Sebastian Bach and Jon Bon Jovi End Decades-Long Hair Metal Feud
Good news, rock fans: After years of being forced to choose sides in the bitter war between Sebastian Bach and Jon Bon Jovi, you can finally rest easy with the knowledge that two of New Jersey’s most impeccably coiffed frontmen have buried the hatchet.
Bach broke the news earlier this summer during an interview with a French TV outlet, explaining that his beef with Bon stemmed from a contract Skid Row signed with him and Richie Sambora back when the younger band was just starting out. Essentially, Bon Jovi and Sambora ended up owning Skid Row’s publishing rights — which were worth quite a bit of money after the band’s debut album went five times platinum in 1989.
“Nobody thought that we would become a big band. That happens all the time in the music industry. Jon was like, ‘We’ll take you on tour, but if you guys make it big,’ then he gets a cut of it,” Bach explained. “So I was bitter about that for awhile, but then I realized that we probably wouldn’t have made it as big, or maybe at all, if he didn’t take us.”
Sambora eventually gave his share of the deal back to Skid Row — but Bon Jovi, being the shrewd steel horse-riding businessman he is, decided not to follow suit. All of which made it a little awkward when Bach, who was having dinner with Axl Rose, bumped into his former benefactor at a restaurant in London.
“The waitress says, ‘Hey, guess who’s over in the corner.’ And me and Axl go, ‘Who?’ She said, ‘Jon Bon Jovi.’ And I go, ‘Get the f— out of here.’ He was in the corner. And I didn’t know what to do. ‘Cause we had had words…most of them were mine,” Bach laughed. “So I go, ‘You know what?! F— this. I’m gonna go over there and say ‘Hi’ to him.’ ‘Cause we used to be great, great friends; I had Christmas dinner at his house and stuff.”
At which point the 6’3″ Bach made his way over to the 5’9″ Bon Jovi’s table, and noticed that Bon Jovi seemed a little unsure of what was about to happen. As it turned out, things quickly turned surreal — as Bach explains, “He’s looking at me, like, ‘What are you gonna do? What are you gonna say?’ And I was like, ‘Hey, man, how is it going?’ And he was, like, ‘Hey, man?’ And we stood up and we hugged and then he came over to me and Axl’s table and we drank about 15 bottles of red wine, had a great time.”
So there you have it — a long and bitter feud ended with Sebastian Bach and Jon Bon Jovi sharing 15 bottles of wine with Axl Rose in a London restaurant. Maybe Jon can return the favor the next time he, Axl, and Slash are eating in the same building?