This interview was done on December 17, 1999, by Dave Reinlieb from More Sugar Magazine.
More Sugar: Hi Sebastian, Dave from More Sugar Magazine.
Sebastian: Right on.
More Sugar: Two girls want to meet you really quick if that's alright.
(Then 2 girls come in and meet Sebastian). There is a little chit chat.
Sebastian: No, no pictures right now.
More Sugar: No pictures, alright.
Sebastian: No
More Sugar: None at all?
Sebastian: No
More Sugar: Could we do...one...where you're holding up the paper?
Sebastian: After the show, after the show.
More Sugar: How about you covering up like most of your face?
Sebastian: No, the answer is no.
More Sugar: Alright.
Sebastian: I'll do one after the show no problem, I'd just like to have a shower.
Sebitchian: Ok, I gotta do this if we are going to do it cause I only have like 10 minutes now.
More Sugar: How has the tour been so far?
Sebastian: Great, awesome fuckin attendance man. Long Island we did like 2 thousand. It’s been great. We're doing 10 cities in uh, 12 nights. Which is really cool.
More Sugar: You still live in Jersey?
Sebastian: Yes
More Sugar: And you're married. How long have you been married for?
Sebastian: 3 years, 4 years.
(Actually as of 1999 Sebastian has been married for 7 years)
More Sugar: So you weren’t married back in the old days?
Sebastian: Um, no but I was with her though.
More Sugar: You were with her?
Sebastian: Yeah
More Sugar: So you couldn’t partake in all of the groupie madness?
Sebastian: Maybe she partook in the groupie madness with me though, who knows. If you want to really get technical. (Laughs)
Sebastian: It's true.
More Sugar: Does Bon Jovi own all your material?
Sebastian: Do you want to do a real interview, or should I smash your fuckin' tape deck? (Grabbing the recorder) I’ll take this and I’ll throw it.
More Sugar: What kind of questions do you want?
Sebastian: Bon Jovi’s a faggot and I hate his guts. I don’t want to talk about Bon Jovi. Bon Jovi sucks.
More Sugar: How did you hook up with Ritchie Scarlett?
Sebastian: Uh, through Ace Frehley. Ace Frehley introduced me to uh, to uh, Anton Fig, who’s playing live with me tonight, and uh, Ritchie as well.
More Sugar: How much partying goes on at Ace Frehley's house when you guys jam?
Sebastian: How much what?
More Sugar: Partying goes on over at Ace's house when you guys jam?
Sebastian: None, this is like the National Enquirer this interview
More Sugar: Well this isn't a major, this isn't Metal Edge or anything, you know?
Sebastian: How much partying goes on at Ace's house, does Bon Jovi own all your material. It's like...Jesus! (Sebastian makes farting noise)
More Sugar: What plans do you have for the next solo album?
Sebastian: Um, just, you know, make some great rock and roll, that’s my whole plan, you know. I’m into like having a body of work. You know? Like 20 CD’s, not like 3 or 4.
More Sugar: Are you going to continue doing solo albums?
Sebastian: Yes, I just signed a 4 album solo deal with uh, Spitfire Records and uh, I’m going to start again as soon as we get off this.
More Sugar: I like Spitfire, those are good guys to deal with
Sebastian: Yeah, they totally believe in rock and roll, which is a lot more than I can say about Atlantic. They don't believe in rock and roll.
More Sugar: You know a tour with Zakk Wylde would be good, too.
Sebastian: Yeah!
Sebastian: Um, cool man, right on. (Sebastian sees his picture on the front of More Sugar)
Sebastian: Um, actually you know who Spitfire just signed?
More Sugar: See, you're right on the front there. (I showed him that he was on the cover of the current issue of More Sugar Entertainment)
Sebastian: Thank you man. Um, I won’t smash your thing man, I just don’t want to talk about Bon Jovi. Um, uh, Spitfire just signed Ted Nugent.
More Sugar: Really?
Sebastian: Ted Nugent. Like I can't believe that. They got Alice Cooper, Ted Nugent, Dio, me.
More Sugar: Yeah, I heard Dio.
Sebastian: So, you know, right there that's like a tour. I mean I’d open up for Ted any day, any time, terrible Ted Nugent man, that would be great, I would love to play with him. Zakk’s great too man.
More Sugar: Yeah, it's too bad he has such a good voice otherwise could do probably do something with him.
Sebastian: Ted?
More Sugar: Zakk, Zakk's got a great voice, too.
Sebastian: I love Ted’s voice. I love ‘Free For All’, and ‘Cat Scratch Fever’, I love Ted’s voice.
More Sugar: Ted Nugent's really cool too.
More Sugar: It's all I got, I mean the rest is a bunch of Skid Row questions, I don't think you want to deal with those.
Sebastian: Well, you can ask me a couple.
More Sugar: How old were you when the first Skid Row album came out?
Sebastian: I was (long pause).............20, and I’m 31 now and my new album ‘Bring ‘Em Bach Alive’ is out. 5 brand new songs, 10 live classics.
More Sugar: You ever watch the ‘Oh Say Can You Scream’ video still?
Sebastian: Um.....Well they keep playing the fuckin' bottle incident on MTV. I saw it 2 weeks ago, it was MTV Uncensored, and fucking Kurt Loder and the president of MTV are talking about me whipping the bottle, they show it like 10 times. It’s fuckin' 10 years ago. It’s unbelievable that they still play that on MTV, I don’t get it. But ‘Oh Say Can You Scream’, I love that video. It’s funny as hell. And I love ‘Roadkill’ which we did after that. It had 3D glasses. 2 3D glasses. That video is even better, you should check that out. It’s from the ‘Slave To The Grind’ tour. We’re actually doing a new video right now; ‘Bach on Video’. We did 104 headline shows in 98' and uh, we’re filming every night now, too. So....we're gonna, like I filmed those videos "Oh Say Can You Scream", and " Roadkill." It's just me walking around...
More Sugar: Oh yea?
Sebastian: I'm talking. So we've been doing that and we're going to do a home video. It's gonna be fun.
More Sugar: You're pretty huge in Japan, right? Really big, right?
Sebastian: The same as everywhere, everybody has this idea like Japan is huge for metal but America's big too. The only difference is when you like tour Japan you do like 5 or 6 shows. And each show is like 4 or 5 thousand. But I do a hundred shows in the states. So I play to way more people in the states. You know, you do a hundred gigs, there is a thousand people a night, that's a hundred thousand people.
More Sugar: There is a big misconception...
Sebastian: I mean, it's great, like you play bigger places but you do way less shows. So if I play 5 nights in a row, and I do a thousand people a night, 800 people a night, whatever it is, it all adds up. To me, America is where rock is biggest.
More Sugar: How's the album selling over there?
Sebitchian: Oh it's Gold.
More Sugar: It's Gold over there?
Sebastian: 55,000 or something.
More Sugar: You don’t talk to any of the old guys anymore, right?
Sebastian: Not in years, no.
More Sugar: Not in years?
Sebastian: It’s like if I was married you know and my chick broke up with me, I’d be fucking someone new. (Laughter) I got no problems getting laid, I got no problems putting a band together. (Laughter)
More Sugar: Would you ever wanna have one of those guys work on a solo album with you? Is that possible?
Sebastian: The funniest thing is that Rob Affuso, the drummer, is from here. And I asked him to come on stage tonight and do a couple of Skid Row songs. He said he was right into it, of course, and I said the only thing is you gotta come to my house and practice.
More Sugar: And he didn't wanna do that?
Sebastian: But he didn't want to rehearse. So I never heard from him again.
More Sugar: Why, what is he doing that’s so important right now?
Sebastian: I don’t know, playing a restaurant somewhere, (laughter), a wedding. I would like to but those guys are so, they're so different, they're not into the fuckin music like I am, they're just not. You know, they don’t, they don't tour, they don’t put out CDs, they don’t fuckin' do interviews...
More Sugar: They're still together as a band?
Sebastian: I don’t even know, it’s just frustrating because to me being in a big band is like the dream come true, you know, there's only a couple of AC/DC’s, Aerosmith, Kiss. Skid Row, if we just, you know, stayed together, kept rockin, I’m not saying we would have become that but we had a chance to be. So to me to end that is the dumbest fucking thing in the world. But it’s actually been a real blessing in disguise because, you know, I don’t have to wait around for anybody anymore. The guys I got now are all fired up, there's no problem, you know, rehearsing....the man is in town.
At this point, Sebastian's friend comes onto the bus, it's a few minutes of bullshit and is rather boring. The guy broke out a gigantic bag of weed...Like a pound.
Then he started signing stuff for me...
Sebastian: Should I make these out to anybody?
More Sugar: Um, no, just sign them. They are going to be for a giveaway in the magazine. And the rest are just personal collection.
Sebastian then asks for his site to be plugged in the magazine.
Sebastian: I just can't sign this one. (Pointing to Skid Row's "Forty Seasons" CD.
More Sugar: You had nothing to do with the best of?
Sebastian: No. To me that's like a rip-off.
More Sugar: You getting money for it?
Sebastian: Well you know I get royalties, I wrote ‘Slave To The Grind’ and shit. I get that, but....I didn't get any....I don’t want to get into it.
More Sugar: You don't want to get into money?
Sebastian: I get, I get....
More Sugar: You're frustrated?
Sebitchian: Nah, there, there, I’m not a business man, I’m a singer. You know, those guys are real businessmen. Snake and Rachel are total fucking business, business, business, business. I hate that.
More chit chat between Dave and Sebastian (needs to be transcribed)
More Sugar: Are you getting any support from MTV now?
Sebastian: I get a lot from VH1. I was on MTV when Jesse Camp had a show, I was on their all the time. But uh actually tomorrow you can see me on Rock Collectors.
More Sugar: Yeah, I saw that.
Sebastian: Tomorrow at noon. They came to my house and filmed all my Kiss stuff. So if you are into Kiss...
More Sugar: Um, these are Metal Sludge's questions.
Sebastian: Uh, I don't feel like doing that.
More Sugar: You don't have to do em, but I figure, you know, I told them I was doing the interview with you, and they figured I'd ask them to you. I told them I wouldn't ask you but I'd give you a copy of it.
Sebastian: (Talking to his guys) Let's go to soundcheck.
Sebastian gets up and starts to walk out, and throws the Sludge questions in the trash.
More Sugar: Thanks Sebastian.
Sebastian: Thank you, man.