Sebastian Bach, the former lead singer of SKID ROW, has once again defended KISS against accusations of using pre-recorded tracks during their farewell tour
Since the launch of KISS‘s “End Of The Road” tour in early 2019, there has been ongoing speculation online regarding whether frontman Paul Stanley is singing to a pre-recorded backing track. This speculation arose due to Stanley‘s difficulties in hitting high notes in many of the band’s classic songs over several years. Sebastian Bach, a passionate KISS enthusiast, shared his thoughts on the rumors of playback tracks at KISS concerts when responding to a question from the Syncin’ Stanley YouTube channel at the Fanboy Expo in Orlando, Florida, this past weekend.
Sebastian Bach said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “My position on that is that if you are in your 70s, if you’re 72 and you gotta put on foot-high monster boots and a Godzilla costume and hook yourself up to wires and fly to the top of the roof and sing, a guy in that age, I don’t really have a problem with a guy that’s in his 70s or 80s that might use the technology to give us a show. I can’t imagine my mom, who’s 81, I can’t imagine her breathing fire and spitting blood. Well, I can imagine the spitting blood part. But I don’t mind the technology being used for its proper thing, like an old dude giving a show, trying his best. But he’s old, right? What I do have a fucking problem with — excuse my language there, but you know who you’re talking to here — I don’t like when I have an opening band who’s 23 and they have the whole show on a click track and the background vocals are going. You can tell so easily — it’s so easy.
“I’m not saying I’m the greatest singer, and you can hear it on my YouTube [videos],” he continued. “I don’t always sing great. Nobody does. Newsflash — not everybody sings perfect every single show. That’s not what rock and roll is. You have good nights; you have bad nights.
Sebastian Bach continued: “You can’t tell me about using tapes in a video. I know who’s doing it, I know who’s not, and if you wanna sit down and watch the video with me and tell me that you’re not using the tapes, I will tell you that you’re full of shit because I don’t use tapes. And if you do, I’m not gonna pretend that you are on the same level.”
Sebastian Bach added: “I have seen KISS about four or five times [in the last three or four years], and it’s still the greatest rock show in the world because KISS… There’s no show that has the excitement of KISS. When the lights go down and that bass goes [imitates a low-frequency hum], and then they fucking hit the stage.
“If KISS were in their twenties, I would not like them to use tapes. Or if they were like an athlete one day and said, ‘Oh, I think I wanna be a rock star.’ And then they just get up there and do jumping jacks and have a tape going, I’ve got a problem with that. I don’t have a problem with a 75-year old-man giving me the show that he’s always given, but also… We’re not, as fans, dicks. We should pay respect to a guy like Paul Stanley for everything that he’s done in his whole life. Being of that age and still giving us the KISS show… I feel sorry for people that don’t go to a KISS show… It’s your loss.”
In recent times, an increasing number of artists have been embracing pre-recorded tracks, drum triggers, and various technological enhancements to create more consistent but, some argue, more synthetic live performances. Whether one considers it a positive or negative development, pre-recorded tracks are becoming progressively more prevalent among touring artists across different musical genres and at all career levels, not limited to just pop music; even numerous rock artists incorporate playback tracks to varying extents.