SEBASTIAN BACH vows to never use artificial intelligence to make music
“I'm giving you my guarantee and my word”
08-09-2025
In a new interview with Adam Richmond of the “Surviving Rocklahoma” podcast, former SKID ROW singer Sebastian Bach weighed in on a debate about people using an A.I. (artificial intelligence) music generator as a tool to create melodies, harmonies and rhymes based on artificial intelligence (A.I.) algorithms and machine learning (M.L.) models. Bach said: “I’ve gotta address this, especially in the last three months or so, we’re entering this A.I. world, where musicians are getting very scared because now it seems like anybody can just say into an A.I. prompt, ‘Give me a ’70s rock song about partying and chicks,’ and there you go; you get one. But all I can tell you is this, you’ve known me for almost 40 years, and I’m just giving you my guarantee and my word that I’ll never do that. I will never give you any A.I. I won’t even give you ‘I’, and I certainly won’t give you ‘A’. What I’m saying is I’d rather have a real human mistake than a perfect artificial intelligence. Fuck artificial, number one. How about real? That’s what you’re gonna get from me till the day that I stop doing this. And I don’t know how to use that stuff, and I won’t work with any producers that use that. You’re just gonna get some knucklehead musicians in the studio making music, and that’s what you’re gonna get from me. Like Neil Young or Willie Nelson or Gregg Allman, that’s what you’re gonna get from me till the day I stop doing this. And so I don’t have to worry about A.I., because if you believe what I’m telling you, then what you’re gonna get from me is just me. Love it or leave it.”
Asked if he feels like music is going away or is under threat of losing its soul, Sebastian said: “No. I can only speak for myself, and I did 91 cities last year — 91. So with travel days and days off, that’s, like, 225 days that I’m gone playing rock and roll. So I get more than enough rock in my life. So I can only speak for me. I have such a schedule of concerts coming up that I am overwhelmed. And so I don’t know how to answer that other than I’m gonna be playing all over America. We’re going to Australia. We’ve got gigs booked into 2026 already. So it just keeps rolling. And I’ve gotta answer this by, when we lose a guy like Ozzy Osbourne, and so many of our heroes are leaving us — I mean, I look around and there’s not many guys that do what I do. There’s not.”
Asked if he thinks musicians “have it easier today” than he did when he first started out nearly four decades ago, Bach said: “Well, yeah. One of the reasons — I remember when Neil Peart of RUSH passed on. It really hit me so hard, and I was like, ‘Why?’ Well, I knew, ’cause I’m a RUSH fanatic and I’m Canadian, number one, so it’s part of my DNA, but really what it came down to, I think why I was so sad was because I don’t think we’re ever gonna see a drummer on that level ever again because none of them are gonna put in the time to practice that much as Neil Peart did, because he didn’t have the benefit or the crutch of technology to rely upon, which all these kids are having click tracks and all this stuff in their head. And I don’t think we’re gonna see a drummer the level of Neil Peart from RUSH ever again. Maybe we will, but he didn’t have any other choice in the ’70s other than to lock himself in a room and pound the fuck out of those fucking drums. And he was the best.”
Circling back to the use of artificial intelligence in music, Sebastian said: “Why did we, as humans, why did we invent this A.I. shit that has the potential to take us out? Why invent that? I guess it’s good for medical purposes, maybe curing cancer or something, but we don’t need them to write songs for us. That’s stupid. We don’t need to have a meme of Michael Jackson and Ozzy and Dimebag Darrell in heaven having a drink. Fuck all that weird shit. That just gives me the creeps when I see that. It’s, like, ‘Get that off the screen.’ It’s like from hell or something. (Laughs)”
Last year, Sebastian Bach released a video — his fifth from his last album “Child Within The Man” — for “Future Of Youth” with special guest performer, singer, songwriter and guitarist Orianthi.
Watch the video for the single “Future Of Youth” below.
“I am so excited to share this song and video with the world!” says the singer, songwriter, author, Broadway star, and actor. “This collaboration with my friend Orianthi began many years ago. The song ‘Future of Youth’ has always been very listenable to my ears due to the musicians involved and also the unbeatable combination of Elvis Baskette and Robert Ludwig. The chorus is something I could hear on the radio.”
In tribute to the song’s title, “Future Of Youth” features the Las Vegas Academy Of The Arts Choir from Bach‘s recently adopted hometown of Las Vegas.
“To have the Las Vegas Academy Of The Arts Choir perform and sing in the video makes my heart pound with emotion,” Bach says, “because I fell in love with singing in my own church choir many, many years ago. It has always been a dream of mine to have an actual choir in one of my rock videos — to have one of the top choirs in the country rock out in ‘Future Of Youth’ is exactly what the message of the song is about. The future of youth belongs to the youth and no one else!”
Bach adds: “Thank you so much to Orianthi for the amazing guitars and riffs and to the Las Vegas Academy Of The Arts vocal director Matthew Ostlie — I can’t thank you enough for all of your incredible performances! Thank you so much to my record label Reigning Phoenix Music for making this happen!”
Watch the previously released “Freedom”, (Hold On) The The Dream” “Everybody Bleeds”and “What Do I Got To Lose?” below.
“I have been putting out records since the year 1989,” Sebastian says. “Thank YOU for 35 years of Bach N’ Roll…all leading up to ‘Child Within The Man’! If you like the records I have put out in the past, I can GUARANTEE that you will enjoy the new album. THIS is the kind of Rock N’ Roll that keeps you young ! Can’t wait for you all to crank up ‘Child Within The Man’ — a magical elixir to the Fountain of Youth! Gone Wild! Forever! It’s all one big song! TURN IT UP!”
The album artwork holds special meaning since it was designed by Bach‘s father, noted visual artist David Bierk.
“This album artwork was started in 1978 and finished in 2024!” Sebastian quips.
Bach adds: “RPM Records has provided me with the ultimate rock ‘n’ roll fantasy dream come true…to make my ultimate rock ‘n’ roll record! With the team of players & production on this album, I can honestly say we have made the best record that we could possibly make! The packaging is of the highest standard in every way. The vinyl, CD, & cassette formats all have been made to exact specifications! The 45 RPM double gatefold sleeve vinyl editions come in three eco-formats which are the highest standard of vinyl sound. Plus multicoloured variations including a Glow In The Dark special for all you rock collectors out there!”
“Child Within The Man” track listing is as follows:
01. Everybody Bleeds
02. Freedom(featuring John 5)
03. (Hold On) To The Dream
04. What Do I Got To Lose?
05. Hard Darkness
06. Future Of Youth (featuring Orianthi)
07. Vendetta
08. F.U. (featuring Steve Stevens)
09. Crucify Me
10. About To Break
11. To Live Again
The album’s first single, “What Do I Got To Lose?”, continues to build momentum at rock radio. It was co-written by Sebastian, Kennedy and Baskette, the latter of whom also served as the track’s producer.
In advance of the album’s release, Bach will hit the road in 2024 for an international tour with dates in Latin and North America. The “What Do I Got To Lose?” tour is a mix of solo gigs and festival appearances that kicks off with an international run of performances in Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, and Chile before North American shows in the U.S. and Mexico. The stateside tour gets underway May 10 in Jefferson, Louisiana before wrapping June 29 in San Diego, California.
Bach performed “What Do I Got To Lose?” live for the first time during his February 24 concert at Palace Theatre in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Bach released the official music video for “What Do I Got To Lose?” in December. The clip was directed by Jim Louvau and Tony Aguilera. For the video, which shows Bach cruising through the desert in a convertible and performing with a full band, Sebastian was joined by his former SKID ROW bandmate, drummer Rob Affuso. The clip also features an appearance by actor and comedian Craig Gass and Sebastian‘s wife Suzanne, who plays a scantily clad car wash attendant.
“To me, ‘What Do I Got To Lose?’ is the perfect sentiment for me right now,” Sebastian said about the track. “It’s an anthem for coming back and crushing it. It’s time to lay down the law and put the hammer down old school-style.”
Four years ago, Sebastian told The Aquarian Weekly that his new album would be “heavy. In many ways it is my follow-up to (2007’s) ‘Angel Down’,” he said. “I am trying to make the best record I have ever made. There will be a lot of heavy (music) coming your way.”
Bach hasn’t released a full-length disc since “Give ‘Em Hell”, which came out in March 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.
Although Bach had said in some of his interviews a few years ago that his next record would be less musically aggressive and it would be “more uplifting and fun,” he told WRIF in 2018 that he has since had a change of heart.
“Well, before (the new record deal) happened, I was thinking of doing more of an acoustic-based record because I’ve done a lot of solo records,” he said. “I’ve done ‘Angel Down’, which I’m very proud of that album,. Then ‘Kicking & Screaming’, which is a great album. ‘Give ‘Em Hell’… Not to mention ‘ABachalypse Now’, which is a three-record set. ‘Forever Wild’ DVD, ‘Bring ‘Em Bach Alive!’… I’ve put out a lot of records. And putting out the last one, when I put so much time and effort into it and it doesn’t get the attention that it deserves, for me as an artist, I’m, like, ‘Fuck!’ So I was, like, you know what? If I’m gonna put out another heavy metal, hard rock album, I need help. I need a company around me that’s gonna put the same kind of attention and time and effort into it as I am. So now that looks like it’s happening. So now I’m changing the way I’m looking at things.”
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