SEBASTIAN BACH DOESN’T WANT TO PAY YOU
Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009 at 12:00pm by Axl Rosenberg
I imagine that when the members of, say, Daath get together for rehearsal, no one expects to be paid for said rehearsal. They’re all dudes who are friends – some of them even grew up together, if I’m not mistaken – and it’s not like they’re making squillions of dollars playing metal. Rehearsal, then, has to be viewed as an investment – get better as a band, put on a good show for the crowd, and, knock on wood, your band will get bigger and the money will come.
I also imagine it’s different being in someone’s solo band. If your boss is Ozzy Osbourne or Axl Rose or Dave Mustaine or Trent Reznor, there’s going to be a lot of money involved, and your creative input is going to be somewhat limited (I imagine). I know for a fact that the members of nu-GN’R are paid an annual retainer, just in case they’re needed; I assume members of certain other solo bands are given a similar (if perhaps less lucrative) deal. And actors definitely get paid to rehearse; granted, the rehearsal rate is less than the performance rate, but the unions insist that if you want an actor there for rehearsals, he or she must be compensated.
Now. Sebastian Bach’s record sales obviously are not what they used to be. But the guy still opens for arena bands, routinely plays large festivals, and, by his own admission, gets paid very large sums of money to appear on crappy reality shows. Doing something like, say, paying for his band’s member’s gas so they can get to rehearsal seems reasonable, especially when you’re talking about dudes like Metal Mike Chlasciak, who, even if he’s not exactly Zakk Wylde, has played with dudes like Halford, and is definitely a “known entity.”
Well, Baz disagrees. He’s looking for a new guitarist and a new bassist, and, more specifically, he’s looking for someone to do it for bubcus. Check out this statement from the Old Dude Gone Wild:
“The reason Skid Row and Slave To The Grind… came out great because we were together all the time, playing, rehearsing, writing, all the time, every day.. not because we wanted to. Because we needed to. Not because we were getting paid, because we weren’t. We played music for one simple reason: Playing music was (and is) our life…
“I can remember being in Velvet Revolver for about 15 minutes or so (about three weeks, actually) and the thing I loved about that experience… is that those guys had at least 30-40 songs on the demo CD Duff [McKagan] gave me, and all of us had one goal in mind: creating some great music. That’s it. We rehearsed at Mates for five hours at a time. No one asked, ‘How much am I getting paid to rehearse?’ ‘Who’s paying my gas money to write this song?’ etc. The subject of money never came up. We rehearsed, wrote songs and hung out together because we loved playing more than anything else, and are happier playing music than doing anything else.
“Since then, the guys I have had in my band have seemed to have gone on their own separate ways. I was forced to turn down five shows this summer: Gods Of Metal, Sweden Rock, Metalway in Spain, and two shows in Quebec, Canada with my heroes KISS. The unbelievable reason I had to turn down these killer shows was simple: I could not get ahold of all my band members, or I could not afford financially to pay my band to rehearse and do the shows. This situation can never happen again…
“I am looking for musicians who love to play and create new music. Who need to play music. Who live to play music. I cannot make a good album when I have to pay all the band members to rehearse. I simply cannot afford to pay a musician to sit down and write a song with me. I myself have never once been paid to rehearse, or write a song. I do it because I love it. I do not understand the mentality of some of the musicians I have worked with, who demand payment to rehearse, to get better, to sharpen their craft in order to destroy the whole world on big stages and in the studio. In my mind, a good musician, a true musician, LOVES to rehearse, plays all the time, because they want to get better. Not individually. As a BAND.”
That’s idealistic talk, and if you read this site regularly, you know we’re all for artistic idealism – fuck, that’s half of the appeal of metal in the first place. So maybe I’m just picking on Baz ’cause he’s Baz and I know he’s a douche.
But like I said – clearly, Baz is in pretty good shape for someone whose heyday is over, and it seems to me that springing for gas money – especially when you’re not really a member of a band, but, rather, the boss – is pretty reasonable. If Chlasciak was asking for an exorbitant sum, that might be one thing, but who knows.
Someone will take this gig on Baz’s terms – hell, he might even be talented. The job will provide him with a certain amount of exposure he’d never receive otherwise, and hopefully he can parlay that into some kind of post-Bach career. So maybe it’s worth it. Personally, I think this sounds like one of those terrible American Idol deals you hear about – where the performer does all the work and is contracted for X number of years while being paid peanuts all the while and someone else owns everything said performer does during that time period – but I guess we’ll see how it plays out.
I’m curious to hear what you guys think – especially those of you who are either working musicians or aspiring musicians. Is Baz right, or is he, as is so often the case, being a dick?
-AR
Baz better get some money, I get a cut of everything he does.
Most musicians don’t get paid to do rehearsals unless it’s for a really big gig. Even great musicians don’t make a lot for doing recording gigs.
If you are musician and you don’t want a day job you have to be prepared not to make cash for EVERYTHING you do.
JRTME- People usually get a decent amount of money for recording gigs.
And you know this cause you work in the industry?
Actually, stu1 is totally right. the MINIMUM for a union musician is roughly $300 for a three hour recording session. That’s if you have NO name and demand no premium. Naturally it goes up for longer blocks of recording.
Being a career musician you SHOULD be looking to get paid for everything you do; why is it that someone who plays drums for a living should do things for free? Would you show up to your 9-5 job and offer to work for no pay?
Because I have many friends who make a decent living doing so and I have a pretty good idea as to how it works, yeah.
That’s a union musician. Most musicians are not union musicians.
We were talking about working on rock and metal albums. It also depends on what your idea of good money is I suppose.
But since “your friend” told you must be the truth huh?
That’s the internet everything second hand must be the truth huh?
We’re talking session musicians here. Like I said, I’m around plenty of people who do it for a living and have spent plenty of time in studios and on the road. And, this isn’t like “oh bob told me.” This is seeing first hand. So, you have no idea how much or the level at which people close to you live? I mean, I’m sure Subway doesn’t pay that well, but you get the gist, right?
So Baz won’t be demanding a money Bach guarantee from any new additions to the band?
HAH!
+1
After seeing how he treated the other musicians in that SUPERBAND show nonsense damnocracy, I’d hate how he’d treet somebody he viewed as less than a peer.
i Think he’s right …… so if you’re not in it because of your love for the music in the first place…. then you’re in it for the wrong reasons …. my point!
I think Baz has a good point. If you read the rest of his statement, he writes, “If I make $, you make $. Sound fair?” Yeah, actually it does.
He may or may not be paid a lot of money, but who knows how much his personal overhead is. Not me.
I could be wrong, but it sounds like he just wants to get a band together instead of hired guns.
this
If you think of it like this, it doesnt seem that bad at all.
he should start a grindcore band
named Bachlash
At least he still has his own hair…& he’s still cute. That’s all that matters..really. XD
To really analyze this properly; one must understand the situation. I play in a band, we play gigs on a regular basis, usually for peanuts. Any rock band that doesn’t do a pure “covers” set or doesn’t have a huge following typically doesn’t make shit at the shows. However, we all understand this and have day jobs to pay the bills. The downside is we don’t have the luxury of spending 5 hours a day rehearsing.
I think if Bach is asking his members to treat the band like a full time job, there should be some compensation or at least an ability to “draw” against future payments from gigs. Give them something to live on. It’s simply not feasible for Bach to got back to his mansion after practice while his hired guns have to sleep together in a studio apartment to make ends meet.
Bottom line is there isn’t a lot of money in being a musician unless you are the top 1%. Bach has made his money so paying rent isn’t an issue for him. I doubt his former band members are in that situation. However, if Bach was being flexible with the rehearsal time and allowing his band to pursue means of employment; then he probably shouldn’t be obilgated to compensate them.
i can imagine he wont be picking up band members that work at wendys during the week and play at the local bar on saturday nights.
he will probably be looking for semi-established players that do this for a living…with experience playing in a band full time.
Not saying that Baz is a Republican, but his logic borrows from the Neo-Con playbook of changing the terms of the argument in your rebuttal. If this band is the Sebastian Bach show (which all evidence shows that it is) he should pay his bandmates like it’s a business and shut up with his patronizing bullshit about people doing it for the love of it. That line gets trotted out every time a musician tries to petition for themselves for what probably amounts to minimum fucking wage; the best is when a suit or a club owner busts that shit on you. Hey man, maybe you should serve those drinks for the love of it…
Bach’s examples were all bands of equals (more or less) that operated with some parity of ego and notoriety amongst their members. Not the same thing as a bunch of dudes and SB. My two cents…
I am not certain about what, if any, legal documents are prepared and signed in such an arrangement, but one would think that some sort of contract would be prepared that would cover all of this, since this is not a true band but rather a solo artist with hired musicians; i.e., “Guitar player X shall be paid xx (or some percentage agreed upon) for a __-year duration. Guitar player X shall appear at all rehersals, shows, etc.”
Bach should call Dallas Coyle. He’s in Jersey.
payBach is a bitch.
Bach pay!
“scratch my Bach and I’ll scratch yours.”
Can we please get this thread bach on track?
I’m right behind you on that – I’ve got your Bach.
I wonder if they’ll play BACH in black?
SB is the devil, just play a Skidrow song BACHwards
Someone BACH me up on this.
He should apply in Anthrax…
Sebastian missed the train by not going back with Skid Row, he could have made some actual money and been able to properly pay his people. If your a hired gun you should get paid for every hour worked. I would like to see if Bach got the Revolver gig if he would have been so keen to not get paid.
Fuck paying musician’s to rehearse unless you are a studio/session/hired musician…its as plain as that…if Bach wants some guys to jam w/ and form a band…that’s one thing, but if he wants these musicians to play music he writes, then I think payment is justified…its as simple as that!
if you are in a band, as i am… you don’t get paid to rehearse. you get paid when you play shows. if you suck at the shows, venues will stop booking you and you won’t get paid. so, fucking show up for rehearsal. consider the concert being the end of a job, rehearsal is simply part of the job. you don’t get paid until the job is done.
I loved kicking Sebastard Biotch’s ass at the PC (NJ) Ozzfest in August 2003 right next to the BLS bus. SB aged like an old jewish lady.
I think what Baz fails to realize here is that the guys he gets to play music with him are basically hired guns. I agree with the first part of his statement dealing when he was in Skid Row. They were/are a band!! He is recording under his name only, not a band name so like I said the guys that play for him are just hired guns. I guess all those stories of his acting like a Diva are pretty much true. IT’s a shame really because I think he is a very talented singer and a pretty good front man with the way he works a crowd. Is it just me or shouldn’t Skid Row and him bury the fucking hachet and reunite since neither of their careers has gone anywhere but down the toilet???