Sebastian Bach isn’t just one of rock’s most powerful vocalists and vivacious performers — he’s also the foul-mouthed king of pull quotes.
Case in point: In a recent conversation with UCR, the famously outspoken singer had a simple message for critics of his left-leaning politics and vocal support of the Democratic Party: “Go fuck yourself.”
Bach’s free-speech advocacy should come as no surprise to longtime fans or anybody who’s listened to his new album, Child Within the Man, which features the swaggering, riff-heavy single “Freedom,” on which he wails: “Freedom / You ain’t got no time left to waste / Now we’re kicking ass and taking names.”
It turned out to be a prescient message. “There’s a song on my new album called ‘Freedom,’ and that’s everybody’s word right now,” Bach tells UCR. “I even read the comments [on my social media], ‘Oh, I love Kamala Harris’ new kicking-ass, taking-names attitude.’ I’m like, ‘What is going on? I wrote this song years ago!’ And it’s like everybody’s talking about freedom, kicking ass and taking names. So I’m like, ‘Well, I’ve got a song for right now.'”
READ MORE: Sebastian Bach to Anti-Biden Rockers: ‘F— You and Your Band’
Bach also recently shouted out Taylor Swift after she publicly endorsed Harris following the September presidential debate with a cheeky tweet that read, “I have done my research & I am endorsing Taylor Swift,” followed by the hashtags #Freedom, #KickingAss and #TakingNames.
Does that double as his own presidential endorsement? Bach plays coy.
“You know, I don’t tell people what to do, but I will say that if we don’t have democracy, we don’t have anything. So there, I just said it,” he laughs. “People say, ‘You’re alienating your audience.’ When I say things like that, I gain, like, 40,000 fucking followers! So this whole ‘Don’t alienate people’ — there’s only side that is fucking alienating people! There’s only one! The other one is actually uniting people. So spare me, ‘Oh, he’s losing 50% of his audience.’ I don’t want that 50%, so fuck off! That 50% is not cool enough to listen to Sebastian Bach, so go fuck yourself.”
Sebastian Bach Doesn’t Believe in ‘Shut Up and Sing’
Bach is heading back on the road this Friday for the second leg of his 2024 tour, which, incidentally, will keep him on the road through the November presidential election. Fans shouldn’t expect him to tamp down his political musings in the meantime.
“I just have a problem when I hear people say, ‘I don’t want musicians to say what they believe in. Just shut up and sing.’ Well, I’ve got two words for you: Black Sabbath,” Bach says. “When I listen to a song like ‘War Pigs,’ I couldn’t think of a more political lyric of any music there is in life than that fucking song. ‘Generals gathered in their masses / Just like witches at black masses.’ I mean, to me, that’s saying, ‘Fuck these assholes!’
“I feel that at times like these, there’s too much at stake to be silent,” he continues. “To be silent is to be complicit. For every fucking Ted Nugent out there, there is a Sebastian Bach, and I’m fine with that. I’m good with that. You go say what you want to say, and I’m gonna say what I want to say.”
Sebastian Bach Live in San Antonio, June 23, 2024
The Bach rocks the Rock Box.
Gallery Credit: Bryan Rolli