New Times: Would you ever imagine you'd be doing musicals?
Sebastian Bach: No. No. Never. None of my fans would either! The Lord works in mysterious ways!
What made you want to do Jesus Christ Superstar?
Basically my dad. He was only 58 when he died [of cancer this past August] and we were really, really close. It was just a good way to send him off. If I didn't have this play, and I was just sitting around in my house, I really don't want to think what I'd be doing.
What's harder -- performing eight shows a week in a musical or singing the same songs repeatedly as a rock star?
When you have a song like Skid Row's "Youth Gone Wild," it does feel pretty stupid singing it when you're 34! It doesn't have quite the same meaning as when you were nineteen. Doing it [a show] eight times a week is a challenge to keep it fresh, but theater in and of itself is fresh each time you step on the stage.
Are you particularly religious?
Not particularly. But I do believe in God. I was the lead soprano in my church choir when I was nine and ten years old. I was into the church music before I was into rock and roll.
What's the best part of being Jesus?
Singing music and portraying a role that has meaning to me as an actor and a singer. I can relate to being in style and then out of style, which is really Jesus's thing in this play. Everybody loves him, and then everybody hates him. And he's pleading with his dad in heaven to understand why this is happening to him. I can relate to that on a personal level.