SEBASTIAN BACH Says He Turned Down Support Slot On TOOL Tour

In a new interview with Forbes, former SKID ROW singer Sebastian Bach was asked if he finds the renewed interest in heavier music lately, especially artists from the '80s and '90s, to be a better atmosphere to release new solo music. He responded: "The first thing I would tell you is, I lived in Studio City [in Los Angeles] for two years recently. And I've moved since then, but my next-door neighbor was Adam Jones from TOOL. And we became super fucking close friends; nothing to do with music. His kids come over to my house to play. He comes to our birthday parties. He came to my 50th-birthday party, brought Danny from TOOL, and I'm really good friends with Adam. We bond over comic books. And believe it or not, I just recently had to turn down the opening slot for TOOL. Adam wanted Sebastian Bach to open two weeks of shows in arenas. But I was already booked. So that's mind-blowing to me."

He continued: "I think the success of bands like TOOL is just undeniable that people want to hear heavy fucking rock, and how can you deny that? It's right in your face. You also can't deny that what I do for a living is a completely dying art. There's not kids coming up, locking themselves in their room, doing vocal histrionics. I don't even know if that's a word. But the way I learned how to sing, I don't think kids even could ever — I don't know, maybe I'm wrong, maybe kids on 'American Idol' or something. But it just seems like so much of the vocal sound that I hear today is so over-processed and fake. That's why somebody like Adele comes out and people are, like, 'Oh my God.' And it's like, she's just singing with her voice. [Laughs] Nobody else is. That's why she's so good."

Earlier this year, Bach said that he was about to sign a new record deal for his upcoming solo album. The disc, which is not expected to arrive before mid-2020 at the earliest, will feature contributions from several well-known guitarists, including John 5 (ROB ZOMBIE, MARILYN MANSON),Steve Stevens (BILLY IDOL) and Orianthi (ALICE COOPER).

Last year, Bach told Meltdown of Detroit's WRIF 101.1 FM radio station that he would ink a deal with a U.S.-based heavy metal record label that would help him make a "career-defining" new solo album.

Bach hasn't released a full-length disc since "Give 'Em Hell", which came out in 2014. Like its predecessor, 2011's "Kicking & Screaming", the disc was released through Frontiers Music Srl, the Italian label which specializes in what's commonly called AOR, a term that once signified a popular radio format ("album-oriented rock") but nowadays applies to acts whose airplay is marginal.

Bach recently completed a U.S. tour celebrating the 30th anniversary of SKID ROW's self-titled debut album.