Actor Christina Applegate has identified the rock musician she left Brad Pitt for at the 1989 MTV Video Music Awards, revealing in her new memoir “You With the Sad Eyes” that it was Skid Row frontman Sebastian Bach.
For years, Applegate had acknowledged leaving Pitt during the event but had not publicly named the man she chose. During a 2015 appearance on “Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen,” Applegate confirmed the story was true while declining to reveal his identity at that time. She also stated that she never dated Pitt afterward and did not pursue a relationship with the mystery man.
In her memoir, Applegate recounted that the MTV event occurred when she was 17 and gaining attention for her role as Kelly Bundy on “Married…With Children.” She wrote that she invited Pitt, then 25 and early in his acting career, to the awards after their friendship evolved. “We had been platonic pals for the longest time,” Applegate wrote. “He’d often swing by my 750-square-foot row house with a tiny door, and we’d have barbecues and hang out, always part of a much bigger group.”
Their social circle included other young performers, among them Johnny Depp, for whom Applegate said she initially had stronger feelings. Over time, however, her perspective on Pitt changed. “One day I took another look at Brad and thought, ‘Hmm…'” she wrote. “Apparently, he did the same, and so I invited him to the awards.”
Applegate described Pitt as “the perfect date,” noting he offered to pick up her mother, Nancy Priddy, and her best friend, Lori Allison, while she arrived earlier for rehearsals. Despite arriving with Pitt, Applegate said her attention shifted during the event. “I felt so powerful and sure of myself for once that when the awards show was over, I left with Sebastian Bach, not Brad Pitt,” she wrote. “I had spent all night staring at Bach, who was then a long-haired hunk fronting the band Skid Row. I hate to put it like this, but Brad back then was still making his way as an actor, and he wasn’t yet THE Brad Pitt, the man of so many people’s dreams.”
Pitt drove Applegate’s mother and Allison home afterward. Applegate wrote that tensions rose during the trip. “Apparently, at a gas station on the way, Brad almost got into a fight with a bunch of gang members, and, not surprisingly, was subsequently very mad at me,” she said. They did not speak for many years after that. Applegate also recounted that Pitt later shared the episode with two of his movie star girlfriends, who asked her if she was “the girl who left Brad behind at the MTV Video Music Awards.”
In the memoir, Applegate stated they eventually reconciled. Pitt agreed that she had been young at the time. “He agreed that I’d been a kid, and though he’d deserved much better, it was time to forgive the child who dumped him for the lead singer of Skid Row,” she wrote. “Of course, Brad is now THE Brad Pitt, and Sebastian Bach . . . well, he still has long hair, I guess.”
By Zoe Papadakis | Wednesday, 04 March 2026 01:05 PM EST
