This went on nightly for months until Johann Christoph heard the young Sebastian playing some of the distinctive tunes from his private library, grabbed his copy and confiscated it.ĮDUCATION Young Johann Sebastian attended the Gymnasium in Eisenach the same school that Martin Luther attended 200 years earlier.Īccording to regulation, children of poor parents could attend the Latin school at Lüneburg (which he did from 1700) and pay for their costs by singing in the choir. Late one night, when the house was asleep, Johann Sebastian slipped his hand through the grate of the locked cabinet, pulled out the prized manuscript from his brother's music cabinet and began to copy it by the moonlight. Christoph owned a manuscript of keyboard music by some of the most notable organists of the day, including his mentor Joann Pachelbel. While in his brother's house, Sebastian devoted much of his to copying, studying, and playing music. Johann Sebastian received his first musical instruction from his Father, then after his death from his organist brother Johann Christoph and his uncle confusingly also called Johann Christoph, who was the town and court organist. Michael's School, where he was a choirboy. The environment was saturated with music.Īfter the loss of his parents, the orphaned boy lived first in Ohrdruf in the home of an older brother, Johann Christoph, and then in Lüneburg at St. In addition to seven siblings, there were two orphaned cousins, some of his father's apprentices, and other relatives from time to time. (Evidently the Bach family were not very imaginative at names).ĬHILDHOOD Johann Sebastian's childhood home would have been busy and crowded. Johann was orphaned aged 10 and was raised by his eldest brother Johann Christoph Bach, the organist at the Michaeliskirche in nearby Ohrdruf.
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Johann's mother Maria Elisabeth Lämmerhirt (d 1695) also grew up in a musical family and his uncles were also all professional musicians ranging from church organists and court chamber musicians to composers. The post of town piper entailed organizing all the secular music in town as well as participating in church music at the direction of the church organist.
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His father, Johann Ambrosius Bach (d 1694), was a string player, court trumpeter and town piper in Eisenach. Of the debauchery he describes in his memoir, Bach says, "I'm just happy to be healthy and alive and some of my friends, unfortunately, are not here to say that.BIRTH 1685 in Eisenach, which is a city in Thuringia, Germany.įAMILY BACKGROUND Johann was the youngest of eight children. Of Skid Row's musical legacy, Bach says, "it's lasted the test of time." Their music is now played next to Rush, The Beatles and The Stones.
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They didn't think it was rock enough," says Bach, but he knew they were wrong and the song went on to become a smash hit that's been covered by superstars like Carrie Underwood. "The guys who wrote it, Rachel and Snake, they didn't like it. "It would be so packed that there would be just as many people outside the club," and he says "you would have to fight to get into The Gasworks." Bach played many shows there and even saw the likes of Anvil and Nazareth.īach's fame grew as he became Skid Row's frontman and he remembers when one of their biggest hits almost didn't happen. No one knew how old I was," he admits, "I looked like an Alien." But the heart of rock and roll in Toronto was The Gasworks says Bach. "I was underage by a lot but I was six foot three with my hair teased up and I had all this makeup on. So that's my last memory in my brain of my life with my mom, my dad, and my sister and me being together," explains the singer.īach's first band Kid Wikkid began playing shows in the mid '80s at Larry's Hideaway in Toronto. My dad made the decision to come back to our family to take us all to see KISS because he knew how much it meant to it. Bach's father founded Art Space, a Peterborough art gallery that still exists today, and he is especially tied to Bach's fate in music. But Bach still struggles with the passing of his father. Bach says Young's dad lived two doors down from his own. You may recognize Omemee as the hometown of Neil Young. "I used to ride my bike from Cavan to Omemee," says Bach of growing up near Peterborough, Ontario.
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Sebastian Bach's new memoir 18 and Life on Skid Row is not only about his career as a heavy-metal hero but it also recounts his small-town upbringing.