The current chapter in Bach’s rock career was actually initiated when the other original members of Guns N’ Roses called him in to audition for what became Velvet Revolver. The match didn’t work, leading Slash to lament the acrimony in his best-selling autobiography, even though they’ve patched things up since.
“He wrote something like, ‘Too bad Sebastian doesn’t like me anymore,'” says Bach. “It’s like, 'Dude, when I try out for your band and you don’t pick me it’s not like I’m going to call you to hang out.' After that, I was kinda ready to move on.”
The next suitor turned out to be Axl, preparing for the next leg of the never-ending tour overture to the release of Chinese Democracy — he invited Bach onstage to duet on “My Michelle” during warm-up shows in New York City.
“Next thing you know he was flying me around the world just to do this one song,” says Bach. “It was like Led Zeppelin territory, where I go all the way to Milan just to sing 25 words. But, from that point, I was hooked.”
Touring the interstates in a van, as Bach did in the late 1990s — when his musical associates included Kelley Deal of The Breeders, Jimmy Chamberlin of Smashing Pumpkins, and Jimmy Flemion of The Frogs in the short-lived Last Hard Men — was no longer the ideal. Bach asked Rose if he could open for GN’R in arenas.
When it came to touring Canada in fall 2006, Bach had the idea of dragging the Trailer Park Boys along as a sideshow, and so he did.
“Then I see a review in the Toronto Sun that makes it sound like I’m the worst thing to ever happen in the history of music,” says Bach. “Meanwhile, the only reason Axl is even on the road is because he’s watching me on a monitor backstage every night giving him motivation to do it, too.”
Rose returned the favour by appearing on three tracks on Angel Down, whose 2007 release date — not to mention the fact that it’s not called Chinese Democracy — means it can’t be redeemed for a free can of Dr. Pepper. Media attention for the album has generally leaned on metal webzines and online radio outlets. And while Rolling Stone, whose cover Bach graced in 1991, gave it a not-entirely-dismissive review, the Peterborough native still hasn’t gotten his well-deserved star on the Canadian Walk of Fame.
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