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Sebastian Bach

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Sebastian Bach
This article is about the heavy metal singer. For the classical composer, see Johann Sebastian Bach.

Sebastian Bach (born Sebastian Philip Bierk, on April 3, 1968) is a Canadian heavy metal singer, best known as ex-frontman of Skid Row.

Born in Freeport, Bahamas, and raised in Peterborough, Ontario, he attended nearby Lakefield College School. Despite rumors to the contrary, his legal last name is still "Bierk", not "Bach."

He and his wife, Maria Bierk, have two children named Paris and London. His parents divorced when he was 12 years old. His father was the visual artist David Bierk (1944 – 2002). He is the brother of NHL goaltender Zac Bierk and actress Dylan Bierk.

Career

Skid Row

Bach was invited to join Skid Row in 1987 at the age of 18 when guitarist Dave Sabo heard him sing at famed rock photographer Mark Weiss's wedding. Sabo sent him a videotape of the band playing, and Bach subsequently joined the band. After enjoying commercial success as lead singer of Skid Row, Bach was eventually fired in 1996.

In 1989, Bach was heavily criticized for wearing a t-shirt on stage with the slogan "AIDS Kills Fags Dead" emblazoned on it, (a parody of the insecticide ad slogan, "Raid: Kills Bugs Dead".) Although he made light of the incident in his original apology, 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 and 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.

Post Skid Row

In 1996, Bach formed a rock supergroup, the Last Hard Men, with Frogs guitarist Jimmy Flemion, 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 optioned 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, which may have been sold via mail order only.

In 2000, Bach began performing in Broadway productions. His roles included Riff Raff in The Rocky Horror Show, the title role in Jekyll & Hyde.

On November 28, 2001 Sebastian appeared at New York Steel, a benefit concert 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 2002, Sebastian was signed to perform in the national touring production of Jesus Christ Superstar and played the role of Jesus successfully in the show until April 2003, when he was fired for alleged diva-like behavior. He has said if he ever did the show again, he would like to try the role of Judas Iscariot next time. He is currently working on a DVD version of VH1's Forever Wild that will be released in June.

Sometime in 2003, Sebastian tried out for Velvet Revolver before the band found Scott Weiland, but was turned down because, according to Slash, "We sounded like Skid Row!"

He had a role on the CW television show Gilmore Girls as Gil, the lead guitarist in Lane Kim's band Hep Alien. The other members of the band, all teenagers, initially objected to his age, but his undeniable talent and tough-luck history with rock and roll won Lane over.

In 2005, Bach cooperated with Henning Pauly to be the singer on the Frameshift album called An Absence of Empathy which has been released in April 2005.

He still performs with his band, Sebastian Bach (formerly noted as Bach Tight Five and Sebastian Bach and Friends). Members of Bach Tight Five lived with him and his family as recently 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.

On May 12 and May 14, 2006 at Guns N' Roses' warm up show at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City, Sebastian joined Axl on stage for the song "My Michelle". He joined Axl 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, 9th & 11th 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'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".

The Damnocracy logo

Bach stars with Ted Nugent, Evan Seinfeld, Jason Bonham and Scott Ian on the VH1 show "SuperGroup" as of 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. During the show, he became particularly close to Ted Nugent, whom he looked to as a father figure. This was acknowledged several times on the show. He also appears to have developed good relationships with Evan Seinfeld. However, at a November 5, 2006 Guns N' Roses concert in East Rutherford, New Jersey, Bach referred to a SuperGroup episode where he promised Ted he would quit drinking, and claimed that he had lied. Bach had previously said that he had taken offense with disparaging comments Nugent had made about Dimebag Darrell.

On 13 September 2006, during a show at Selinas in Sydney, Bach stormed off stage during the encore. After two earlier similar incidents, Bach had warned the crowd that the throwing of any more plastic bottles and/or cans onto the stage would lead to him walking off. As the encore began (Youth Gone Wild), Bach was hit by a plastic cup, threw down the mic and left the stage.

On September 28, 2006, he appeared on Celebrity Duets singing with Hal Sparks. Bach later was on the road with Guns N' Roses, touring around the world until late 2006.

On the 7th season episode of Trailer Park Boys titled Friends of the Road, Bach played himself as a celebrity guest hosting a model train convention. He later meets Ricky and Julian in a parking lot to smoke marijuana. In a later episode in the same season, Bach returns as the accomplice on the American side of the border helping to facilitate a drug deal.

During beginning of June 2007 Sebastian Bach headlined a tour of Japan, playing to Japanese fans in Nagoya, Osaka and 2 nights in Tokyo. His touring band consisted of "Metal" Mike Chlasciak on guitar, Johnny Chromatic on guitar, Rob De Luca on bass and Jason West on drums filling in for the injured Bobby Jarzombek. After the Japanese tour, his band supported the Australian & New Zealand Guns N' Roses 'Chinese Democracy' tour.

Bach recently announced a partnership record label with EMI. Jointly, they will be creating a label owned by Sebastian, including his new album "Angel Down", which will be released on November 20 2007. Bach also recorded backing vocals for a track on Guns N' Roses' long-delayed album, Chinese Democracy.


Bands

  1. Kid Wikkid
  2. Madam X
  3. VO5 (1 show Only)
  4. Skid Row
  5. The last hard men
  6. Sebastian Bach And Friends
  7. Band Of Doom (Supergroup)
  8. Frameshift
  9. Damnocracy (VH1's SuperGroup)
  10. Savage Animal (Vh1's SuperGroup)

Discography

With Kid Wikkid 1985 Kid Wikkid / "Maple Metal" / lp & cassette / Attic Records / "Take A Look At Me"/ Canada

With Skid Row

With The Last Hard Men

Solo

With Frameshift

Videos

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