{"id":520898,"date":"2026-07-11T12:07:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T12:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/520898\/"},"modified":"2026-07-11T12:07:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T12:07:10","slug":"skid-rows-youth-gone-wild-the-story-behind-the-song","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/520898\/","title":{"rendered":"Skid Row\u2019s Youth Gone Wild: the story behind the song"},"content":{"rendered":"

Youth Gone Wild may not have been the biggest hit off Skid Row<\/a>\u2019s self-titled debut album of 1989, but with its grab-you-by-the-throat riff, shouted, gang-style backing vocals and \u2018us against them\u2019 lyric the song quickly became, and remains, the band\u2019s defining anthem.<\/p>\n

It also holds a special place in the heart of former Skid Row singer Sebastian Bach<\/a>, as the song was largely responsible for his joining the band. In the mid-80s the singer, then going by his given name of Sebastian Bierk, was a lanky, poofy-haired teenager making a name for himself fronting North American metal bands such as Madam X and VO5.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

After one particular show with the latter in 1987, he found himself partying the night away with M\u00f6tley Cr\u00fce\u2019s Nikki Sixx<\/a> and Tommy Lee, who had happened to be at the gig.<\/p>\n

Latest Videos From Louder<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cThey loved me,\u201d Bach says of the Cr\u00fce pair, \u201cbecause I was the guy with all the blow.\u201d<\/p>\n

And so began a chain of events that would severely impact the singer\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

\u201cI gave Nikki a cassette with some of my stuff and a photo, and he passed it on to [M\u00f6tley Cr\u00fce manager] Doc McGhee,\u201d Bach recalls. \u201cDoc also managed Bon Jovi, and Jon had grown up with Snake [Skid Row guitarist Dave \u2018Snake\u2019 Sabo]. Then one day I get this tape in the mail at my place in Toronto, with some songs from a band from New Jersey.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coincidentally, it turned out that this wasn\u2019t the first time Bach had come across the band on the tape.<\/p>\n

Sign up below to get the latest from Classic Rock, plus exclusive special offers, direct to your inbox!<\/p>\n

\u201cA few months before, I had gone to the wedding of a photographer friend of mine,\u201d he says. \u201cWhile I was there I met Jon Bon Jovi\u2019s parents, and they started telling me about this new band from Jersey. When I got the tape in the mail, I realised it was the same guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\"Skid\n<\/p>\n

Skid Row: (from left) Rachel Bolan, Sebastian Bach, Rob Affuso, Scotti Hill, Dave \u2018Snake\u2019 Sabo (Image credit: Mick Hutson\/Redferns\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Despite the distinguished cast of characters involved in connecting Bach to the still-unnamed New Jersey band, he wasn\u2019t exactly bowled over by what he heard.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe singer they had on there was a complete Bon Jovi clone,\u201d Bach recalls. \u201cI listened to it once and then forgot about it for a couple of days.\u201d<\/p>\n

What to read next<\/p>\n

At the urging of a friend, he revisited the demo, and had a change of heart after playing one song in particular: Youth Gone Wild.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was those first two lines,\u201d Bach says: \u2018Since I was born they couldn\u2019t hold me down\/Another misfit kid another burned out town.\u2019 I felt like it was speaking to my life. I knew I could deliver that song with power and conviction. All I had been looking for was good music that I could sing along to. And this was good music. Youth\u2026 was the song that led me to move to New Jersey.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember drinking a lot of whiskey during the video. We used to drink booze all day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sebastian Bach<\/p>\n

Bach was in, and headed to New Jersey to begin rehearsing with Snake and the band: guitarist Scotti Hill, bassist Rachel Bolan and drummer Rob Affuso. One of the first songs they worked on was Youth Gone Wild, which had been written by Sabo and Bolan.<\/p>\n

From the outset, Bach made it very clear that, unlike the singer he had heard on the demo version, he was no Bon Jovi clone.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember playing Youth\u2026 with the guys, and when we got to the middle part where we do the chorus with just drums and vocals, I sang the entire thing in one breath. And they all went: \u2018Holy shit, man!\u2019. They couldn\u2019t believe it.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Bach at the helm the band, now named Skid Row, quickly secured a deal with Atlantic Records [though only Bach, Sabo and Bolan were actually signed to the label], and were packed off to Royal Recorders, a studio in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, to record their debut album.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Skid\n<\/p>\n

Skid Row onstage in 1990 (Image credit: Mick Hutson\/Redferns\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the label sent us out there to keep us out of trouble,\u201d says Bach. \u201cWe were all little kids at the time, though I was a littler kid than the others. But we knew we had to make a killer album. I remember one day while we were out there Scotti and I went to some amusement park.<\/p>\n

“We were just walking around, and I said to him: \u2018Hey, man, do you think we\u2019ll ever go gold? Could you imagine that?\u2019. And he was like: \u2018I don\u2019t know, man. That\u2019d be fucking crazy!\u2019.\u201d Bach laughs. \u201cOnce the album came out I think that took about two weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Skid Row took off practically upon its release in January 1989, thanks in no small part to Youth Gone Wild, which was issued as the album\u2019s first single. The song \u2013 and the accompanying video \u2013 announced the band as rock\u2019s newest bad boys, the seedy underside of the poppy, Winger\/Warrant- style hard rock that had started to dominate the music landscape.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did that video in some big warehouse in Hollywood,\u201d Bach says. \u201cI remember drinking a lot of whiskey during the shoot. That was back when we used to drink booze all day. That was also one of the first times that I didn\u2019t tease up my hair. I just let it go natural. Which was a big step for me [laughs].\u201d<\/p>\n

On the strength of two more singles \u2013 18 And Life and the power-ballad I Remember You \u2013 the Skid Row album went on to sell more than five million copies. The band became superstars, and no member more so than the still-under-21 Bach, who, with his pretty-boy good looks, banshee wail of a voice and penchant for wild behaviour, was Youth Gone Wild personified.<\/p>\n

Skid Row – Youth Gone Wild (Official Music Video) – YouTube
\n\"Skid<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

During the tour for the album he was arrested after hurling a bottle from the stage and injuring a female member of the audience. A few months earlier he had made the news for wearing a T-shirt bearing the slogan: \u2018AIDS Kills Fags Dead\u2019.<\/p>\n

In spite of, or perhaps in part due to, Bach\u2019s penchant for controversy, Skid Row\u2019s second album, 1991\u2019s Slave To The Grind, debuted at No.1 on the US chart. It would prove to be the band\u2019s peak, and after one more studio record, 1994\u2019s Subhuman Race, Skid Row parted ways with Bach, before calling it quits.<\/p>\n

Though they now lead very separate careers, both Bach and Skid Row continue to perform Youth Gone Wild in concert, and the song remains a showstopper.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just a true anthem,\u201d Bach says. \u201cIt\u2019s the same as when Ozzy sings Paranoid, or David Lee Roth does Runnin\u2019 With the Devil. People love it. It doesn\u2019t matter if it\u2019s a club in New Jersey in 1988 or a stadium in Germany in 2007, when that song comes on, every person in the room becomes the Youth Gone Wild.\u201d<\/p>\n

Originally published in Classic Rock issue 124 (October 2008)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Youth Gone Wild may not have been the biggest hit off Skid Row\u2019s self-titled debut album of 1989,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":520899,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[156,157,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-520898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=520898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/520899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=520898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=520898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=520898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}