Skid Row Guitarist Says Sebastian Bach Reunion Would Be ‘Toxic’
Scotti Hill insists Skid Row won’t reunite with former singer Sebastian Bach, despite calls from fans to do so.
The band’s most recent vocalist, Erik Gronwall, left the group in March to focus on his health. Halestorm's Lzzy Hale filled in for a handful of shows, but Skid Row has yet to find a permanent replacement.
With the position open, many fans have clamored for Bach’s return. The singer fronted Skid Row from 1987 to 1996, the most commercially successful period of the band’s history. Despite this, Hill says there’s no chance a reunion will happen.
“We did great things in the past, but this is about way more than a band or music,” the guitarist explained during an appearance on the Appetite for Distortion podcast. “‘Do it for the fans.’ No, no. I'm not going to put my good life and well-being and peace, I'm not gonna sacrifice that for the fans. That's not what I do. And anybody that calls himself a fan wouldn't ask the band to put themselves through something they don't want to do. But people just want what they want. They just want what they want. They want that band back with that guy. They still want Bon Scott back in AC/DC. I mean, come on."
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Bach has been estranged from Skid Row since '96, but has recently expressed interest in a return. The feeling has not been reciprocated.
“I don't want to have food poisoning every day of the week,” Hill declared, explaining what a reunion with Bach would feel like. “That's all. It's toxic.”
"If you don't like Skid Row without that singer, you don't have to listen," the guitarist added. "And on the flip side of that, if you love that singer, if you love both of us, then go see him, go see him.”
'I Don't Want to Be in the Room With Somebody That I Don't Like'
Hill conceded that fans are “never gonna stop asking” about a reunion with Bach, yet he insisted outside pressure won’t change his mind.
“It's just a simple quality-of-life issue,” the guitarist noted. “People are like, 'Just put your differences aside and do it.' Well, I don't want to do it. There are no differences. I don't want to do it. I don't want to be in the room with somebody that I don't like.”
In an apparent response to Hill’s statements, Bach posted a picture on social media with the caption “photo of actual last time in a room together.” The image shows the happy rockers alongside their respective families.
Skid Row Searching for New Singer
According to Hill, Skid Row’s search for a new singer is ongoing.
"We are looking at some people. We've got a nice list of people that we're gonna sit down with,” he revealed. “A lot of people are getting in touch with us and some of them are really good. Some of them are not really good. But with YouTube and Instagram and such, you can go out and find people quite easily. It wasn't like the old days where you had to put an ad in every music paper in the country and word of mouth and all that stuff, pre-Internet. It's much easier now."
Assuming they don't go back to Bach -- or any of their previous frontmen -- the band's next singer will be the seventh in Skid Row's history.
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Gallery Credit: Bryan Rolli