Sebastian Bach is helping youth of all ages go wild as he tours around the United States. But he’s also getting ready for what’s coming next.
Last week the former Skid Row singer was announced as the fill-in frontman for Twisted Sister‘s upcoming 50th anniversary tour after Dee Snider withdrew due to health concerns. Bach has now included Twisted Sister’s 1984 anthem “I Wanna Rock” in his shows and tells Billboard he’s stoked about being part of the celebration — though dates have yet to be announced.
“I am a fan,” Bach explains via Zoom from a day off in St. Cloud, Minn. “They had the tour booked and (Snider’s) doctors told him he couldn’t do it. They had a choice to either try to get another singer or cancel the whole tour. I just look at it in the same way as when Brian Johnson couldn’t do the AC/DC shows (in 2016) and Axl Rose stepped in, or when Queen wanted to tour and Paul Rodgers came in.
“And, I am a fan. I love the (1983) album You Can’t Stop Rock ‘n’ Roll. I Love (1982’s) Under the Blade. I love ‘I Wanna Rock,’ ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It.’ I like their version of the Rolling Stones’ ‘It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll;’ it’s like punk/thrash/metal. My album I put out (in 2024) was called Child Within the Man; a band like Twisted Sister 100 percent makes me feel like a child within the man. That music is very youthful and fun.”
Bach says he had a 45-minute conversation with Snider the morning that the announcement was made (March 4). “He gave me his blessing,” Bach recounts. “He just explained that he was very, very happy being a grandpa, and the doctors told him he can’t do it…I’m S.M.F. No. 2 — that’s what Dee named me a couple of years ago. He’s S.M.F. No. 1. If you can’t have S.M.F. No. 1, you’ve got S.M.F. No. 2” (“S.M.F.” is a track from Twisted Sister’s 1984 breakthrough album Stay Hungry and an abbreviation for Sick Mother F***er — also the band’s designation for its fans.)
Bach, 57, expects to bring comparatively youthful energy to Twisted Sister as well; remaining original members Jay Jay French and Eddie “Fingers” Ojeda are both in their 70s. “It’s like how the guys in my solo band are younger than me,” says Bach, whose son Paris plays drums. The same way those guys give me an extra shot of energy, I’m kind of like the same thing to Twisted Sister.”
That wasn’t the only news surrounding Bach last week.
On the same day, reports surfaced about a revelation in Christina Applegate’s new memoir, You With the Sad Eyes, that she had relationship with Bach when she was 17 — which began when she ditched a pre-fame Brad Pitt for the singer at the 1989 MTV Video Music Awards. Pitt, she writes, was “not surprisingly…very mad at me,” though the two settled their differences some years later. “Eventually, we agreed that I’d been a child, and though he deserved much better, it was time to forgive the child who dumped him for the lead singer of Skid Row.”
Bach, who had a girlfriend and children at the time, says he “was very surprised when that all hit. I was a single guy on tour, in a band, and I met a lot of girls and I apologize if I hurt her…if I hurt anybody. When you’re young you get thrown into the whirlwind of rock ‘n’ roll, meeting a lot of people and you better hold on tight. It’s like being on a roller coaster…It was a long time ago. If I hurt anybody, I apologize for it.”
Bach next plays on Friday, March 13 in Des Plaines, Ill., and has dates booked with his band into October. In addition to his own and Skid Row material, the shows also feature tributes to the late Ozzy Osbourne (“I Don’t Know”) and Gordon Lightfoot (“Carefree Highway,” while Skid Row’s “I Remember You” is dedicated to Dimebag Darrell and Vinnie Paul from Pantera.
“It’s the same reason I’m gonna be the lead singer of Twisted Sister — because I’m a fan,” Bach explains. “I’m just a fan of rock ‘n’ roll. We’re losing guys like Neil Peart, like Eddie Van Halen, like Ace (Frehley), like Ozzy. We’re losing our real heroes. I’m loving singing (‘I Don’t Know’); in the middle part, where it goes, ‘Nobody ever told me, I found out for myself,’ that’s really emotional. It’s really meaningful for the fans.”
Meanwhile, Bach added that he currently has no plans to follow up Child Within the Man — his first album in 10 years, with guest appearances by guitarists John 5, Steve Stevens and Orianthi. His focus, instead, is on playing live. “At this point people are clamoring to come to live shows,” he says. “I think as a society we all spend so much time staring at our screens, our phones, our computers; going to a live rock show is one of the last bastions of primal human contact. It goes back to the cavemen around the fire, beating the drum and the tribe is going (chants) around the fire. That’s how primal music is. And I’m the guy beating the drum.”
This story originally appeared on Billboard
