Sebastian Bach I owe my 18 and life body to a cocaine diet
Former SKID ROW singer Sebastian Bach promoted his autobiography, “18 And Life On Skid Row”, with an appearance on a recent edition of Q104.3‘s “Out Of The Box” with host Jonathan Clarke. You can now watch the chat below.
Recalling how BON JOVI guitarist Richie Sambora once told him the secret to looking skinny in band photos, Bach said: “This [was], like, 1987, and I was just starting out. It could have been him, it could have been anybody, but back at the time, we were all expected to be razor thin; you know, that’s the image of the rock star. But that’s an unnatural look. Like the cover of the book, everybody’s, like, ‘That’s the best you ever looked.’ [Editor’s note: The cover image of ’18 And Life On Skid Row’ is actually an outtake from Bach‘s 1991 Rolling Stone cover shoot.] Well, that’s when I was the most into doing blow. But it gives you that gaunt appearance that rockers strive for. When you’re doing cocaine, you don’t need food. [Laughs]”
He continued: “I was, like, ‘How come you look so skinny in these videos?’ And [Richie] goes, ‘I’ll just get an eight ball [one-eighth of an ounce of cocaine], and that’ll be gone in a week.’ I didn’t know what an eight ball was.”
Bach added: “The reason I told that… I don’t wanna put anybody down or anything… That was the first day that I knew what an eight ball was. I was, like, ‘What’s an eight ball?’ ‘Cause I didn’t have the money for an eight ball. [Laughs]”
Sebastian told NPR last month that he hasn’t “done any cocaine in fifteen years at least, maybe longer, maybe twenty.” He explained: “I don’t like it. I don’t like the way it makes me feel. It’s an awful experience to have that in your system, you know?”
The singer also claimed that he has “never [been] drunk on stage.” He said: “I save all that kind of activity for after the show. I don’t charge money for a ticket to someone and then show up drunk. I don’t do that. But after the show, on the tour bus, on the way to the next town, that’s my time.”
Sebastian recently confirmed that he plans to release a second book after spending the next few years focusing on his music career. “I know for a fact there’s a second book in me,” he told Vanyaland. “I could’ve kept going on this one, I could’ve made this one longer, but they cut me off because it’s already pretty fucking long. [Laughs] I like to write — I really like it, and I enjoy it. I enjoy making stuff, but the next thing I make will be a record, a vinyl record. That’s the next thing that I’m gonna make. But after that, yes, I’ll do a book, because they want me to and I enjoy it.”
“18 And Life On Skid Row” came out on December 6 via Dey Street Books (formerly It Books), an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
