Heads Up, Mothertruckers: Sebastian Bach is Playing Skid Row's Debut Album in Full This Fall in Harrison

The singer is celebrating the 30th anniversary of his band's first LP on an extensive tour that comes to the Blue Note in Harrison this September

click to enlarge Sebastian Bach in Skid Row's "I Remember You" music video - Photo: YouTube
Photo: YouTube
Sebastian Bach in Skid Row's "I Remember You" music video

In 1989, New Jersey rockers Skid Row released its self-titled debut album. Skid Row was a hit almost immediately, spawning the group's biggest hits, "18 and Life" and "I Remember You."

The band's wild-eyed frontman Sebastian Bach — who introduced the word "mothertuckers" to the lexicon — is hitting the road this fall for an extensive tour on which he will be performing Skid Row's breakthrough debut LP in full.

The tour is coming to the Blue Note in Harrison, Ohio on Sept. 13. Tickets are $22 in advance and available via cincyticket.com.

"In 1989, we put out the first record Skid Row. 30 years later, people still dig the music we created in a garage all those years ago," Bach said of the tour in a statement. "In commemoration of this 30th-anniversary digital deluxe release, my band is going to perform the first SKID ROW record, in its entirety, on the road, LIVE this fall! It's going to be fun to do something that has never been done live before! We are looking forward to seeing you all for this one time event! Note: This concert is 100% live in every way! All real! All the time! No tapes! No fakes! Come and see a real rock band while they still exist! We give it to you straight from the heart 'cuz that's the only way we know how! See you on the road!"


Skid Row's debut went quintuple platinum and preceded a couple of controversies involving Bach, including fallout from wearing an "AIDS Kills Fags Dead" T-shirt on stage, which he later said was given to him by a fan and put on without knowing what it said. The incident didn't hurt Skid Row too much in terms of popularity and sales, though — 1991's Slave to the Grind hit No. 1 upon its release and went double platinum.

The T-shirt mess did cost the group a potential tour opener — Nirvana cited Bach's homophobic shirt as the reason for not hitting the road with Skid Row, though surely conflicting musical tastes were also a factor. (Fun fact: Kurt Cobain and Co. almost chose Skid Row as their band name before settling on Nirvana.)

Skid Row was further burned by Nirvana when its third album in 1995 flopped due, at least in part, to Metal and Hard Rock losing popularity in the wake of Alternative and Grunge music's rise. Bach parted ways with the band a year later.

As Skid Row soldiered on with new members (they're still going today), Bach entered the world of Broadway musicals, appearing in productions of Jekyll & Hyde, The Rocky Horror Show and Jesus Christ Superstar. He also had a role on TV's Gilmore Girls and hit the reality TV circuit for a while, appearing on shows like Supergroup, Celebrity Fit Club and his own vehicle, I Married Sebastian Bach.



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