At a recent solo concert held at the Palace Theatre in St. Paul, Minnesota, Sebastian Bach addressed assertions made by his former bandmate Rachel Bolan regarding the creation of Skid Row’s lyrics.
During his performance on February 24, after singing the song ‘Makin’ A Mess’ from the ‘Skid Row’ album, Bach took a moment to directly address the audience. This moment, captured in a video by Melvin Zoopers, witnessed Bach challenging his former bandmates’ claims about the songwriting process behind the band’s music.
He emphasized his role in crafting the lyrics, stating:
“You might read online, you might read online my old bass player, and my old guitar player, ‘Oh, we came up with 98 percent of that sh*t.’ Well, if you look in the credits, I co-wrote that last song; I’ll have you know. I co-wrote these lyrics. I co-wrote these lyrics. It goes, ‘One, two, baby what you do / Three, four, let me show you the door / You’re better off dead than makin’ a mess of me / Five, six, take your last licks / Seven, eight, I’m gonna give it to you straight.’ It’s like f*cking Shakespeare. Those are some rhyming couplets that I just laid on you.”
Bolan’s perspective, on the other hand, was shared during a December 2023 interview with the Radio Forrest podcast. When asked about the creation of the 1989 ‘Skid Row’ album before Sebastian joined and contributed his vocals, the bassist explained:
“Yeah, pretty much — all except for a couple things here and there, but I would say about 98 percent were written and done, for sure. That’s the way it just worked out. Snake [Skid Row guitarist Dave Sabo] and I, when we first met, we just started writing songs. We each had our own band, and we didn’t commit to a band. And we each did our own gigs and whatever, but we’d get together and write songs.”
He elaborated on their songwriting partnership:
“And then once we saw, like, ‘Wow. These songs are really cool. Let’s put something together and just start playing them for people.’ And that’s how Skid Row was born. It was kind of like a two- or three-step process. And so Snake and I just ended up the main songwriters. It’s not to say that we didn’t want anyone else’s contributions ’cause that’s not the case.”
