Sebastian Bach on Skid Row, new music, and Down Under Tour

Hard-rock icon Sebastian Bach is gearing up to launch his Down Under Tour 2025 at Freo.Social this Friday, November 21. Best known as the powerhouse frontman of Skid Row during their late-’80s and early-’90s heyday, Bach has since carved out a fierce solo legacy spanning four studio albums, including 2024’s Child Within the Man. CAIN CRESSALL caught up with Sebastian Bach to talk Australian tour memories, new music, and what fans can look forward to on the tour.

Thanks for taking the time to talk about your upcoming Australian tour.  Whereabouts are you in the world now? I noticed that the last show that you played was in Niagara Falls, only a couple of days ago. Are you still around that way? Or are you back home?

I’m back in Las Vegas, at my house, and last night I played with Night Ranger at Vamp, which is a club here in Vegas. It’s been around for 15 years, and it’s like our local hangout. It’s only got like two more shows, so everybody in Vegas is hanging out there, and it was a fun night with Night Ranger.

Awesome. So speaking of returning to Australia, you’re no stranger to this country, having first toured here with Skid Row back in 1990, and your most recent tour was in 2017 in support of the Bring ‘Em Bach Alive album. Do you have many noteworthy recollections from any of your Aussie adventures?

We also played with Guns N’ Roses, my solo band. I can’t remember what year that was. It was with Guns N’ Roses and Rose Tattoo back in 2012 or 2011? I don’t remember what year.

Yeah, I’ve been racking my brain trying to piece together some kind of timeline, and I do remember being at that show, but yeah, I’m not sure either.

We played everywhere on that tour, including Christchurch. We went everywhere on that tour. There was a time back around that period, around 2011 and 2012, where I did, like, three Australian tours in two years coming there. I was coming there all the time, and this tour now was booked back in 2020. We were supposed to come and do the first Skid Row record in its entirety, but then the pandemic happened, so we couldn’t do it, so we’re honouring that tour now, and it was great to see some of the shows selling out well ahead of the tour.

It’s not surprising, considering the wait.

Yeah, and in Perth, I don’t know what the Freo.Social is, but I hope it’s a good stage, because the last time I remember playing Perth, we headlined the Burswood Theatre. That was a big show. And right before that, we played the Burswood Dome with Guns N’ Roses, and it was crazy. And I have that show on professionally shot DVD film, and it’s an insane show. Like, the amount of people in Perth that came to that gig. It’s like 50,000 people! So, I hope the Freo.Social is ready. I know we got a lot of fans there, so…

It’s going to be a very, very sweaty evening.

Well, I’m 57, so I hope they got the air-con going. It’s hard enough to sing like this music; like, I dunno what’s going on. But I’ve got great memories of Perth. Like, back on one of those tours that we’re talking about. We had, like, a week off in Perth because we were on tour in Europe, and the Guns N’ Roses tour started on a certain day, and it made more sense to spend a week in Perth than to fly back to the States and fly back, like, financially. So, we had, like, a week where I lived in this hotel right downtown, me and my band, and we just—we didn’t have any shows; we just lived in Perth, and it’s a great memory for me.

I was running a lot at that time, so I went up to that Hyde Park, right? Is that what it’s called? Yeah, I would go there every day with my Walkman, my, you know, my headphones, listening to music, and I would run, like, four miles in that park every day. I remember, once, I got lost, and I ended up down on some street, like, way, way at the bottom; it was, like, dark. It was, like, six or eight at night, and it started raining, and I didn’t want to get my phone and my headphones messed up, and I had to walk way up the hill back to the hotel in the rain.

But those are great memories for me, because I’m, you know, I’m from Canada, North America, and for me to just live in Perth with nothing to do, like just a normal person, it’s a great memory. So, I have some really, really good memories of Perth. I have a memory of Sydney, where I was running in some park and I was listening to Rose Tattoo. I remember that. That’s one of my favourite bands.

I’ve noticed in your social media, there’s been quite a few pictures of you and Angry Anderson over the years. You guys seem to be pretty good mates, from what I can tell?

Well, you know, I just played a show with him on the Monsters of Rock cruise, and when I came on stage, he goes, “Yeah, here goes one of my illegitimate sons. His mum was a basketball player!” So, I’m a little taller than Angry when I come on the stage; it looks pretty weird. But I have this memory of Sydney, where I was running in the park, like I was doing in Perth, and it was getting dark, and I looked up at the trees, and I saw all this rustling in the branches, right? And I go, “What the fuck is that?” I look up, and you guys have some bats that are like the size of a little kid or a dog. And I looked up, and all these bats were flying around, and I was terrified, dude, and I ran as hard and fast as I could. I got the heck out of there. I had never seen bats the size of what you have, down under. I was just running by myself, and it was getting dark, and they were all coming out of the trees, and I was just, like, what the fuck is going on?! That’s a crazy memory.

Yeah, they’re really beautiful to see in big groups flying over Sydney Harbour at dusk. It’s a really majestic kind of thing.

Well, for a guy like me from North America, it’s terrifying! Because you don’t know what’s happening! I was like, what’s going on!?

(Laughs) Awesome.

By the way, I have a new record! It’s called Child Within the Man.

I was just going to ask you about that! Absolutely. Yes, it’s easily one of the most potent releases to your name.

So we’re doing this tour. We’re going to play the first record, Skid Row, in its entirety, but we’re also going to be playing new songs. The first Skid Row record is only about 45 minutes, so that’s not a whole show, so we’ll be doing other songs as well. I want everybody to watch the videos for What Do I Got To Lose, which has almost two million plays now. Back in my day, that was double platinum. And also, I want everybody to know that the last video we put out was a ballad called To Live Again, but the video before that is called Future Of Youth, featuring Orianthi, from Australia.

Shredding her brains out, I might add.

Yes! And it’s, it’s the most metal thing I’ve ever heard from her. You know, I’m rocking with an amazing Australian musician. So, check out that video!

It was such a delight and a great surprise to discover that video. I heard the album before I saw the video, so I had no idea it was a guest player. It was only once I watched the video that I realised, ‘Oh wow.’ That’s who’s playing that solo! While we’re on the topic of that song, it seems like a very passionate kind of lyric throughout the song. I was wondering whether the “liars and shills” which you discuss in the song were something that you wanted to talk about, or if you’d prefer to keep those exclusive to their song form for people to interpret on their own?

I wrote those lyrics… If you go on my YouTube page… When we were stuck in the pandemic and we couldn’t leave the house, I had a drum hut. There are these silly videos that I made because I was so bored. It’s called Keeping Up With The Sebastians. I made, like, a drum hut, because my son is a drummer and drums are loud, so I said, ‘I’m going to make you a shed, and you can go out there and play.’ And I wrote those lyrics for Future Of Youth when we were shut down, when we couldn’t leave the house, the whole world, and it was because whoever was in charge then didn’t believe in science.

And, you know, I put on the news today, right before this interview, and I cannot believe the news that I’m seeing. And I’ll answer your question by saying, I long for the days when we never talked about politics. I want to go back to the days… I can’t even; I can’t even put it into words. When I see people being snatched off the streets that are cutting the grass or whatever, like immigrants. This country was built on immigrants. So was Australia! Every country was, pretty much, except, like, Africa and Europe, right? So we’re all immigrants. I don’t want to get into this, because it’s depressing, but, you know, you know what it is, man. I talk about this kind of thing when it’s election time, because maybe there’s a chance that some fucking idiots could grow a fucking brain. But right now, I can’t do anything. I can’t, I can’t.

You know what’s crazy? Also, I put that video out, like, a week before the last election, and I was so delusional! I was like, “I’m gonna put this video out, and I’m gonna change the whole fucking election with this video.” I really believed that! That’s how crazy I am. That is how nuts… I go, “This video’s got to come out before Tuesday, because I need to fuckin’…”. You know, it’s a little bigger than Sebastian Bach. But I don’t know what to say. It’s just, I just want to go back to the days when, you know, okay, like, when we put out the first Skid Row record, that was 1989. It was recorded in ’88. You know what a day in 1988 was for me and my buddies? We would start the day by getting a case of beer, Labatt’s Blue, usually. We would go and get a Frisbee. We would go down to the beach, and we would bury the beer in the sand because we weren’t old enough to drink it, and we would play frisbee all day and drink beer, and that was the whole day! That was it. “Okay. We’re done! What time is it? Oh, it’s 5pm. Okay! Let’s go get some tacos or something!” Like, we didn’t think about politics. We didn’t ever even talk about any of this.

That song, Future Of Youth, starring my daughter, Tiana, in the video, it’s about the future of youth! Ta-daa! Like, it’s about, it’s… It’s like 120 degrees today in Vegas. But I know it gets hot in Australia, too. And I say this to people who don’t believe in science. I go, “Okay, so it’s 120 today. Every year the median temperature of the Earth goes up a degree, a degree, a degree. 114, 115, 116. So, at what number is it too hot? 131? 140? Is that okay with everybody?? Because we’re gonna be living in fuckin’ caves underground!” People are like, “That’ll never happen!”, and I go, “What do you mean??” It goes up every year! So, what do you think? It’s just gonna stop going up? Like, at what number is it where we’re gonna fucking do something!? Like, 160? 170? It makes me crazy.

And I think of my kids. I have kids, and I think of the future of youth! When I’m dead and gone, where are people going to be living? Like, underground?? Because if it keeps getting hotter, we are fucked. Like, I see the weather in Australia. You guys have this flooding that is insane. You know, I see the news. I just don’t understand people that don’t want to take care of our planet. It’s like cleaning the floors in your house. What, is your house just a fucking mess? Like, how’s about the fucking planet? You know what I’m saying? Like, clean it up and take care of it. We only got one planet. I sound like a hippie. I mean, you asked about this song, and that is what the song’s about.

Yeah, I pick up on that passion in the delivery, and throughout the whole album, there is a very passionate delivery of strong messages that are obviously very dear to your heart. I just wanted to touch on the current lineup, as you said, featuring your son, Paris, on drums. The current lineup is a bunch of absolute weapon players, which is not out of the norm for a Sebastian Bach record, but how did the current lineup fall into place? I’m really interested to know, and how is Paris finding the road life?

He’s not on the album. The album is Jeremy Colson, from Steve Vai, and Todd Kerns on bass, who’s Slash’s bass player. Orianthi, from Australia, is on one song. John Five is on the song Freedom. Steve Stevens on the song F. U., and then Devin Bronson, who also—it’s crazy, but a couple of the songs on my record I co-wrote with Isaac Carpenter, who’s now the drummer of Guns N’ Roses. And I, Duff McKagan. I did a show in Australia, this weird show at this stadium with Cold Chisel. I was with Matt Sorum and Duff McKagan and Aerosmith and Van Halen! It was Aerosmith and Van Halen, and nobody showed up! It was so weird!

I swear to God, it was in Sydney, Australia, in, like, 2009 or something like that. It was Van Halen with David Lee Roth, Aerosmith, Cold Chisel, and me, Duff McKagan, and Matt Sorum in the Kings of Chaos. And I was saying to Duff on the bus to the show, I go, “I’m making a new record. You got any riffs?” And he goes, “Oh, I know this guy, Devin Bronson, who has incredible riffs, and he was partners with Isaac Carpenter.” So, Duff has had his eye on Isaac since 10 or 15 years ago, because he was telling me about Isaac back then. And Isaac co-wrote the song Hold On To The Dream, which is heavy as fuck! Incredible.

Some of the heaviest stuff I’ve ever heard you sing is on this album. And, particularly, I actually wanted to ask about the song Hard Darkness, which has some of the most vicious, aggressive vocals I’ve ever heard from your catalogue. It was actually kind of frightening, like, “What’s wrong with this guy? He’s upset! I’ve never heard him so upset!”

Thank you! I wrote that song, the lyrics and the melody, in the woods at, like, midnight or one in the morning. I couldn’t think of anything. We were trapped in lockdown. I got a bottle of wine. Everybody was asleep, and I just went walking out in the dark woods, and this was in the time when I didn’t even know if we would ever rock again. Like, I didn’t know if we would ever leave the house. And I was just walking around in the dark, and I was [sings] under the light of the mooon. I was just looking up at the moon, drinking, and I wrote that song. But dude, we’re going over time. I don’t want to miss the next interview, though. Let’s hang out in Perth, okay?

Yeah, man, for sure.

We can hang out in Perth and smoke with the bats!

Sebastian Bach plays Freo.Social on Friday, November 21, 2025. Tickets are on sale now from davidroywilliams.com