Baker by Day, Rocker By Night

Back in the 1980s, when Steve Sage was 10 years old, he didn't fit in, he said, because everyone had big hair and Sage had—well—none. Anywhere.

Sage was 10 when he got alopecia, an autoimmune skin disease that caused him to lose all the hair on his scalp and body. According to the National Alopecia Areata Foundation, alopecia areata affects approximately two percent of the population overall, including more than 4.7 million people in the United States alone.

So at a time when everyone had big hair, Sage had none, and people thought he was a skinhead. Today he looks like a lot of 40-year-old guys with a shaved head, but back then, growing up in Dix Hills, going to Paumanok, Burrs Lane and then Half Hollow Hills High School West, he really stood out in a crowd.

After high school, he baked donuts at Dunkin Donuts and got acting jobs—when he could find them—in commercials and movies. But his look "didn't fit," as he put it, and he needed to find something else.

So he opened a bagel store. Seventeen years ago, he sold that one and bought one near his home town of Dix Hills: That's when Steve's Hot Bagels and Bakery on Deer Park Avenue in Deer Park was born.

It had been a bakery when Sage purchased it, and even though his store functions primarily as a bagel store, he also started a line of cupcakes, which he sells in his store as well as wholesale. He also sells crumb cakes, muffins and cookies.

"When you have a business, you have to try new things," Sage said.

For a while he tried shipping his bagels around the country, and although he immediately had a bunch of orders, the post office--which was supposed to ship the bagels 2-day priority--took six days to get the bagels to their destinations, so they ended up arriving all moldy and Sage had to reship them on his dime.

"I didn't make any money, so I had to stop doing that," he said.

As if the bagel store and the bakery weren't enough, 10 years ago he started a Bon Jovi tribute band, in which Steve is the lead singer and guitar player. You might wonder how a bald guy could portray Jon Bon Jovi convincingly, but in costume, he really looks the part.

He said that the hair, the shoes and the costumes set him back $1,500, but, "It's a show," he said. "It's part of the experience. We all have to look the part."

And it's working. Bad Medicine, as they are called, plays all over the United States at weddings, private parties and concerts. Sage estimates that they've played in 25 to 30 states so far. If they are doing a wedding for someone, they will put together a personal set list, with all types of music.

"No one wants to listen to just Bon Jovi music for an entire wedding party," Sage said. He said he can also help the bride and groom plan the whole party, if they need him to. He knows lighting people, DJs, whatever they need.

Just recently, Bad Medicine played at the Dix Hills Performing Arts Center, which was the former Burrs Lane Middle School that Sage attended.

"I hadn't been there since the '80s," he said. "It was a trip walking in there. It smelled the same. It was like being in 9th grade all over again."

Sage would rather stay in the present, though. He's getting ready to release a CD with original music from his successful band. He has a wife now and a 19-year-old daughter and a two-year-old son. And, of course, he has Steve's Hot Bagels and Bakery, where you can find him most days, baking up some delicious treats.