer, Matt Fallon, lacked the rest of Skid Row’s determination.
Various industry people had seen a young singer jamming with Zakk Wylde and members of Twisted Sister at a wedding reception. A mutual acquaintance put the 19-year-old Sebastian Bach in contact with Skid Row. An audition quickly followed. Boland recalled, “He sang the song so high that we had to rein him in but after some work on his voice it all fell into place. Sebastian was very obnoxious and loud but we needed a singer and the good thing was that he also had drive and then some but front men were supposed to have spirit, right?”
Blessing and A Curse
It didn’t take long for Bach’s bandmates to realize that Bach was both a blessing and a curse. There was an altercation in a bar on the night of his arrival to meet his new bandmates. Bolan now reveals that he had been warned of the singer’s volatility. “Somebody who’s been in the business for a while told me they foresaw a lot of problems down the road but I wanted to make it and none of us could stand the thought of seven more months looking for someone else.”
The band spent a year fine-tuning their live set and a deal with JBJ and Richie Sambora’s publishing company, Underground was soon struck. An arrangement that the band would later regret, as it allegedly diverted the lion’s share of the group’s royalties to the Bon Jovi pair.
Skid Row Signs with Atlantic Records
Following a bidding war by labels, Skid Row eventually signed with Atlantic Records. Since the band had performed their songs countless times, recording their debut album with producer, Michael Wagner was a pretty easy experience for the group. Their debut album would spawn three huge singles including “18 in Life”, “Youth Gone Wild” and “I Remember You.” Two of the songs would crack the top ten.
Following their self-titled album’s release, the group agreed to open for Bon Jovi for six months. They would play massive venues including New Jersey’s giant stadium, which held over 70,000 people. The band was hungry to play live and would play their own clubs on nights off from the Bon Jovi tour.
Bach Influenced by Dee Snider
Bach was heavily influenced by Dee Snider of Twisted Sister who would often call out pop stars from the stage. Bach would follow suit during a show in the UK. These tirates irritated his bandmates.
According to Bolan, Bach’s ego problems only really became an issue as the band’s initial flush of success began. Up until then, Sabo insisted that each of the five members would have taken a bullet for a colleague.
By 1989, Skid Row was firmly on target for huge stardom. “We’re still the same slobs we were before.” Bolan insisted at the time. As the opportunities got bigger, so did Skid Row’s problems.
When Skid Row supported Aerosmith in Springfield in 1989, Bach was struck by a glass bottle thrown from the audience. In front of MTV’s cameras, he proceeded to hurl it back, resulting in 14-year old Elizabeth Myers needing 125 stitches. The girl would have nothing to do with actually throwing the bottle on stage. Bach would settle an amount of $500,000 and later expressed regret over his actions. Some of the money from the lawsuit came out of Bach’s bandmates’ pockets too, only worsening the friction in the band.
“The stupid stuff he was doing was almost becoming sociopathic. He seemed to feel that he was above all the rules and regulations.” – Rachel Bolan
“Splitting that girl’s head open,” Bolan sighs almost for loss of words, “well it was awful. It was a huge wedge right between the center of the band. The stupid stuff he was doing was almost becoming sociopathic. He seemed to feel that he was above all the rules and regulations.”
The remainder of 1990 and the start of 1991 was spent recording their sophomore album Slave to the Grind with producer Michael Wagner. It topped the Billboard chart which would be the first hard rock album to ever do so on the new era of SoundScan. The album didn’t play to what was popular at the time and Bolan agreed the heaviness of Slave to the Grind might have alienated some fans.
The notoriety of Skid Row, or more specifically Bach, had reached new heights. Jon Bon Jovi had believed that Bach had dissed his band on stage from their previous tour. With the end of tour pranks going on, Bach had been covered in milk and eggs by Bon Jovi’s crew before the show and on stage. He launched into a rant inviting Jon to “have a piece of me”. As Bach went down the ramp afterwards, Bon Jovi and his entourage of heavies were waiting for him. Bach would remember, “Jon took a swing and missed so I punched him on the chin.”
Following the fight with Bon Jovi, Bach would come out and say rock n’ roll is about coming together as one with the audience, not worrying about how to turn a 69 million dollar fortune into a 71 million dollar one. Bach claimed to receive support from Axl Rose of Guns N’ Roses and Metallica’s Lars Ulrich but it put his bandmate, Dave Sabo in an awkward position given his history with Jon Bon Jovi.
Dave Sabo and Jon Bon Jovi Make Peace
Sabo eventually made his peace with Jon almost three years later at the funeral of a mutual friend. He said, “the guy who died, hated the fact that Jon and I were estranged. He and I ended up hugging at the wake and he invited me to his house that night where he was with his wife, Teresa. I shared a few bottles of wine.”
One positive thing to come out of Bach’s outburst was that Jon and Sambora relaxed Skid Row’s contract with Underground, with the provision that Bach signed a gagging order.
“We had everything in front of us…” – Rachel Bolan
Drug use was also beginning to creep into Skid Row, especially on Bach’s part. “We had everything in front of us,” Bolan remembers “it became a sore point and to this day, I tell people never to do drugs. They’ll end up destroying themselves or what they’re working towards.”
On the following tour, Skid Row headlined all over the world with Soundgarden and Pantera among the bands supporting them.
At a show at London’s Docklands Arena, Bach stunned fans by dropping his silver strides to his ankles and ceremoniously wiping his ass with a copy of The Daily Star. It was also during this tour that Skid Row supported Guns N’ Roses at Wembley Stadium in 1991 where they defied a warning from the Brent Council not to play a particular song. Risking jail time and a lifetime ban from the London Borough, Bach once again infuriated his bandmates by reading out the council’s letter to 80,000 fans.
Besides Ourselves
Following that event and with the record label hungry for a new release, the band would release the cover record, Besides Ourselves, which featured a collection of songs by Kiss, The Ramones, Judas Priest, Jimi Hendrix and Rush and it was a good snapshot of the band’s diverse influences.
Fast forward to 1995, the Seattle sound had changed the music scene. The band would set its sights to record a new album of original material and Sabo had been suffering from writer’s block. Sabo was equally concerned that Bach was demanding a bigger role in the songwriting.
The band would release the Uninspired Subhuman Race album in March of ’95 and while it was modest in its success, it didn’t match the sales numbers of the band’s two previous records. At the same time, the band’s patience with Bach was wearing thin and they were being forced to address issues publicly.
“I knew when I got off the plane at JFK Airport that I’d never step on stage with Skid Row again.” – Rachel Bolan
Reviews of the album were not glowing and were less than stellar than their past work. To support the album, the band performed with Van Halen in the US and did some South American dates with Iron Maiden, Motorhead and Halloween.
As the tour went on, the relationship with Bach was falling apart and getting worse. Bolan knew things were done once the tour concluded saying, “I knew when I got off the plane at JFK Airport that I’d never step on stage with Skid Row again. By then, we were viewed as a cartoon band and the genre we were lumped into had been swallowed up and laughed at.”
An Abyss of Hatred
The final blow came to a head, on December 23, 1996. Bach would be fired by phone.
Two events were the final straw when Bach wanted the band to open for Kiss on their 1996 reunion tour and Bach’s unhappiness with the band’s new material for their follow-up record. It would open up what Sabo referred to as an abyss of hatred. Sabo would recall, “I was eating a meal with my family when Sebastian left a vile phone message. I left a message on Sebastian’s phone telling him I’d received all his hate faxes and that I’d never ever play in a band with him again. When I called Doc to explain, he said he couldn’t believe that it’d taken me so long to do so.”
The ensuing year saw Bolan form his own band called Prunella Scales and Bach joined the band, The Last Hard Men before touring under his own name. Sabo, Bolan, HIll, and Affuso then brought a New Jersey singer, Sean McCabe for a project called Ozone Monday.
Skid Row would perform a couple of years later but they would do so without Bach. While Bach would continue to pursue his musical career as a solo artist and even dipped his toe in acting.
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If Sébastien is not singing with the band then who is the lead singer?and is the band playing in Las Vegas or Henderson, Nv.coming up?