18 and Life

Dear James,

A couple of months ago I was taking the piss out of Skid Row and told you how their singer, Sebastian Bach (real name Sebastian Bierk), deserved a whole piss-taking post of his own. James, this is that post:

1. Sebastian Bach (real name Sebastian Bierk) named his 3 children Paris, London and... Sebastiana. If you and I were anything like Sebastian, I'd have a son called Stockport and you'd have one called Saint Saviour. Well, you'd have a son anyway. I suppose in many ways you have become more like Sebastian Bach than I will ever be. Unless I have a son and name him after a major conurbation, clearly. Leeds-Bradford Tunnard. It's got a ring to it.
2. Sebastian Bach (real name Sebastian Bierk) made his Broadway debut in 2000 in the title role of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
3. In 2002, SB (RN Sebastian Bierk) played the title role in a touring company's production of Jesus Christ Superstar. He was fired for "diva-like behaviour". That sounds unfair. If you're playing Jesus Christ you've got to get into the whole "I'm the Messiah" thing, right?



I like to think Sebastian would have at least put more passion into his performance than the guy in the above video. The original album featured Ian Gillan of Deep Purple as Jesus and Murray Head as Judas. Murray Head of course went on to great success in the 80s with One Night In Bangkok.



But I digress:
4. Sebastian Bach was turned down in favour of ex-Stone Temple Pilot Scott Weiland as the lead singer of Velvet Revolver, because Slash said that with Bach they sounded like "Skid Roses". Of course, the fact that that Americans are as ignorant of the phrase "skid mark" as Germans are oblivious to the double meaning of "Bismarck" only adds to the humour.

5. Bach played the guitarist in the Korean girls' band in Gilmour Girls. As a married man, I endured the Gilmour Girls for years. I'm so gutted this huge comic moment passed me by at the time.



You may notice how he mispronounces the phrase "breast-feeding route".

6. Like many people, Bach went 13 years without speaking to W.Axl Rose. They made up, and Bach joined Axl's Not N Really aNymore Guns N Roses on stage on May 12, 2006, singing My Michelle. He then rejoined them on stage on May 14, singing My Michelle. He joined them again on June 4, 6 and 9, singing My Michelle. And again on September 23, singing My Michelle.



Eventually, they let him sing Nightrain as an encore, but only because Axl was "ailing".

7. 2006 was a busy year for Sebastian. He also formed a supergroup for the VH1 reality show "Supergroup" with Scott Ian (Anthrax), Evan Seinfeld (Biohazard and porn), Jason Bonham (Led Zep drummer, son of dead Led Zep drummer), and Ted Nugent (Ted Nugent). Oddly for a man with a 20-year career behind him, the reality show gets more words on his Wikipedia page than anything else. Which is probably about right.

8. That above article goes on for a bit, so I'll leave you with this gem:

In 2007, on an episode of the Trailer Park Boys season seven titled Friends of the Road, Bach played himself as a celebrity guest hosting a model train convention

I just don't know what to make of that, aside from the envy that Bach got to host it and not me, when I know loads more about trains. Anyway, 18 and Life, fantastic song in the late-80s glam rock vein of picking a name at random (Ricky, Billy, Johnny, etc) and writing a story about a young kid gone off the tracks. Great video too. Youth Gone Wild, meh.