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    The first kick-off on Skid Row career was around 1986, when Dave “Snake” Sabo and Rachel Bolan met each other at a CD store on New Jersey. After the first meeting, Dave and Rachel started to talk, change experiences and even make some songs together.
To Scotti Hill join the band was just a matter of time since he had already played with Rachel on a band and he also worked at the same place that Snake worked. There was no better choice than Scotti to be the second guitarist of Skid Row.
After that, Dave Sabo started to look for other musicians to complete the band. That was when he met Rob Affuso. At first, Dave didn’t realize that Rob was a technical and aggressive drummer, he wasn’t very sure whether to choose Rob as Skid Row drummer or not. Rob’s skills were definitely what the band needed, so Rob began to force his entrance to band, he started, in a certain way, to chase Snake in order to get his attention. He only joined the band when they went to the place where the band rehearsed and made a jam session playing Midnight/Tornado. According to Rachel, the only thing he could do was look to Snake and ask him to call that dude to join the band.
Now they only needed a singer. That was when Snake asked a friend to be the vocalist. His name was Matt Fallon. They played some demos together, however, the band soon realized that Fallon’s pipes didn’t match with the sound of Skid Row, so they decided to look for another singer.
    In 1987, a friend of the band saw a guy singing on a wedding party and indicated him to the Skids. They sent a demo tape to that guy and after the first time they played together, the guy was definitely on the band! His name was Sebastian Bach, he used to sing on a band called Kid Wikkid. He was born on Bahamas and raised on Canada. Sebastian was the perfect singer for the band, capable to do incredible things with his voice and dominate a crowd like no one else! After hearing the tapes, Sebastian claimed to be the very exited about the fact he was called to sing on a band capable of writing amazing songs like that, in special “Youth Gone Wild”. Bach realized that Skid Row was the band that he was looking for on his entire life.
With the complete line-up, the band started to search for a record label, and with the help of Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora, they managed to get a deal with Atlantic Records. Jon and Snake were close friends, Snake even played on Bon Jovi at the beginning of their career.
The album was released in 1989 and the result couldn’t be better. The band reached three Top Ten Hits on USA and sold more that 5 million copies worldwide. Songs like Youth Gone Wild, 18 and life, Piece of Me became head banging classics and they also made one of the most beautiful songs at that time: I Remember You.
The release of their first record resulted in a World Tour, four double-platin records around the world, tons of magazine covers and many diehard fans on the entire world.
    The success of their first record let the band with the huge responsibility to make an even better record, and that was accomplished with the release of Slave To The Grind in 1991. It was the first Hard Rock album since 1986 to debut at the first place of Billboard charts and was a good example of the attitude, compromise and perfection of Skid Row as a band. It wasn’t just a Hair Band like many around at that time, the guys had the “feeling” for the music.
The biggest hits of that album were “Monkey Business”, the first single and the song that boosted the record sales, “Quicksand Jesus”, the dark and heavy “Wasted Time” and the title track “Slave To The Grind” that talks about how bad is to let yourself become a slave of the system and brings a manifest about those who get used to this habit. As a result of this, the band went on a tour that would last 18 months. The Highlights of the tour were: Skid Row opening up for big bands like Guns n’ Roses and Aerosmith on USA and Mötley Crue on Europe; Playing at the Donington Mosters of Rock Festival on UK being one of the main bands along with Iron Maiden; Being the main band of the Hollywood Rock Festival on Brazil; The tour had the band playing over 20 countries around the globe.
    In 1992, Skid Row released a cover album containing only 5 cover songs called B-Side Ourselves. The critics praised the cover of Jimmy Hendrix’s “Little Wing”.
After several months facing Hotel Rooms and lots of trips, the band decided to take a break, making only a few shows. The band also started to prepare the songs for the next record.
    In 1995, after two years “on vacation”, the band reunited and returned to the studio to record what for many is one of the best Rock/Metal album ever released. “SubHumanRace” brings a magnificent variety of styles, witch led the band to compose typical riffs like Queen or Led Zeppelin and even hardcore songs like Pantera and Biohazard. On the record process, the band used old instruments to give a rustic sound to the songs. The highlights of the album were “My Enemy”, “Breakin’ down”, “Frozen” and “Into Another” and “Firesign”.
The band went on tour once more, they played at Arenas, big and small clubs and at every place where good Rock n’ Roll could be played. The band also opened up for Van Halen sometimes and after that, they went on a tour to South America. Many people believe that the tour on South America was fatal for the band’s destiny. Skid Row made some shows in Brazil at the Monsters of Rock Festival and the band had a horrible reception from the crowd. This incident was determinant on the later end of the band.
After the end of the SubHuman Race Tour, the world became aware that Sebastian had left the band, and so that happened. According to the remaining members, Sebastian was “fired” because his ego became bigger than the band itself. “He had always to be the center of everything.” – stated Snake on an interview.
After leaving Skid Row, Sebastian went on a solo career. This would lead him to release in 1998 the album Bring’ em Bach Alive, an album with old Skid Row songs played live and some new studio songs.
    Also in 1998, Atlantic Records released the album Forty Seasons, witch had the supposed best Skid row songs an two previously unreleased tracks (it is incomprehensive the fact that songs like Here I Am, Wasted time and In a Darkened Room were left out of the album). Highlight for the song “Forever”, unreleased song that had a great reception of the fans.
    Two years Later, Skid Row returned to life. They opened up for kiss on the Farewell Tour with a new singer, Johnny Solinger and the drummer Charlie Mills. Charlie soon left the band and Phil Varone became the Skid Row drummer!
At the same time, Sebastian was very busy playing roles on Broadway. He was part of the cast of the play Jakyl and Hyde and Rocky Horror Show. Two years later he would act as “Jesus on the Jesus Christ” Superstar play.
    In 2001, Sebastian Bach released the album Bach 2: Basics, witch was composed of cover songs he recorded on his entire career.
On the same year, the “Last Hard Men” project was released (Sebastian sings 7 out of 18 songs). The song School’s Out (cover of Alice Cooper) was part of the soundtrack from the movie “Scream 1”.
On August 2003, Skid Row released the first album with the new line-up witch was called ThickSkin. The band also released the first Skid Row DVD, called “Under The Skin” witch depicted the record process of ThickSkin, backstage scenes, rehearsals and live songs.
    Also in 2003, Sebastian quit Broadway and became a TV Host and actor. He had a TV show on VH1 show called “Forever Wild”. The show had interviews and lots more. He also made several appearances on TV and mainly playing “Gil”, an old fashioned guitar player on the Gilmore Girls show.
    Two years later in 2005, Sebastian joined forces with the musician Hennng Paully to release the project “Frameshift 2”. The project was something completely different from anything he had ever released, it was a progressive rock sound.

Maurício Mascheroni