Former Skid Row singer Sebastian Bach was taken into police custody for making terrorist threats and for drug possession on Wednesday.
Police in Middletown, New Jersey, said that what started as a simple bar fight got serious when Bach, whose real name is Sebastian Bierk, threatened to get a gun and shoot a bartender at the Lincroft Inn, a threat police say Bach continued to make even after his initial arrest for disorderly conduct.
Witnesses told police that Bach initially wanted to go outside for a smoke and a bartender wouldn’t allow him to take his drink outside. According to witness accounts, Bach then shoved the bartender, and other bar patrons jumped in to stop the scuffle. Once Bach was removed to an area near the kitchen doors, he allegedly told the people holding him that he wanted to go home, get a gun, come back and shoot the bartender as well as others with whom he had the initial fight. “Don’t you know who I am?” witnesses say he asked them.
Once authorities arrived, close to 9 p.m., Bach was asked to calm down and lower his voice. According to the police report, he refused, continuing to curse at the bartender and even asking to be arrested. Upon searching him, police found two bags – or five grams’ worth – of marijuana and four packets of rolling papers.
At the Middletown precinct, police say Bach continued his verbal tirade, directing it at the detectives attempting to explain the charges against him. Police said he yelled, “F– you, cops, you’re all a bunch of f–ing idiots.” Police asked if he understood why he was arrested, and Bach replied, “Yeah, because I like to smoke a lot of weed.”
“While he was in the holding cell, though, he had a very serious look on his face,” Sgt. Joe Capriotti said. “And he continued to make threats. He said, ‘I’m going to go shoot [the bartender]. No, I’m going to go beat him up and then shoot him. Wait ’til you see what I do.’ ”
Because Bach allegedly continued to make threats, police called a judge who increased Bach’s bail to $10,000, Capriotti said. “That’s a pretty high amount for a bar fight,” he said. Bach posted the bail and was released from the Monmouth County Correctional Facility on Thursday. A court date remains to be set.
The Lincroft Inn staff, Bach publicist Carol Kaye and Bach’s wife/manager, Maria Bierk, declined to comment.
Bach was previously arrested and tried on charges of mayhem, two counts of assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon and two counts of assault and battery following an incident at a concert in Springfield, Massachusetts, where Skid Row was opening for Aerosmith on December 27, 1989. In that case, Bach also faced $10,000 bail, which he posted at the time of his arrest. He later received three years probation.
In that incident, Bach was accused of attacking concertgoers by tossing a bottle from the stage and then leaping into the crowd. One person was kicked in the head, and another, a 17-year-old female, was hit in the face, breaking her nose and skull. Bach returned to the stage to finish the gig after the scuffle, in which he said was antagonized by some of the concertgoers in attendance, one of whom had hit him with a bottle, which is why Bach said he threw it back into the crowd. The incident was caught on videotape.
Five years after Skid Row imploded, Bach revitalized his career by appearing on Broadway in runs of “The Rocky Horror Show” and “Jekyll & Hyde”. He’s now the host of VH1’s “Forever Wild,” which airs Friday nights at midnight, and has shows booked at New Jersey’s Stone Pony for March 29 and 30.
