Sebastian Bach Slams Former Skid Row Bandmates Over Songwriting Claims
Sebastian Bach is firing back at former bandmates who say they composed everything on Skid Row's early recordings without him. The singer says that the group's albums since his departure are proof that something is missing creatively.
"The biggest lie that those guys always tell is, 'We wrote all the songs on all the records,'" Bach told Dee Snider on his Snider Comments podcast. "If you listen to the Skid Row albums, and then you listen to the Skid Row albums without me, and then listen to my solo albums, that'll give you all that you need to know about who wrote what."
Bach joined Skid Row after their debut album had already been demoed by original singer Matt Fallon. Ultimately, those songs were re-recorded with Bach for Skid Row's five million-selling eponymous 1989 debut. He only received one co-writing credit, for "Makin' a Mess." Skid Row became the band's biggest-selling album.
Bach says that doesn't take into account his contributions to the process. "When they say, 'We wrote the song '18 and Life,' you [just] sang it,' okay, let's examine that statement," he adds. "You can go listen to the original version of that song online, and then you can listen to me doing it, and there's something called a melody line. ... Those are the notes that I wrote, okay? Nobody does that in the version before that."
At the time, he never considered fighting over credit. "The last thing anybody ever thinks is that somebody is gonna like this s---," Bach says. "That was, like, the last-case scenario. So I'm not in court, saying, 'I wrote this note!' I'm not gonna be in litigation when I'm 19, you know? So, [them saying] 'We wrote all the songs' is such a f---ing pile of s---."
Skid Row's two-times platinum follow up, 1991's Slave to the Grind, likewise featured only one Bach co-writting credit, on the title track. Subhuman Race, from 1995, was both Bach's last album and Skid Row's last to crack the Top 40, though just barely at No. 35. Skid Row regrouped for Thickskin and Revolutions Per Minute, released in 2003 and 2006, respectively, but neither charted.
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