Music: {allcanada} Sebastian Bach raising 'Hell' on tour and TV

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

{allcanada} Sebastian Bach raising 'Hell' on tour and TV

There's no debate as far as rocker Sebastian Bach is concerned: Global warming is real and it destroyed his home in Middletown, N.J.

"I had hardwood floors in the basement, and it was the ultimate MTV man-cave crib," said Bach, the former lead singer for Skid Row. "We'd have torrential downpours and we'd be in the basement the whole time. We didn't have a drop of water in the basement for 25 years."

That all changed when Hurricane Irene flooded the property and destroyed many of Bach's music collectibles. He saw signs of climate change firsthand, he said.

First, the Canada geese came.

"They didn't know they weren't in Canada – hey, it's that way!" Bach said. "Hundreds of huge geese, and I'd be looking outside the window and my 2-year old daughter was being – attacked by the geese."

The second sign was the stink bugs and the third was the storms.

"Everybody told me after Hurricane Irene that it was a 100-year storm and it wouldn't happen for another 100 years," Bach said. "Next summer, we had another storm (superstorm Sandy). Did they mean it was a 100-DAY storm?"

"I still own it," Bach said of the house. "I'm a singer, I play music – I don't know how to deal with FEMA and the insurance companies and the water companies. I can rock you like a hurricane, but I don't know how to deal with an actual hurricane."

"My dreams came true in New Jersey," Bach said. "I have so many great memories of Skid Row and Bon Jovi, and my family and my children and getting married there and getting divorced there. It's haunting for me to walk around there."

Bach is a Canadian native who joined the Jersey Shore band Skid Row – which also had Bon Jovi connections – in the late-'80s for monster successes. The band's debut album produced the hits 18 and Life, I Remember You and Youth Gone Wild. The Bach-fronted Skid Row burned out after a couple years and since then, he's been rocking, acting and appearing on TV and Broadway.

There's still rock 'n' roll. Bach's latest, Give 'Em Hell from the Italian hard-rock label Frontiers Records, is a vibrant, slashing torpedo of a record with plenty of muscle and melody. The players include Duff McKagan from Guns N' Roses and Velvet Revolver on bass and Steve Stevens (Billy Idol and Michael Jackson) and John 5 (Marilyn Manson and Rob Zombie) on guitar.

Bach is on tour with the album, and also re-upping his reality TV career. He'll star in the new competition show Sing Your Face Off, which premieres 9 p.m. May 31 on ABC.

On the show, basketball player Landry Fields; funnyman Jon Lovitz; Disney star China Anne McClain, and soap star Lisa Rinna, along with Bach, will take on the identity of an iconic music performer.

No, they won't be taking on Bach's identity.

"The title alone was enough to make me want to do it," Bach said. "Sing Your Face Off – such a great title for a guy like me to talk about."

Avatar (Blu-ray) (With DVD) (Special Edition) (Widescreen)