JOEY ALLEN After our first record came out, it took us ten months to get an arena tour. We went out with D’Molls, we went out with Britny Fox. Finally we got the Dr. Feelgood tour with Mötley. But for the longest time Warrant couldn’t get a big tour. And then here comes Skid Row, kickin’ ass on the East Coast with their buddy Jon Bon Jovi! We weren’t jealous. But we were definitely envious of their tour position.
RACHEL BOLAN Two days after Skid Row came out in January ’89, we played the first show of the Bon Jovi New Jersey tour, at Reunion Arena in Dallas.
DAVE “SNAKE” SABO We were absolutely unknown. We didn’t even have a big push yet at MTV. Headbangers Ball had maybe played the “Youth Gone Wild” video once or twice before the tour started. And then I remember in February we were playing a gig in Florida and I saw the video on during the actual daytime. It was like, “Wow…”
SCOTTI HILL I didn’t start noticing anything until “18 and Life” dropped. They had Dial MTV back in those days, where you could call in and request your favorite video of the day. So we were covering the arenas with Dial MTV flyers, and “18 and Life” just smashed it. And then all hell broke loose.
RACHEL BOLAN We absolutely blew up. Once we got to “18 and Life” it just went nuts. We were everywhere.
DAVE “SNAKE” SABO But there were certain things we were up against. Because whenever you’re helped by someone of note, like we were with Jon and the guys from Bon Jovi, there’s a backlash that goes with that. There’s the people who go, “Ah, they’re just Bon Jovi, Jr…” We weren’t naive about that. We knew we had to prove ourselves every night.
RACHEL BOLAN I always used to let shit like that just roll off my back. It was like, “You know what? They can say whatever they want. I know all the hard work we put into this.”
ROB AFFUSO We could track our success because we could see the arenas were getting filled up earlier, prior to our set time. And our merchandise sales were starting to really increase until we were actually outselling Bon Jovi.
SEBASTIAN BACH I think it was Las Cruces, New Mexico—we outsold them in T-shirts at their own gig.
ROB AFFUSO Which didn’t really go over too well—if you know anything about Jon, he’s quite a businessman, so he wasn’t happy about that. But he was still making money off us, so …
DOC MCGHEE Jonny and Richie [Sambora] had their publishing company, Underground. That’s what Skid Row was signed to.
SEBASTIAN BACH We signed a very shitty deal with him. But in his defense, who knew that we would make it?
ROB AFFUSO It was a co-publishing deal—he got it all, we got nothing.
DAVE “SNAKE” SABO I guess you could look at it like that. From an advance perspective, the deal wasn’t generous at all. But when questioned about this I often say to people: “If you’re in a position where you’re being offered 130 shows on the biggest tour in the world as an absolute unknown entity outside of your hometown, what would you do?”
JACK PONTI And it’s not like Jon just signed them to a production deal. Jon put a tremendous, tremendous amount of work into Skid Row. He was going to rehearsals and listening to every song they wrote and giving them advice. It wasn’t just a passing interest.
SEBASTIAN BACH Jon Bon Jovi literally gave me the shirt off his back when I was a teenager. One day he brought me in his closet and goes, “Pick out whatever you want.” I was like, “What?” I felt extremely lucky and fortunate to have the biggest rock star in the world bring me into his home and give me his clothes. I still have that fucking vest! So it wasn’t all doom and gloom. We didn’t hate each other.
SCOTTI HILL The deal didn’t affect me as much as it did Snake and Rachel. And to some extent Sebastian. Because Snake and Rachel wrote the majority of the material. But flip that around—if that deal wasn’t signed, we probably wouldn’t have gotten signed to McGhee Entertainment. We wouldn’t have gone on the New Jersey tour. None of this may have happened. So, you know, what’re you gonna do?
ROB AFFUSO I do remember Richie relinquishing his part back to the band.
RACHEL BOLAN At one point Richie Sambora was just like, “You know what? Cross my name off this list. I’ve got more money than I know what to do with. I don’t need to take any of your guys’ money.”
SCOTTI HILL I don’t carry any grudges or any of that. But it wasn’t a great deal for us. It was a great deal for people that already had money, that didn’t really need money. But that’s just how business rolls, man.
DOC MCGHEE There was resentment. It was just one of those heated things that was a pent-up kind of thing. And Sebastian was saying stuff and it would get back to Jonny, and that would piss Jonny off and he would say something and it got to Sebastian. It just went on and on.
SEBASTIAN BACH My swearing got us in all sorts of trouble, because Bon Jovi had a lot of parents bringing little daughters to the shows. And I’d be up there going, “Fuck you and fuck off and fuck the cops and let’s get stoned!” But you know, I would go see Mötley Crüe when I was young and Vince’s first rap would be, “Hey, Toronto! Look at all the fucking pussy here tonight!” We would laugh our guts out at a rap like that. So in my mind I was just being funny. But mom and dad in Centerville, Iowa, they didn’t think it was very funny.
SCOTTI HILL There was also prankster shit going on the whole tour. Occasionally the [Bon Jovi] band would come out, throw eggs at us or something like that. I remember Jon smashing a birthday cake in my face once.
DAVE “SNAKE” SABO I believe it was the second- or third-to-last show, and we got milk spilled on us before we went onstage.
SEBASTIAN BACH It got really ugly with Skid Row and Bon Jovi on that night.
SCOTTI HILL We were in Louisville, Kentucky, and we were on the way to the stage and we had to walk through a little curtain. And when Sebastian walked through the curtain, one of Jon’s crew guys was there with a huge jug of ice-cold milk and he poured it over his head. And on this particular night, I think the second song in our set was “Piece of Me.” Before the song breaks in, it’s just bass and drums, and Sebastian’s like, “All right, Jon Bon Jovi! Why don’t you come get a Piece. Of. Me!” And what Jon hears from backstage, through the cement arena walls is, “Hey, Jon Bon Jovi! You’re a pussy!”
DAVE “SNAKE” SABO Sebastian wasn’t being malicious at all. It was taken the wrong way. I don’t even know that Jon had any idea these hijinks were going on with the crew. Because he was completely removed from it. But apparently it got back to Jon that Sebastian had called him a pussy.
ROB AFFUSO I remember coming offstage and I was uneasy about the whole thing. But I didn’t really expect Jon to go after Sebastian the way he did.
SCOTTI HILL We were all walking back toward our dressing room. I was right next to Sebastian. And Jon was standing on the ramp, like where they back the trucks down.
RACHEL BOLAN I actually passed Jon and I go, “What’s up, dude?” But it was like he had blinders on. His jaw was set like he was about to go into a ring. I figured, “Maybe’s he’s got his show head on…”
SCOTTI HILL Jon was standing there by himself, tongue in cheek, kind of looking off into space. Pissed. And then I saw his brother and his dad maybe ten, fifteen, feet behind him.
DAVE “SNAKE” SABO And there was a security guy by the name of Fred Saunders, a couple other people. Jon had a look in his eye and I was like, “Oh, shit…”
FRED SAUNDERS Jon was vibratin’. He was pretty upset. But I think the road crew had kind of frenzied him up. Jon made such a snivel about the whole thing, and the road crew was all, “Yeah, yeah, Jon, I don’t blame you!” So by the time Sebastian and Skid Row got offstage Jon was pretty fired up.
SCOTTI HILL So we walk past and Sebastian’s like, “Ah, you got me…” Or something like that. Referring to the milk. And Jon goes, “You motherfucker!” And punches him in the face.
ROB AFFUSO It’s like, “Oh, man, this is not good. You don’t fight with the dude that’s taking you out on a massive tour…”
SCOTTI HILL It’s just elbows and fists flying all over the place. There’s a lot of “fuck yous” and pointing of fingers and guys holding guys back.
FRED SAUNDERS They both got a couple pops off before production and tour managers and people broke it up. I got Sebastian away from Jon.
DAVE “SNAKE” SABO They pinned Sebastian up against the wall.
FRED SAUNDERS I remember telling him, “I’ll kiss ya after I kill ya,” or something like that. Because by the end of the tour Jon was getting a little “king of the throne.” And rightly so, I might add. So when somebody finally challenged him, it was kinda cool.
SCOTTI HILL After that we were summoned to the production office. We got fucking ass-reamed. “You motherfuckers got no respect. I own your ass.” I remember that. “I. Own. Your. Ass.”
SEBASTIAN BACH I said, “What do you mean, you’ll own me?” I didn’t even know what the fuck he meant.
DAVE “SNAKE” SABO It was ugly. It stunk. Because we’d been doing this with each other for nine months, and we’d gone from being this absolutely unknown fart in the wind to a recognizable act. And Bon Jovi were a big part of that.
SCOTTI HILL Jon was very fair to us on that tour. And very good to us. But he was fucking pissed. He made a mistake with what he thought he heard, but he had had enough of our bullshit. You know, we were told not to swear during the show, and Sebastian was swearing; we were told not to do this or that and we would do it anyway. We were taking liberties. I think he had just fucking had enough. And so he was gonna throw his weight around a little bit.
DAVE “SNAKE” SABO But we were able to clear it all up. On the last night of the tour I believe we flew with Bon Jovi on their plane from Chicago back to New Jersey. So it ended well. But there still was some lingering sourness there.
MAXINE PETRUCCI Later on, this was ’90, something like that, my sister Roxy was at SIR Studios rehearsing with Vixen. And Jon Bon Jovi’s there, too. She walks by him and he says to her, “Are you the one that was in the band with Sebastian? Madam X?” She goes, “Ah, that’s my sister, Maxine.” And Jon says, “Well, you can tell her she can have him back!”
ROB AFFUSO Then we moved on to the Aerosmith tour.
DAVE “SNAKE” SABO The bottle incident happened in Springfield, Massachusetts.
ROB AFFUSO I did not see Sebastian get hit by the bottle. I did see him pick it up and throw it back and then jump into the audience. And I couldn’t figure out if I should keep playing or if I should jump into the audience to protect my singer. I know that I didn’t know exactly what was going on.
DAVE “SNAKE” SABO It happened really, really fast. Again, we’re playing “Piece of Me” and I saw something out of the side of my left eye. And then I think I heard something hit the drums, which was the bottle. And Sebastian turned to me and I didn’t know what it was immediately, but there was blood dripping down his face. I thought, Oh, it’s ketchup or something like that. And then I saw him grab the bottle and I’m like, “Holy crap!” He whips the bottle into the crowd, and then he jumps in, feet first, after the bottle. And then Rachel jumps in shortly after. Obviously our crew guys are jumping in as well. And this happened in the space of, what? Seven seconds?
RACHEL BOLAN I would never whip a bottle into a crowd, let’s just put it that way. Would I jump into the crowd and try to find the person? Absolutely. But I can’t defend anyone for those actions. When you’re at a general admission show your aim’s not going to be very good, you know what I mean? But you know, it was what it was, a heat-of-the-moment type of thing.
SCOTTI HILL Good judgment in the heat of anger is really hard. So Sebastian got hit with that bottle, he picked it up, and he threw it back. And he hit the wrong person. And then he went in boots first and he trampled on some people’s faces. After that there was word that the cops were waiting, so we figured we could just have the bus waiting and get out of there. I don’t know whose brilliant idea that was.
ROB AFFUSO How are you supposed to hide with a tour bus?
SCOTTI HILL So we went from the stage to the bus and drove to another town, sat in the parking lot. And next thing I knew there were police cars outside. And they took Sebastian away to jail. And then the whole trial, money …
DAVE “SNAKE” SABO The worst part of it is that an audience member got hurt. That’s always the worst part of it. No one should go to a show and walk away needing medical attention. That’s the worst part of it. But the rest of it is, you know, lawsuits, people getting arrested, people having to pay out a lot of money. Not just one person but a lot of people. Responsible by association. And so it cost us all a bunch of money.
SCOTTI HILL Yeah, well, Sebastian got sued, of course. And management thought it would be only fair if the rest of the band contributed to the costs. And so, you know, I’m not gonna speak for anybody else but I coughed up fifteen grand and handed it over just because, hey, we’re in a band together. You’re a fucking irresponsible lunatic.
DAVE “SNAKE” SABO But that’s the secondary aspect of it. At first the reports that were coming back were a girl got hit in the face, she had to go get hundreds of stitches. And luckily that number kept going down and kept going down and kept going down.
The bottle never should have been thrown onstage, obviously. No band member should ever be a target for anybody. That was just the most ridiculous thing in the world, that someone would come to a show and whip a bottle at a person in a band. But the bottom line was a person got hit with this bottle and had to get stitches in her face and there’s no reason for that. There’s no excuse for that. That retaliation, it’s just unacceptable.
ROB AFFUSO So we had damage control around that. And shortly after, Sebastian wore that shirt that said “AIDS Kills Fags Dead.”
RACHEL BOLAN That was another gem.
SCOTTI HILL The gay community was just fucking pissed. It was a stupid thing but you know, it’s not like, “Hey man, let’s hate gay people.” It was just stupid fucking, “Huh, look at this shirt I got!”
RACHEL BOLAN I believe we were in Winnipeg and this kid gave it to him backstage. And then when the picture got in magazines I was just like, “Well, that’s his issue. Not mine.” I have a lot of gay friends. It wasn’t cool to me. It just wasn’t cool. I didn’t think it was funny.
SCOTTI HILL It was just a full-on nightmare for Sebastian. He had death threats. He had to move. People were like, “We’re gonna burn down your house.” It was hard for him, that whole thing. I think it was one of the few learning experiences that stuck.
JASON FLOM Sebastian didn’t mean any harm to anybody. He was just a crazy fuckin’ kid who was caught up in the whole moment, and that shirt that he wore was obviously politically insensitive to say the least, but he probably thought it was fun.
JACK PONTI He was almost like a Disney character. There was no malice. He just wanted to get out there and sing and you know, rock. I mean, that was Sebastian’s premise in life. It’s kinda like—and I don’t mean this in a demeaning way—it’s like when you have a big silly puppy. The puppy doesn’t realize how big it is, that kind of thing. But whether or not their animosity or bad blood will let them admit it, those guys knew what they had when they got Sebastian.
SEBASTIAN BACH Well, you’ve got to also remember that one of the very first times I ever saw my band in print in a magazine was when Atlantic Records put an ad on the front of Billboard. It said Skid Row—Meet the New Bad Boys of Rock. Nobody asked me. I was a teenager. Nobody said, “Hey, is this cool, this ad?” I viscerally remember seeing that and thinking, Oh, really? Is that what you fucking want? I’ll fucking give you that shit. Watch this.
DAVE “SNAKE” SABO That Aerosmith tour lasted seven months. And Aerosmith were heroes to me. And before that I had spent nine months out with Bon Jovi, guys that I loved dearly and admired and respected and looked up to. That tour had ended on somewhat of a sour note, and then we get to Aerosmith and all these incidents happen. The bottle. The T-shirt. People getting hurt. It was just like, “Ugh…”
SCOTTI HILL The incidents we’re talking about are the incidents the public is aware of. But shit was going on all the time, you know? When Sebastian threw the bottle and went off the stage that night, that was just another night for me. I didn’t raise an eyebrow. It was like, “Oh, Sebastian’s in the crowd fighting somebody.” You notice we kept playing. Because this shit was happening all the time. He’s going after somebody in the crowd, or maybe he’s going after somebody out by the bus, or maybe he’s going after a crew member. I’m not gonna say the guy wasn’t violent with people in the band, either. So, you know, I’m not a fan.
DAVE “SNAKE” SABO We always felt like we had our hands full. There was always tension, there was always the idea that this thing could explode violently at any moment … with brief respites of civility and calm. I say that jokingly, but it’s half true.
SEBASTIAN BACH I felt that the more trouble I got in, the more I was living up to what people expected of me and what my record company expected of me. And also, the more trouble I got in, the more records we sold. I mean, it was almost like performance art in a really fucked-up way.
ROB AFFUSO Every time, with the bottle incident, with the T-shirt, our record sales would spike. It’s ridiculous how that works. So on the one hand you hate it, but on the other hand you’re selling, you know, twice the albums for that week. I wish it could have been different, but that’s the way it was.