Heavy metal singer Sebastian Bach‘s Middletown home was destroyed when the Swimming River Reservoir overflowed its banks Sunday, he writes on his Facebook page.
A “numb, in shock & devastated” Bach reports that the house, once featured on MTV’s ‘Cribs,’ has been ‘destroyed, condemned and deemed uninhabitable,’ and that cherished mementos were lost in the onrush of reservoir water.
“Somewhere under this river is a Kiss pinball machine and 2 gargoyles from the Dynasty tour,” he writes beneath the photo at left. “If you see them floating past your house, they’re mine. Or at least they were. :(”
The house, at 99 Swimming River Road, is just a couple of hundred yards downstream from the reservoir spillway. A turbid rush of wash flowed over the spillway during Tropical Storm Irene Sunday morning, washing over the Swimming River Road bridge and prompting rescues of several residents downstream.
Here’s what Bach, former lead singer of Skid Row, wrote in a post at about 10 p.m. Sunday:
I am numb, in shock, & devastated to report that my home of 21 years, my house featured on MTV Cribs, has been destroyed, condemned, & deemed uninhabitable due to the extreme flooding courtesy of Hurricane Irene.
In the 2 decades I have lived in this home, there has never been a single drop of water in the basement or anywhere else in the structure. Now Irene has overflowed the reservoir adjacent… to my house. The surging waters have snapped the bridge in half next to my house & sent the bridge straight into my garage, knocking the house off of its foundation. The basement that has been dry for over 2 decades is now overflowing with water & I am not even allowed to start pumping the water out due to fears of electrocution. Original Skid Row & KISS fans, I have bad news for you . Gone are irreplacable items, such as my KISS Gargoyles from the 1979 tour. KISS pinball machine. Skid Row master tapes, video & audio, concerts, master tapes from Oh Say Can You Scream etc. Boxes & boxes of one of a kind Skid Row memorabilia, from the first tour to our last, all stuff I collected on the road that no one else had. I had a library in the basement with every single magazine that had Skid Row on the cover. This library took up a big part of the basement. All of this is lost now. We will salvage what we can of course. But how I wish there was a reason to do a box set or something before Hurricane Irene hit. Nobody cared. Now it’s too late. Don’t know what you got till it’s gone, indeed.
The good news is that all my fathers artwork , including the 16 foot “Slave To The Grind” mural, is all ok. My sons & friends moved all my dads art to the 2nd level of the structure before Irene destroyed our home. My Silver Age Comic Collection is all on the 3rd level, with the David Bierk Archives, which is a completely dry level. But we are not allowed into the house yet to retrieve everything because the foundation has crumbled & the house could conceivably collapse at any second. We are working with the police & fire department to get the electricity turned off so no one gets electrocuted entering the premises. As soon as the power is off we will pump out the basement & salvage what we can. Everything will be put into storage & then it looks like we will level the house 🙁
This has really taught me that the best things in life are indeed ‘free’ . What makes me happy is that my children & ex wife are safe. My dads art is unharmed. No one got hurt. My scrapbooks of memories of my life are dry & safe. The only things that are making me smile today is cranking Black Veil Brides “Set the World on Fire” CD over & over again. Texting Danny from Asking Alexandria who may become my new roommate in LA . Getting texts from my girl Minnie in LA making sure I’m ok & trying to cheer me up. My neighbours in New Jersey clamouring around my house, calling me, offering help in any way they can. These things mean more to me than mere posessions.
I have been holding on to my house since December, when my divorce papers were filed. I just could not let go of the only home I had ever known. Well, God has other plans for me it seems. He has made His decision for me. My home has been taken away by an “Act Of God”. I just think He is giving me a much needed push, is all. New Jersey, thank you all so much for 25 years of rock n’ roll. It’s all over now. I will always love New Jersey but now there is literally nothing left for me here except memories of a past life.
Hello, Los Angeles. Hello, New Life. Here I Am. It’s time for a new start.
Like I have a choice.
