The Columbus Dispatch (www.columbusdispatch.com) has issued the following report from Molly Willow:

Heavy-metal singer SEBASTIAN BACH, who plays Gil on the WB series Gilmore Girls, remembers Columbus as the place where the constraints of Jesus hit a peak.

He played the role in Jesus Christ Superstar — and, shortly after his Columbus run in 2003, abruptly left the touring show with little explanation.

At the winter tour for TV critics in Pasadena, Calif., he recalled the blaring headline in an alternative Columbus newspaper: “Jesus, don’t go away mad.”

Early on, Bach said, producers asked for more of a commitment than he felt comfortable making.

“I know myself,” he said: “Four months, doing the same thing eight times a week, I can do it; six months, maybe; a year, absolutely insane.”

The final straw came when producers objected to his attempts to liven up the crowd with some metal-friendly stadium clapping. He was told: “Jesus wouldn’t do that.”

“I’m like ‘Were you there?’”

So, seizing the moment, he cut loose. Jesus didn’t exactly go away mad; he just went away.