For those tracking lapsed eighties-metalhead friendships, Axl Rose and Skid Row’s Sebastian Bach’s playing the Hammerstein Ballroom last week is part of an official rapprochement. How’d it happen? “He just called me after thirteen years of not hearing from him,” Bach says. “He texted me, ‘Hey, Baz, it’s Axl. You still around New York?’ I’m like, who’s this fuckin’ texting me? I thought it was one of my buddies messin’ around, but he goes, ‘Hey, man, hahaha.’ He knows he’s blowing people’s minds coming back.” They’re making up for lost time. “We hit Butter a couple nights ago with Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, Meadow Soprano [Jamie-Lynn Sigler], and Lance Bass.” Um, Lance Bass? “Yeah, they sure dig metal! They’re all there with their G-n-R T-shirts on.” What’s next for Bach, who was on Broadway in Jekyll and Hyde (“Probably the highlight of my whole life”)? “I’ve got my eye kind of on the Lestat role. It’s a cool play, but it seems like a really big play: a lot of words!”

Related:

• Archive: “Intelligencer”
• Articles by Rebecca Milzoff
• Table of Contents: May 29, 2006 issue of New York | Subscribe!