Taking a break from my not-that-rock-foray I’m on lately, and remembering there were a bunch of releases I was going to check out, I looked for news on anything ‘80s rock star-like. After all, I do need of fix of all-things-80s from time to time. Turns out, Sebastian Bach has a new record, released on April 22, called Given ‘Em Hell. Notice I didn’t say “former Skid Row frontman Sebastian Bach?” Well, there is a reason, and I’ll get to that. Bach’s record features Duff McKagan (ex-Guns ‘n’ Roses, Velvet Revolver), John 5 (Rob Zombie, ex-Marilyn Manson, and some secret acoustic thing with David Lee Roth) and Steve Stevens (The Cult, Billy Idol) whom he commissioned to write the songs with him, with John 5 submitting at least three of the songs. Bach has been on a personal roller coaster and claims this is his “sober” record; the former records weren’t. The first release is a song called Temptation, a quite heavy song with a not-so-good video that I’ve attached. Apparently the rest of the songs, reportedly, feature “a pulsing beat and vocals that see-saw between shrill and seductive.” That’s from “Yahoo Music’s” article of March 24. I have to admit, other than Temptation, I haven’t heard any of the songs. I think that song is not bad. It has ‘80s rock-song structure, but has the heavier guitar of a Marilyn Manson song. Without looking, I’d say that’s one of the John 5 submissions. I think I’ll check out the others.

Joining Bach on the news circuit, and seemingly ever-present in the news lately, is Motley Crue. Apparently, if one announces “the end” of a band, then the band members must hit the media circuit, and remind everyone it’s the end, like … about … once a month. In that same vein, this month’s Guitar World features Crue guitarist Mick Mars on the cover, and includes interviews of with Mars and bassist Nikki Sixx.   The on-line version has Mars repeating the refrain about the four band members signing a contract to stop all touring in 2015. Mars says the contract is strong, but then says he wants to record some other songs he’s had sitting around since the mid-‘90s. He says he wants people to say he’s a good guitar player, slighting the players of the 80s who, as he referred to it, played scales and did tricks and flash, hoping those ‘90s tracks will do the trick for his reputation. He says he wants his band to be remembered, up there with “the Stones and Hendrix and Zeppelin,” as in the top 100 iconic bands. He says the band are working on one song for the final tour (co-headlined with Alice Cooper this year), called All Bad Things Must Come to an End. All of this stuff – talking like he wants to be remembered as a great guitarist, that he wants his band to be remembered as iconic, and that they are releasing a new song – makes me think this is not really the end. Sure he’s sickly, and seriously if you don’t doubt that, check out that pic on Guitar World, but if this dude has anything left in him, it’s as if he wants to push his guitar in the face of … well someone.

And then there’s Nikki Sixx and Sebastian Bach’s eight months or so of diva talk. A couple of weeks ago, Sixx took to Bach, saying Bach should drop the Skid Row references and just go by his own name. “I mean, at this point, dude, you’ve been out of Skid Row longer than Skid Row was even alive; like let it go,” Sixx said. Bach responded with full-on diva sarcasm.   “I actually just [let go of the former Skid Row singer tag] this morning, I dropped it, so now I feel amazing, Bach said. “I just feel myself better as a human, ‘cause I made the decision after I read him tell me that I should do that, ‘cause I was wondering what to do and then I read that and I was like, Oh now I know! I can’t believe it took me so long. As soon as I read that interview, I was like, Man, what would I do without somebody else telling me what I should do? Because I was waiting for somebody to tell me what to do with my life and now, oh, than … now I’m okay. Now I feel great.” Diva, diva, diva!

But then again, there must have been something between them. Going back to August and September 2013, all of this seems to have started with Bach tweeting to a fan that Bach was asked to join Motley Crue two decades ago. Sixx retorted that Bach’s story never happened. Then Bach took to Facebook, describing, in detail enough to hopefully make people want more, meetings with Sixx and with Mars and Tommy Lee. Apparently, though, that diva-in-press conversation came to an end with Bach saying, in effect, read the book, promising to tell the story in some up-coming book he’s writing. Sixx then said “someone needs attention to try and sell some books”, and not finished there, Sixx said “I always liked the term ‘washed up.’”

So while I process the fact that it’s good to have any songs from any of these guys, and that new songs help one achieve some legend status as opposed to being “washed up”, I wonder… is the diva thing all really part of it? I mean seriously, can you even be a rock star unless you are a diva? Diva… just calling these dudes that makes me smile. I doubt they see themselves as divas, but they are; they truly are. But then again, this is the part that caught my attention, didn’t it? So… as I smile, I say: Rock On Diva, Bitches, Rock On! And congratulations on your new song, Sebastian Bach, and your almost-new song, Nikki Sixx.