18 and Life on Skid Row

by Sebastian Bach

Overview

18 And Life on Skid Row tells the story of a boy who spent his childhood moving from Freeport, Bahamas to California and finally to Canada and who at the age of eight discovered the gift that would change his life. Throughout his career, Sebastian Bach has sold over twenty million records both as the lead singer of Skid Row and as a solo artist. He is particularly known for the hit singles I Remember You, Youth Gone Wild, & 18 & Life, and the albums Skid Row and Slave To The Grind, which became the first ever hard rock album to debut at #1 on the Billboard Top 200 and landed him on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. Bach then went on to become the first rock star to grace the Broadway stage, with starring roles in Jekyll & Hyde,Jesus Christ Superstar and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. He also appeared for seven seasons on the hit television show The Gilmore Girls.

In his memoir, Bach recounts lurid tales of excess and debauchery as he toured the world with Bon Jovi, Aerosmith, Motley Crue, Soundgarden, Pantera, Nine Inch Nails and Guns N’ Roses. Filled with backstage photos from his own personal collection, 18 And Life on Skid Row is the story of hitting it big at a young age, and of a band that broke up in its prime. It is the story of a man who achieved his wildest dreams, only to lose his family, and then his home. It is a story of perseverance, of wine, women and song and a man who has made his life on the road and always will. 18 And Life On Skid Row is not your ordinary rock memoir, because Sebastian Bach is not your ordinary rock star.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062265418
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	03/19/2024
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	459
Sales rank:	372,011
File size:	21 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Sebastian Bach has sold in excess of twenty million records worldwide as lead singer of his former band, Skid Row, and as a solo artist. Far from just being a multi-platinum recording artist, he has expanded his career over the past decade to include a five-season recurring role on the hit series Gilmore Girls; voice-over work on SpongeBob Square Pants and Robot Chicken; starring roles on Broadway in Jekyll & Hyde, The Rocky Horror Show, and Jesus Christ Superstar; and appearances on ABC’s Sing Your Face Off, the comedy series Trailer Park Boys, MTV, and Vstrong.

Read an Excerpt

December 27, 1989

Springfield, MA

I touch my fingers to my lips. I stand. Bathed in sweat. In the center of the stage. The taste is salty to my tongue. I look at the ground.

I see a glass bottle under my gaze. Lying askew atop the metal grid. I feel the red liquid all over my hand. I touch the crimson substance to my mouth.

Why is there red liquid all over me?

I wipe my brow. I discover that my face is completely covered in what I am assuming is tomato juice.

Why would somebody throw a glass bottle of tomato juice at me while I'm on stage?

To my shock, horror, and amazement, my face is not covered in tomato juice. My face is completely covered in my own blood. In front of 20,000 people. Opening up for my heroes, Aerosmith.

I am standing on stage in front of a packed arena with my face and hands covered in my own blood.

I see red. Not from the blood in my eyes, but from the anger in my heart.

General admission crowds are by nature, crazy.

When there are no chairs at a concert, and thousands of people crush together in one sweaty, rocking crowd, things can get out of control all too easily. I look into the seething mass of highly charged rock 'n' rollers on the arena floor in front of me. I start to utter the infamous rap, as viewed millions of times now on YouTube.

“Who in the fuck threw that?”

About ten guys circle around one guy. They're all pointing at him. They're all shouting at me.

“It was him, it was him!”

“Was it you, cocksucker?”

The man in the middle of the other ten says nothing. He looks straight at me, and extends his middle finger, in the gesture commonly known as “Fuck You.”

What happens next is the first chink in the armor. Of Skid Row. Of stardom. This is the exact moment when my childhood dream shows that first sign of an adult nightmare.

I had spent at least seven or eight years previous to this moment playing in clubs. Bars. Saloons. Playing three sets a night. Cover tunes. To drunk rock 'n' rollers in Quebec and Northern Ontario. Fighting was just a part of the scene and I had been in for years now. I did not know any other way to respond.

But this was not a club.

This was a packed arena. Full of approximately 20,000 people. Not a place where I could act in the only way I had known how to act previously. My life had changed. But I was not mature enough at the time to realize that I had to change with it.

I say into the mic, “Everybody, get the fuck back.:

I motion with my hands for everybody to move out of the way of this guy. Whose ass, I most certainly intended to kick.

I pick the glass bottle up off the stage. I walk as far back to the drum riser as I can, to get a good run at my nemesis. The song we are about to play is called “Piece of Me.” Never could I have realized that the song would be taken so literally. By a deranged fan. By me. By Myself.

I star into the man's face as he tells me again to fuck off. I am completely enraged and am not about to let him win this fight.

I then do the unthinkable.

Table of Contents

Prologue: Youth gone wild 1

1 Let's begin at the beginning 7

2 Growing up Sebastian 15

Bach in America: Pancratius on Tour 16

Lifelong Obsessions 19

"Gloria in Excelsis Deo": I Fell in Love with Singing at an Early Age 30

Breaking Up Is Hard to Do 43

The Demons of Rock 45

Winning a Ticket to the Rock 'n' Roll Lottery 49

Mens Sana in Corpore Insane-O 56

Moons Over My Hammy: Suspended Animation 72

3 Bach Formations 75

Acid, Arcades, and Aerosmith 75

I Lost My Virginity at the Age of Thirteen 95

4 From Park Avenue To Skid Row 99

5 Pretty Bad Boys 121

Bon Jovi/Skid Row Tour 1989: Young, Dumb, and Fulla Cum 124

No Need for Speed 136

No Rings, No Strings 141

End-of-Tour High Jinx: Sinister Turn 147

6 Rock It To Russia 155

Bach in the USSR 155

Make A Different Drink Foundation 160

Let the Games Begin 161

7 Feelgood, and Then Feel Better 169

No Milk and Cookie Jokes 173

Even in Rock Circles, Considered Crude and Disgusting 176

Weird Dreams 181

8 Bacj This Way 183

Watch Out for the AeroCops 190

Pretenders to Mah Throne 193

Let the Mayhem Begin 198

9 Bunch of Booze, Mountain of Blow, Quaaludes, and Tennis: My Time with Metallica 201

Never Had Nothing to Do 223

10 Lose Your Illusion! 235

Wine, Women, Song, and Duct Tape 246

11 Everybody IS Mad at Me. ALL of the Time 251

I Like to Run 255

Saturday Night Live 1991: Heavy Metal ABCs 262

My Voice Has a Life All Its Own 265

Pantera 268

Beware the Satanic Death Metal Telemarketer 272

What the Fuck's a Shortfall? 275

12 Just Jokin': End of the Row 277

Dude, Where's My Car? 288

Under Attack: "You Don't Have a Band Anymore" 303

One Shout Too Many Devils 309

Only the Nose Knows 311

13 From Skid Row to Savile Row: Bach on Broadway 319

Escape from New York 339

14 Jesus Christ: OH The Horror 343

Let's Do the Time Warp, 'Again 343

Forever Wild 347

Jesus Christ Superstar 351

Road Warp 356

Gilmore Girls 362

SuperGroup. Well, It's a Group 364

Celebrity Fat Club 368

Trailer Park Boys 370

15 Bach in the Saddle 373

The Return of the Redheaded Stranger 373

Making Metal Dreams Come True 378

Not An Anomaly 385

I Lost my Home in a Fucking Hurricane 389

Biblical in Proportions 391

16 The Last Frontier 397

Bach to the Future: Thank My Lucky Stars 406

You Are the Rock Star 411

Peace Amongst the Chaos 413

Epilogue: Hey Dude? When Are You Getting The Band Back Together 419

Selected Bachography 425

Photo Credits 427

Acknowledgments 429

Editorial Reviews

In the hedonistic new memoir 18 and Life on Skid Row, Sebastian Bach is brutally frank in his description of life on the road and exploits...Written in a funny, everyman style, 18 and Life finds Bach as one of rock’s most affable frontmen.” — Rolling Stone

“The soulfulness of Sebastian Bach’s new memoir caught me off-guard….The book’s personal stories are compelling…they’re what make 18 and Life on Skid Row a captivating read.” — LA Weekly

“[a] ribald and freewheeling memoir…often a delightfully trashy and salacious read. The overall impression one gets of Bach is of an outgoing and genial person…it works because of Bach’s puppyish enthusiasm-for music, yes, but also for booze, for drugs, and for sex in unusual places. Rock it up!” — AV Club

“a wild ride of a memoir” — The Houston Press

“the rock book that’s going to be hard to beat” — Las Vegas Weekly

“give the gift of Baz this holiday season and get the Skid Row scoop via one of rock’s greatest frontmen.” — Vanyaland

From the Publisher

[a] ribald and freewheeling memoir…often a delightfully trashy and salacious read. The overall impression one gets of Bach is of an outgoing and genial person…it works because of Bach’s puppyish enthusiasm-for music, yes, but also for booze, for drugs, and for sex in unusual places. Rock it up!

AV Club

In the hedonistic new memoir 18 and Life on Skid Row, Sebastian Bach is brutally frank in his description of life on the road and exploits...Written in a funny, everyman style, 18 and Life finds Bach as one of rock’s most affable frontmen.

Rolling Stone

a wild ride of a memoir

The Houston Press

give the gift of Baz this holiday season and get the Skid Row scoop via one of rock’s greatest frontmen.

Vanyaland

the rock book that’s going to be hard to beat

Las Vegas Weekly

The soulfulness of Sebastian Bach’s new memoir caught me off-guard….The book’s personal stories are compelling…they’re what make 18 and Life on Skid Row a captivating read.

LA Weekly