“I remember drinking a lot of whiskey during the shoot. Youth Gone Wild may not have been the biggest hit off Skid Row’s self-titled debut album of 1989, but with its grab-you-by-the-throat riff, shouted, gang-style backing vocals and ‘us against them’ lyric the song quickly became, and remains, the band’s defining anthem. It also holds a special place in the heart of former Skid Row singer Sebastian Bach, as the song was largely responsible for his joining the band. “Once the album came out I think that took about two weeks.”. " Skid Row " is the name of an American heavy metal band formed in New Jersey. " A few months earlier he had made the news for wearing a T-shirt bearing the slogan: ‘AIDS Kills Fags Dead’. Receive news and offers from our other brands? Their current lineup comprises bassist Rachel Bolan , guitarists Dave Sabo and Scotti Hill , drummer Rob Hammersmith and vocalist ZP Theart . Louder is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Richard Bienstock And so began a chain of events that would severely impact the singer’s life. (Classic Rock) 16 March 2020, Canadian frontman Sebastian Bach's rock anthem kick-started sales of album that would go on to sell five million copies. “Doc also managed Bon Jovi, and Jon had grown up with Snake [Skid Row guitarist Dave ‘Snake’ Sabo]. “I think the label sent us out there to keep us out of trouble,” says Bach. Thank you for signing up to Classic Rock. But we knew we had to make a killer album. One of the first songs they worked on was Youth Gone Wild, which had been written by Sabo and Bolan. You will receive a verification email shortly. “We did that video in some big warehouse in Hollywood,” Bach says. In the mid-80s the singer, then going by his given name of Sebastian Bierk, was a lanky, poofy-haired teenager making a name for himself fronting North American metal bands such as Madam X and VO5. Sign up below to get the latest from Classic Rock, plus exclusive special offers, direct to your inbox! People love it. That was back when we used to drink booze all day. The Story Behind The Song: Youth Gone Wild by Skid Row By Richard Bienstock ( Classic Rock ) 16 March 2020 Canadian frontman Sebastian Bach's rock anthem kick-started sales of album that would go on to sell five million copies BA1 1UA. © “While I was there I met Jon Bon Jovi’s parents, and they started telling me about this new band from Jersey. At the urging of a friend, he revisited the demo, and had a change of heart after playing one song in particular: Youth Gone Wild. England and Wales company registration number 2008885. I remember one day while we were out there Scotti and I went to some amusement park. “It’s just a true anthem,” Bach says. And they all went: ‘Holy shit, man!’. From the outset, Bach made it very clear that, unlike the singer he had heard on the demo version, he was no Bon Jovi clone. That was also one of the first times that I didn’t tease up my hair. “I gave Nikki a cassette with some of my stuff and a photo, and he passed it on to [Mötley Crüe manager] Doc McGhee,” Bach recalls. It is particularly notable for being the band in which both Phil Lynott and guitarist Gary Moore first played professionally. With Bach at the helm the band, now named Skid Row, quickly secured a deal with Atlantic Records [though only Bach, Sabo and Bolan were actually signed to the label], and were packed off to Royal Recorders, a studio in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, to record their debut album. “It was those first two lines,” Bach says: ‘Since I was born they couldn’t hold me down/Another misfit kid another burned out town.’ I felt like it was speaking to my life. Could you imagine that?’. The song – and the accompanying video – announced the band as rock’s newest bad boys, the seedy underside of the poppy, Winger/Warrant- style hard rock that had started to dominate the music landscape. There was a problem. “We were all little kids at the time, though I was a littler kid than the others. The band became superstars, and no member more so than the still-under-21 Bach, who, with his pretty-boy good looks, banshee wail of a voice and penchant for wild behaviour, was Youth Gone Wild personified. It would prove to be the band’s peak, and after one more studio record, 1994’s Subhuman Race, Skid Row parted ways with Bach, before calling it quits. I knew I could deliver that song with power and conviction. “It’s the same as when Ozzy sings Paranoid, or David Lee Roth does Runnin’ With the Devil. All I had been looking for was good music that I could sing along to. “I remember playing Youth… with the guys, and when we got to the middle part where we do the chorus with just drums and vocals, I sang the entire thing in one breath. “I listened to it once and then forgot about it for a couple of days.”. "We were just walking around, and I said to him: ‘Hey, man, do you think we’ll ever go gold? That’d be fucking crazy!’.” Bach laughs. Skid Row took off practically upon its release in January 1989, thanks in no small part to Youth Gone Wild, which was issued as the album’s first single. And this was good music. Please refresh the page and try again. Though they now lead very separate careers, both Bach and Skid Row continue to perform Youth Gone Wild in concert, and the song remains a showstopper. Then one day I get this tape in the mail at my place in Toronto, with some songs from a band from New Jersey.”. By After one particular show with the latter in 1987, he found himself partying the night away with Mötley Crüe’s Nikki Sixx and Tommy Lee, who had happened to be at the gig. Which was a big step for me [laughs].”. Please deactivate your ad blocker in order to see our subscription offer, (Image credit: Tony Mottram \/ Getty Images). Bach was in, and headed to New Jersey to begin rehearsing with Snake and the band: guitarist Scotti Hill, bassist Rachel Bolan and drummer Rob Affuso. When I got the tape in the mail, I realised it was the same guys.”. Future Publishing Limited Quay House, The Ambury, “The singer they had on there was a complete Bon Jovi clone,” Bach recalls. In spite of, or perhaps in part due to, Bach’s penchant for controversy, Skid Row’s second album, 1991’s Slave To The Grind, debuted at No.1 on the US chart. Visit our corporate site. Mick Fleetwood joins TikTok, recreates viral video for Dreams as 2020 peaks, Led Zeppelin to release Immigrant Song single to mark 50th anniversary of Led Zep III, Jon Bon Jovi says that Richie Sambora’s exit from Bon Jovi caused ‘pain and heartbreak’, New Queen game lets you embrace your inner Freddie Mercury, AC/DC kept new album details secret from even their own recording engineer. Youth… was the song that led me to move to New Jersey.”. I just let it go natural. They couldn’t believe it.”. Coincidentally, it turned out that this wasn’t the first time Bach had come across the band on the tape. Skid Row " is also the name of a Dublin, Ireland-based blues-rock band from the late 1960s and early 1970s that included such musicians as singer Phil Lynott and guitarist Gary Moore, both of whom later were part of Thin Lizzy. “A few months before, I had gone to the wedding of a photographer friend of mine,” he says. And he was like: ‘I don’t know, man. Rock band Skid Row announces their new singer, 2017 show dates and so much more. On the strength of two more singles – 18 And Life and the power-ballad I Remember You – the Skid Row album went on to sell more than five million copies. Despite the distinguished cast of characters involved in connecting Bach to the still-unnamed New Jersey band, he wasn’t exactly bowled over by what he heard. Skid Row is an American heavy metal band, formed in 1986 in Toms River, New Jersey. It doesn’t matter if it’s a club in New Jersey in 1988 or a stadium in Germany in 2007, when that song comes on, every person in the room becomes the Youth Gone Wild.”. Skid Row was an Irish blues rock band, of the late 1960s and early 1970s, based in Dublin and fronted by bass guitarist Brendan "Brush" Shiels. “They loved me,” Bach says of the Crüe pair, “because I was the guy with all the blow.”. All rights reserved. Bath Receive mail from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors? During the tour for the album he was arrested after hurling a bottle from the stage and injuring a female member of the audience.