Gary James' Interview With Billy Sheehan Of
Mr. Big



He's a guy from Central New York who, it's fair to say, went on to "Big" things. Calling Buffalo, New York home, Billy Sheehan was part of the group Talas. From Talas Billy joined forces with David Lee Roth (ex Van Halen lead singer) and now leads his own group, Mr. Big. We should note that Billy Sheehan has been named the Number One Rock Bass Player four times by Guitar Player magazine and has played over 4,000 live shows in his career. Now, that's why Billy Sheehan is not only Mr. Big in Central New York, but all over the world.

Q - Okay Billy, let's test your memory. I recall seeing you with Talas at The Lost Horizon in Syracuse, New York on a Sunday night back in 1982. Maybe 200 people turned out. Do you remember that night?

A - I do remember that gig. The place with the post in the middle of the stage. Amazingly, I remember it. (laughs)

Q - Did you ever play any other clubs in Syracuse?

A - The Poorhouse North and The Yellow Balloon. Well, that was The Lost Horizon.

Q - How did you make the jump from playing clubs on the New York State Thruway circuit to the L.A. scene?

A - I didn't actually play the L.A. scene at all. We played one gig in L.A. with Talas, the tour in 1980 with Van Halen, that's where Dave (David Lee Roth) met me. In '85, when I left Van Halen, he called me and I flew from Buffalo right to L.A. I never played L.A. clubs ever. I went basically right from Talas into the big leagues.

Q - Who thought of the name, "Mr. Big"?

A - That was the drummer, Pat. It comes from a Free song called "Mr. Big", years ago. We kind of styled the band after the Humble Pie, Free, Spooky Tooth era of bands that had real players, real singers, and a lot of bluesy stuff. Plus, it was the first song I ever did a bass solo in, in the old days. (laughs)

Q - Are you the guy who put Mr. Big together?

A - Yeah.

Q - How did you find the musicians for the band?

A - I started the band with Dave. Me and Dave began the band. Ted Templeman recommended Steve Vai to us and I had already spoken to Steve Vai. Steve Vai and I did open auditions for drummers and found Gregg Bissonette. Yamaha called me and wanted to know if we needed a keyboard player and I told 'em we did and they got me Bret Tugel. So, that's how the band was put together.

Q - How did you get the guys for Mr. Big?

A - Mike Varney, a friend of mine from San Francisco that I had done a lot of work with. I was looking for a singer and he needed a singer too for one of his projects. He played me this Arif Marden album and he gave me Eric's (Martin, Mr. Big's lead singer) number and I called him up. He was just in the beginning of starting some new project. I said, "Let's start a band." I needed a guitar player and I had already spoken to a couple of people around. I'd seen Paul Gilbert play a lot and I've been friends with him for years. Sure enough, I called him up, told him I had Eric Martin, and he said he was a huge Eric Martin fan and he'd love to start a band. We got together. Pat Torpey I met through the David Lee Roth keyboard player, Bret Tugel. So, we called Pat in. Pat had done a lot of stuff and had a very good reputation. We had sung together a couple of times prior to that. So, we had him in. He tuned up his drums and sounded great. We played some guitar and bass together. Eric sang, and that was it. We started the band. Atlantic signed the band immediately. And that's the story, as uneventful as it may seem. It came together very fast from the first call I made to Eric, 'til we had a record in the stores. That means putting a band together, writing the songs, getting a record deal, negotiating the deal, and recording the album in fifteen months.

Q - When you're a seasoned veteran player like yourself, how difficult would it be to be in a group with musicians who may be mediocre or less then mediocre?

A - Oh, that's tough 'cause you generally have to lead the way. It's cool 'cause your ideas are the ones that get the priority 'cause yours are the ones that have something behind them. It's bad in a way in that if you run out of ideas, everyone looks to you to do it and the thing starts to falter. That's why in a band like Mr. Big it's real easy for us 'cause everybody tries to be as good as they can with what they do and pretty much forget all that and work as a band.

Q - Between the time your first and second Mr. Big albums were released, we didn't hear all that much about the band. People would ask me if the group broke up.

A - No. Any band in the world, once you're done with your tour, you go back into the studio and you don't hear anything about them 'til they get another record out 'cause what's the point of doing a press conference and having the press say, "Hey, what's new for Mr. Big?" And we say nothing. (laughs) Wait 'til we get a new record out. Everybody drops out for awhile. I haven't seen anything on Springsteen or Michael Jackson, not that we're comparing ourselves to them by any means, but it's just kind of the way the business works.

Q - And how long has it been between albums?

A - Just a little over a year that we went out and toured for a long time with the first record. In the meantime, we did the movie soundtrack for the Navy Seals movie that Charlie Sheen was in. And we did a live record for Japan only, direct to disc, right off the board onto a DAT tape with no overdubs and wrote the songs for the new record, recorded 'em and it's out. And we're touring now. We just got back from doing England and Europe. We did about a month and a half of shows there.

Q - Do you resent the theatrics and showmanship that is such a big part of Rock today?

A - I don't necessarily stand there with my head down 'cause I like running around and having fun. It's a lot of fun to be up there. It should be a happy time. I'm there to reach people, not to play to other musicians too much. It should be a balance of what's frosting and what's cake. Get right to the point, but have fun getting there. Some bands I guess are unbalanced in some people's eyes one way or the other. I think that's what we try to have happen automatically with Mr. Big. We try to have fun onstage, but we do it with as much integrity as we know how.

Official Website: www.MrBigSite.com

© Gary James. All rights reserved.

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