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- For the 18th Century composer, see Johann Sebastian Bach
Born in Freeport, Bahamas, and raised in Peterborough, Ontario, he appears to hold Canadian citizenship. He legally changed his last name from "Bierk" to "Bach" so that it would resemble the great composer Johann Sebastian Bach's name. Sebastian openly stated in interviews: "I basically was looking for a kick-ass rock n' roll name and since I really didn't have the creativity or imagination to come up with my own I decided to steal a famous composer's name. And it worked!"
His wife's name is Maria Bierk and they have two children named Paris & London. His parents divorced when he was 11 years old. His father was visual artist David Bierk (1944 – 2002). He is the brother of NHL goaltender Zac Bierk and actress Dylan Bierk.
Career
Bach was invited to join Skid Row in 1986 at the age of 18 when guitarist Dave Sabo heard him sing at famed rock photographer Mark Weiss's wedding. Sabo sent him a videotape of the band playing, and Bach subsequently joined the band. After enjoying commercial success as lead singer of Skid Row, Bach was eventually kicked out of the band in 1996.
He formed Sebastian Bach and Friends after being removed from Skid Row—a band that has since reformed with new singer John Solinger and new drummer Phil Varone. Beginning in 2000, Bach began performing in Broadway productions. His roles include Riff Raff in The Rocky Horror Show and the title role in Jekyll & Hyde. In early 2002 he became the host of VH1's Forever Wild.
In 1989, Bach was heavily criticized for wearing a t-shirt on stage with the slogan "Aids Kills Fags Dead" emblazoned on it, (a parody of the insecticide ad slogan, "Raid: Kills Bugs Dead".) Although he made light of the incident in his original apology, Bach has since repeatedly apologized for and disavowed the statement, "That was really stupid and wrong for me to wear that for one half-hour in my life. What nobody brings up is in 2000, when I was in Jekyll and Hyde, and at an auction for Broadway Cares, I donated $12,000 of my own money to fight AIDS." *
In 1990, Bach performed with Guns N' Roses and Metallica, on the same stage, at a party held by RIP Magazine, the improvised name for the band was: The Gak.
In 1996, Bach formed a rock supergroup, the Last Hard Men, with Frogs guitarist Jimmy Flemion, Breeders lead guitarist Kelley Deal, and Smashing Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlin. The group recorded a full-length, self-titled album for Atlantic Records, who then optioned not to release it. In 1998, it was released on Kelley Deal's label, Nice Records, with no fanfare and a very limited pressing of 1000 CDs, which may have been sold via mail order only.
In October 2002 he was signed to perform in the national touring production of Jesus Christ Superstar and played the role of Jesus successfully in the show until April 2003, when he was fired for alleged diva-like behavior. He is currently working on a DVD version of VH1's Forever Wild that will be released in June.
He has a role on the WB television show Gilmore Girls as Gil, the guitarist in Lane Kim's band. The other members of the band, all teenagers, initially objected to his age, but he proved to be a talented guitarist and remained in the band.
In 2005 Bach cooperated with Henning Pauly to be the singer on the Frameshift album called An Absence of Empathy which has been released in April 2005.
He has also reportedly stolen Nardwuar's favorite wool tuque.
As of recently, and assumably at present, he still performs with his band, Sebastian Bach and the Bach Five, formerly noted as Sebastian Bach and Friends, who live with him, his wife, and children...recently documented on VH1...in a show called "I Married...Sebastian Bach", one of the "I Married..." series. Stars also included Dee Snider of the rock band Twisted Sister
On May 12th and May 14th, 2006 at Guns N' Roses' warm up show at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City, Sebastian joined Axl on stage for the song "My Michelle". He joined Axl and gang for a third time the following night (May 15th) to sing "My Michelle" once again. He also joined them for their Pre-Download Festival show in the Apollo Hammersmith, London, singing My Michelle. Rose introduced Bach by saying that the two had rekindled their friendship in the previous week after 13 years of not speaking. On June 4th, 9th & 11th he again joined Rose on stage at the 2006 Gods of Metal Festival (Milan), Download Festival in RDS Dublin and in Donington, respectively.
Bach stars with Ted Nugent, Evan Seinfeld, Jason Bonham and Scott Ian on the VH1 show "SuperGroup" as of May 2006. The musicians formed a band called Damnocracy for the reality show, during which they lived in a mansion in Las Vegas for twelve days and created music. During the show, he became particularly close to Ted Nugent, whom he looked to as a father figure. This was acknowledged several times on the show. He also appears to have developed good relationships with Evan Seinfeld.
Bands
- Kid Wikkid
- Madam X
- Herrenvolk
- VO5
- Skid Row
- Damnocracy (VH1's SuperGroup)
- Frameshift
Solo-Discography
Albums
- The Last Hard Men, 1997
- Bring 'Em Bach Alive!, 1998
- Bach 2: Basics, 2001
- Angel Down, September 2006
DVD
- Forever Wild, 2004
External Links
1968 births | Living people | Canadian rock singers | Canadian actors | People from Peterborough, Ontario | Gilmore Girls actors
"Sebastian Bach"