Sebastian Bach + Michael Sweet Bury the Hatchet, Say the Internet Fueled the Fire
Over the weekend, Sebastian Bach and Stryper frontman Michael Sweet were finally able to bury the hatchet after a years-long feud aboard the KISS Kruise. After addressing the feud, the rockers noted that the internet really fueled the fire that had started between them.
Ironically, the feud started on the internet.
Sweet shared a video in late 2016 of then-16-year-old singer Moriah Formica covering the Skid Row classic "I Remember You," and in the caption, he wrote that her performance "smokes the original singer" — referring to Bach — and proceeded to call him a "tool" in the comments. When Bach became aware of the remarks, he fired back on Twitter, calling the Stryper singer a "pussy." Shortly after, Sweet responded in a statement on Facebook, explaining what started his resentment toward Bach.
Apparently, he'd been asked by a label to produce an album Bach was planning to work on, but it didn't work out and they had a bit of a nasty email exchange. Those emails are why Sweet referred to Bach as a tool. "Unfortunately I think because I'm a Christian some people think that I'm supposed to 'turn the other cheek' and let people say and do what ever they want," Sweet wrote in the post. "I guess the 'pussy' in me won't let me do that."
As you can imagine, things snowballed from there. But none of that matters now, because the musicians had the opportunity to talk things over on the KISS Kruise a few days ago, and they actually performed together during Bach's set to seal the deal.
"The internet happened," Bach told Metal Edge of the feud after the performance. "Every single headline is, 'This guy said this about this guy, this guy said this about this guy.' It's not about the new record, it's not about the new video. It's about, 'This guy called this guy a name.' And everybody reads shit about themselves online that they don't like, and then they they say something back. So it never ends."
"You know, one thing said is maybe misconstrued or misunderstood, and another thing is said in retaliation, and then it heats up and people start fueling the fire and it just becomes a nightmare," Sweet added. "That's what happened. And it went on for a long time and today was the day that we put all that aside, buried the hatchet and said, 'This is stupid.'"
Sweet even posted a photo hugging Bach on his Instagram, calling it "one of the best moments" of his life, because they were able to forgive each other. See the performances and the photo below.
Here's to friendship.