Sebastian Bach thinks he can sing like Ozzy Osbourne, Rob Halford, and some other vocalists.
After saying that performing in Broadway productions gave him new tools, Bach told Ultimate Classic Rock, “If you can sing ‘Don’t Stop Believin” and the really high ’70s Journey songs with Steve Perry and [songs like] ‘Still They Ride,’ ‘Stone in Love,’ the really high ones, that’s where I learned how to sing.”
The singer continued, “Like, ‘I Remember You,’ was copying Steve Perry. I used to lock myself in a room. You know, I did that with Halford albums and [Iron Maiden] albums with Bruce Dickinson and Malice. A bunch of singers. Van Halen, I used to do. Ozzy [Osbourne] — I can do Ozzy exactly.”
Bach has great respect for both Ozzy and Halford. In a previous interview with Metal Hammer, Bach talked about Skid Row’s first album from 1989 and how he recorded it. He reflected on how Halford inspired Skid Row classics, “My very first impression was, ‘This guy [original vocalist Matt Fallon] is doing an impression of Jon Bon Jovi.’ My vocal tastes were totally not that – my favorite singer was Rob Halford of Judas Priest, and I was no Rob Halford, but that was my favorite singer.”
He continued, “There was ‘Youth Gone Wild’ on the tape and also ’18 and Life’, and those two songs stuck in my head. I said if I could reinvent the melody lines – especially in ’18 And Life’,’ and put in some Halford-esque kind of notes – I could make this into something that I would really be proud of.”
“You can go through the song and circle the lines – ‘fingers to the bone,’ ‘child blew a child away.’ Every single time my voice goes into that high register, that’s me. Nobody wrote that – nobody said, ‘Here’s how the song goes. Here’s how the melody goes,'” Bach said.
The rocker also shared, “I didn’t understand at that young age that I was writing the melody line. People have told me, ‘Why the fuck didn’t you get a credit on the song?’ I was a little kid – I didn’t know anything. I was like, ‘Can I sing this note?'”
“Everybody’s like, ‘F*ck yes, you can. Sing that.’ I didn’t realize that that, in other bands, would entitle me to get my name on the song. The last thing I ever thought in a million years was that anybody would like us [Laughs],” Bach added.
Bach’s US tour starts on October 6 in Seattle, Washington. He has scheduled shows until December 14.
