INTERVIEW: Sebastian Bach on Dio, vocal lessons and breaking the hair metal curse

Photo: Sebastian Bach will headline the annual Rock for Ronnie benefit. Photo courtesy of the artist / Provided by SRO PR with permission.

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Sebastian Bach has had a busy two years of nonstop achievements in the music industry. Last year’s well-received album, Child Within the Man, won over many fans with such tunes as “What Do I Got to Lose?,” “Everybody Bleeds,” “(Hold On) To the Dream” and “Vendetta.” He toured the new tunes around North America and was met by adoring devotees who packed theaters and clubs from the East Coast to the West Coast. And 2025 has Bach still doing what he does best, with no signs of stopping.

But the singer’s next gig is unlike the other dates on his calendar; this one is particularly meaningful. On Sunday, May 18, Bach and his band will headline the annual Rock for Ronnie celebration at the Autry Museum of the American West in Los Angeles. The day of music and remembrances is a fundraiser for the Ronnie James Dio Stand Up and Shout Cancer Fund, presented by Dio’s wife, Wendy Dio. Of course, Dio, one of the most respected voices in metal history, was a successful recording artist and had legendary stints in Black Sabbath, Rainbow and Heaven & Hell. He was taken too soon, at the age of 67, and this year’s concert is being held in remembrance of the 15th anniversary of his death from stomach cancer.

Bach is ready to honor the ultimate voice in the music industry, and he has a few thoughts on how Dio fits into metal history. Recently Bach, the former singer for Skid Row, jumped on the phone with Hollywood Soapbox and shared his viewpoints on everything from Dio’s best song of all time to finding success with Child Within the Man in 2024. He also opens up about his first forays into heavier music, his appreciation for Elton John and Kiss, and how he still uses vocal lessons that he first recorded when he was 19 years old.

Here’s Sebastian Bach, in his own words …

Sebastian Bach on his friendship with Dio …

“When I was first getting into starting my own rock band, we did a lot of songs from that first Dio record: ‘Stand Up and Shout’ and ‘Holy Diver.’ I’ve just always loved his voice, and I was actually fortunate enough to become friends with the dude. And that was amazing. He loved my voice. He would tell me, ‘Sebastian sings his ass off,’ and he told me that himself. There’s a TV show that I have on DVD, believe it or not. It was on MTV, and it was a special when the video game Guitar Hero [came out]. MTV had a TV show, I can’t remember the name of it, but it was Ronnie James Dio judging me against Alice Cooper in singing. And Dio picked me, and Alice got pissed. I’m friends with Alice now.”

Sebastian Bach on the power of Dio’s voice …

“The ability for him to be able to sing extremely tenderly and gentle and then be roaring and powerful as anybody ever was, so he could go from a whisper to a scream. There you go, right there, that’s why. He was such an engaging performer. … He was very cordial. He had a very cool stage persona, but you know, he left us too young. And this is a benefit for cancer. I mean this gig also has a very personal meaning to me because I lost my 52-year-old cousin, Kevin. I went to visit him, and a week later he was gone. He died of the same thing that Ronnie died from, so I’ll be on stage singing to Ronnie James Dio and my cousin Kevin. And I hope they can hear me scream wherever it is that they’re at.”

Sebastian Bach on losing his cousin to cancer …

“I did 91 cities on tour in 2024, and that’s a big number of gigs. And one of the gigs was Toronto, the Phoenix Concert Theater — killer, sold out show. It was Oct. 24, 2024, around five or six months ago, and my cousin Kevin came. We spent the day together. … He brought his son, and his son played guitar during soundcheck. He was totally fine. He was healthy. We rocked out. There was a picture I posted on Instagram. He was 100 percent healthy. That was the end of October, and this is April, and he’s gone. What the f—? I don’t understand. That is terrifying. So everybody needs to go get checked out. Ronnie James Dio’s doctor always says that, and I’m saying that for what my family is going through at this very moment. That’s the whole point of this gig. Everybody go get checked out.”

Sebastian Bach on his 2024 album and receiving attention on the radio …

“I could not be more proud of the album Child Within the Man. The song ‘What Do I Got to Lose?’ is the closest thing I’ve had to a hit since the late-’80s or early-’90s. I know this is hard to believe, but the week that song came out, that song was the #1 most added song on FM radio in America. I’m not making that up. I know it’s crazy. I didn’t know that I could ever get back on the radio with a new song, and that song proved that I can. And so at my age, that’s incredibly inspiring that I’m not just put into this hair metal category and playing state fairs, which is nothing wrong with that. I’ll play anywhere you want me to play, but to get a song on the radio in 2024 … that is an accomplishment that I’m very proud of. And that video is over 1.5 million views on YouTube, which is on its way to double platinum in my brain. [laughs]”

Sebastian Bach on last year’s tour and what he has planned in 2025 …

“We did 91 cities, which is another accomplishment. We had some incredible gigs. We did the Wacken [Open Air] festival. We did the whole Canadian tour, and this year is shaping up to be just as cool. We’re doing Dio’s show. … We’re also doing Milwaukee Summer Fest. We’re doing Louder Than Life festival, Danny Wimmer Presents, which is another thing that so-called hair metal artists don’t get invited it, but I do. This is our second Danny Wimmer festival, which is a really cool thing for us. We just got booked for Rocklahoma. We’re doing the Kiss Storms Vegas event, which is great, and then we’re doing a bunch of other shows this summer, fly-in shows. And then we’re getting back on the bus this fall and doing another U.S. tour, and then we’re going to Australia. So I’m going to get miles.”

Sebastian Bach on his early exposure to harder sounds …

“My parents were very big music collectors, so my entry into hard sounds was my parents playing Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix. I can remember very specifically being very, very young, and my mom and my aunt Leslie in the kitchen making french fries and cranking the shit out of ‘Let Me Stand Next to Your Fire’ and listening to Mitch Mitchell’s drum playing and Jimi Hendrix. I was so young. I was like, ‘What is this?’ My dad would crank in the car Elton John’s ‘Saturday’s Night Alright for Fighting.’ To me, at the age of 6 or 7, that was the heaviest shit I could ever imagine. I was an Elton John fanatic before I was a Kiss fan. I was buying 16 magazine for Elton. In my bedroom when I was super-young was Elton John posters because my parents listened to Elton John’s Greatest Hits constantly, and so I was into Elton’s glam showmanship. Then I fell in love with Kiss, and that’s a whole other story. Not a lot of people know that I was into Elton before I was into Kiss — still am.”

Sebastian Bach on his own health and keeping his voice strong …

“When I’m talking about everybody go get checked out, I just got checked out. I got all my bloodwork done, and the doctor literally said to me, ‘Sebastian, you are the healthiest person in their 50s that we have to look after — your blood, the enzymes for your liver.’ I go, ‘Are you sure you’ve got the right results?’ … I do hot yoga as much as I can. When I was in my 20s, if I had nothing to do, I would do nothing, but now if there’s nothing to do that day, I work out. I’ll go running for an hour, or I’ll go to the hot yoga, which I do 4-5 times a week. And that’s really changed my life. I feel very healthy and strong.

“As far as my voice goes, I went to a vocal coach, Don Lawrence, in Manhattan way back in the late-’80s, and he used to make us record our lessons on cassette. And so when digitizing came out, mid-’90s, the first thing I did was I took all those lessons, and I put them on MP3s. So they’re on my phone, and I made CDs out of them. So I warm up to myself at the age of 19 every day. I sing these lessons, and it’s me before I made the first Skid Row album, singing all these scales. I did this every single show. … If I go on stage at 9, I start singing at 8. I sing for half an hour. That’s how long this tape is. It’s me at the age of 19. It just works. I’ve kept my voice. If you listen to my album, Child Within the Man, you’ll hear it yourself. I’ve kept it in that range, and that’s definitely because of that warm up.”

“What’s crazy is that so many other singers have heard me backstage do this warm up, and they’ve asked me for my warm up. And Axl Rose warms up to me singing when I was 19. … So does Phil Lewis of L.A. Guns. All of them have my f—ing vocal lesson. … It’s really cool to think of these other singers warming up to me as a teenager. It’s cool.”

Sebastian Bach on Dio’s best song ever …

“I’m going to blow your mind right now. My favorite Dio Black Sabbath song is ‘Bible Black.’ … I’m going to count that. Even though it’s not called Black Sabbath, it is Black Sabbath. The song ‘Bible Black’ is Dio’s last single that he ever put out, and I always tell people, ‘If you don’t know this song, it is incredible this song, ‘Bible Black.’ It’s right up there with ‘Heaven & Hell’ and ‘Voodoo’ and ‘Sign of the Southern Cross,’ ‘Children of the Sea.’’ The song ‘Bible Black’ is my favorite, and that is the last single that Ronnie ever put out in his life. The first single was from 1959, Ronnie [Dio] & the Prophets, the ‘50s. Think of that, going from the late’-50s to ‘Bible Black.’ That’s my favorite one. Music is subjective, but I’ve said this before about that song. And I’ve had fans come up to me and go, ‘Dude, thank you for f—ing turning me onto that. I never knew how incredible it was.’ But anybody reading this interview, you go check that song out. That’s how you do it. He went out on top. That’s how you do it.”

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

Sebastian Bach will headline the Rock for Ronnie benefit Sunday, May 18, at the Autry Museum of the American West in Los Angeles. Click here for more information and tickets. Click here for more information on Sebastian Bach.