Former Skid Row frontman Sebastian Bach is not holding back his disdain for modern shortcuts in the music industry. The legendary vocalist recently sounded off on two major trends that he feels are ruining the authenticity of rock and roll: bands relying on pre-recorded backing tracks during live shows, and the rising use of artificial intelligence.
During a recent interview with Elizabeth Zharoff on the popular YouTube channel “The Charismatic Voice,” the singer expressed his deep frustration with heritage acts faking their live performances. While he admitted that skipping the vocal warm-ups sounds easier, he refuses to compromise his own live show:
“I think that the situation with all these bands having taped vocals is just ridiculous. It’s like the verses sound one way and then the chorus starts and it’s, like… Who’s up there doing that? Nobody. And it’s every chorus. And these bands — you can watch it on YouTube or whatever, and you watch these giant bands that we’ve loved for a million years on stage, and you can tell every time the chorus comes in that it’s a complete joke. And I don’t understand why musicians think that that’s okay, ’cause, to me, I couldn’t imagine being on a click track and having to do it the same exact way every night, and then you wait for the chorus to come and here comes the background. To me, it sucks. To me, it’s just terrible… But there’s also a part of me that feels like a dinosaur for not doing it. If everybody else is doing it, why am I the only one not doing it? Part of me feels stupid. ‘Well, I’m gonna go warm up for an hour and a half.’ Well, a lot of these guys don’t have to do that, do they? They can do other things with their day, because it’s all on a track. But that’s not what I do for a living.”
The conversation then shifted to the controversial topic of A.I.-generated music and imagery. Bach made it crystal clear where he stands, sharing a recent experience on social media involving a fake, digitally generated image of Van Halen singers David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar.
“I can guarantee you this, anybody watching this, you have to understand: I hate A.I. I hate it. Every time I see it in my feed, I unfollow the person. Just the other day, somebody posted this old Van Halen footage from Fresno, California, in ’78, David Lee Roth live on stage, and it was one of the coolest Instagram posts I’d ever seen, old Van Halen, so I followed this person. The next post they did was David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar with their arms around each other, and it was A.I. And I’m, like, unfollow.
“I’m telling you right now, people. If you post stuff, ‘Here’s Sebastian at the age of 19 morphing into the age of now’ — unfollow, goodbye,” he continued.
Pledging to keep his own music completely human, he promised his fans that they will never have to worry about him utilizing the technology in his creative process:
“All this A.I. garbage — you have my word that you’ve known me for 40 years almost now, I will never use that in any way. It will always be just me and my band getting stuff together.”
“I can’t believe I have to say this, but I think I do,” Bach added. “The only way you could know if something’s not A.I. is if you trust the person that’s making the art. I’m telling you right now, I’m telling you, you’ll never get that from me, ’cause, number one, I hate it. Number two, I don’t know how to use it ,and I have no interest in using it. So I will always give you real stupidity instead of artificial intelligence… I mean, just the word ‘artificial’ — that should turn off most people. Artificial — no thanks. How about real? I’m not into artificial anything, really.”
Last year in September, while speaking on the “Surviving Rocklahoma” podcast, Bach said:
“I’m just giving you my guarantee and my word that I’ll never do that. I will never give you any A.I. I won’t even give you ‘I’, and I certainly won’t give you ‘A’.” He contrasted the perceived perfection of AI with the raw, flawed beauty of human creativity, adding: “I’d rather have a real human mistake than a perfect artificial intelligence. F**k artificial, number one. How about real? That’s what you’re gonna get from me till the day that I stop doing this.”
The singer’s stance is rooted in a deep respect for the hard work and dedication that defined a generation of musicians. To illustrate his point, Bach invoked the late Rush drummer Neil Peart, whom he praised as a master of his craft. He argued that Peart‘s legendary skill was a product of relentless practice, not technology, a work ethic that he believes is being lost in the digital age.
“He didn’t have the benefit or the crutch of technology to rely upon, which all these kids are having click tracks and all this stuff in their head,” Bach said. “I don’t think we’re ever gonna see a drummer on that level ever again because none of them are gonna put in the time to practice that much as Neil Peart did.”
He concluded: “We don’t need them to write songs for us. That’s stupid,” he said. “We don’t need to have a meme of Michael Jackson and Ozzy and Dimebag Darrell in heaven having a drink. F**k all that weird s**t. That just gives me the creeps when I see that. It’s, like, ‘Get that off the screen.’ It’s like from hell or something.”
