Sebastian’s hoping to go Bach to the future on Broadway
The phone rang, and once again my 14-year-old daughter beat me to it.
“Hello,” I could hear her say on the upstairs line as I headed for the basement extension. “Is this Sebastian Bach? I loved you in ‘Gilmore Girls.’ “
Aaaaarrrrgggghhhh.
Here I am expecting to interview Sebastian Bach, ex-frontman for Skid Row, the pop-metal band responsible for such late-‘80s hits as “18 and Life,” “I Remember You” and “Youth Gone Wild.”
The same Sebastian Bach who on Broadway played the dual leads in “Jekyll and Hyde: The Musical,” as well as Riff Raff in “The Rocky Horror Show” and starred in the touring production of “Jesus Christ Superstar.”
“Gilmore Girls”? Aaaaarrrrgggghhhh!
“What’s your daughter’s name?” Bach asks after she hangs up. “Tell your daughter she’s got awesome taste, man. Marissa, you have awesome taste!”
Bach is on tour in support of his new DVD release, “Sebastian Bach: Forever Wild.” It features guest appearances by the late Joey Ramone, Vince Neil of Motley Crue and Ted Nugent, among others, and includes a rocked-up version of “This Is The Moment” from “Jekyll and Hyde.”
Bach is rebounding from a publicity hit he took after he left the tour of “Jesus Christ Superstar” six months into a one-year contract.
“It was kind of a crazy situation,” he says. “I told them when they hired me that I didn’t even know if it was possible for me to do eight shows every week for a year. That’s physically and mentally grueling. We pleaded for a six-month contract and they said, ‘No, we want you for a year.’
“At the end of six months, I had never missed a show. It was intense. The rock ‘n’ roll crowd that kept coming out to see me kept getting on the nerves of the straight Broadway players. They didn’t like how my fans cheered and went nuts.
“They didn’t like the way I got the crowd going at the curtain call. I would come out at the end and hum the tune (from the theme song) and get everybody in the audience clapping to it. … I don’t think Jesus would get mad if people were enjoying themselves.”
Bach’s time in the theater came as a sharp contrast to his rock-concert experiences.
“Broadway, you have to show up on time,” he jokes. “Rock ‘n’ roll is amplified a lot more with the electronics. Broadway is supposed to be the naked sound of the voice. There are supplemental mikes on Broadway, but it’s the more natural sound.”
The singer, who stands 6-foot-3, is an imposing figure. And playing an aging rock guitarist for a budding band of youngsters on “Gilmore Girls” earned him a reprise of the role for this season on the WB hit series and has allowed him to straddle the generation gap.
“Rock ‘n’ roll will always be my first love” he says.
“But as I grow older, I’m setting myself up in the theater world to have a real cool career when I’m 60 or 70.”
The birthday bunch
Actor Peter O’Toole is 72. Director Wes Craven is 65. Singer Kathy Lennon (The Lennon Sisters) is 61. Actress Joanna Cassidy is 59. Actress Kathryn Harrold is 54. Singer Andrew Gold is 53. Singer Mojo Nixon is 47. Actress Victoria Jackson is 45. Actress Apollonia is 45. Actress Cynthia Stevenson (“Hope and Gloria”) is 42. Actress Mary-Louise Parker is 40. Director-actor Kevin Smith is 34. Actor Edward Furlong is 27. Actress Hallie Eisenberg is 12.