Hola amigos, this is Billy Sheehan, you're listening
to me right here on My Weekly Mixtape with my
dear friend Brian Colburn. Welcome to My Weekly
Mixtape, a podcast that takes the classic mixtape
approach. to building a modern playlist. I'm
your host, Brian Colburn. Joining me once again
on the show is one of my favorite bass players
to ever grace the stage, and that's the one and
only Mr. Billy Sheehan. Billy, thank you so much
for joining me again to talk music, my friend.
My pleasure. Thanks for having me. Well, the
last time you were on was all the way back on
episode 13, where we dove into songs from throughout
your discography, including your time with David
Lee Roth, niacin, the winery dogs, talus, sons
of Apollo. And we also touched on a tour that
at the time was still in the planning stages.
That being Mr. Biggs, the big finish world tour,
how quickly time flies is that tour is officially
completed its run. But with that, The band is
celebrating the tour with a new release, The
Big Finish Live, which serves as a triumphant
victory lap, if you will, for the band. Since
we talked about the full spectrum of your projects
on episode 13, I'd like to use tonight to really
hone in on Mr. Big. So with your permission,
I'd like to go all the way back to the beginning
and the band's 1989 self -titled album. Right
on. That was a good year. Anyone who listens
to this show knows that I am a sucker for album
opening tracks, and this is something that Mr.
Big knocked out of the park time and time again,
so we're going to get started with Addicted to
That Rush. The introduction to this track is
such a musical, well, for lack of a better word,
rush. Could you walk me through the writing process
for that song between you, Paul Gilbert, and
the late, great Pat Torpey? Well, very kind of
you to say all those complimentary things. Thank
you very, very much. I write a lot, and in writing,
I keep notes of ideas for lyrics and ideas for
songs. And now I got with my iPhone in the modern
day. If I have an idea, I'll set it up. Selfie
video, play to the iPhone, explain. And then
when the chorus comes, we do this. And it makes
it easy to write with that. But back in the day,
we wrote everything down on paper. And I used
to just write titles. It sounds like a song title.
So Addicted to That Rush was a title that I'd
add for. No song, but just the idea of being
addicted to a particular exciting thing. And
so when Mr. Big came around, I had an idea for
that to become a song. And we wanted to enhance
it with a little bit of a musical intro, basically
a boogie, fast boogie kind of a beat. And I did
this hammer -on, this double. Right, hit it.
You can get going really fast, but it's easy
to do because you're using two fingers to do
it, so it's not that tough. And then a little
licker. It's a little bit more complicated, but...
It was kind of cool because Paul Gilbert, being
the guitar player, used to come see me play in
Tallis when he was just starting out in the music
business. So he knew my playing pretty well.
So we kind of had a little bit of a parallel
on how we were players and that at some point
he was kind of walking next to me, if you will,
musically. And then it's since gone on to greatness,
in my humble opinion. And so we spoke the same
language. And so when I was kind of showing him
the thing, he knew exactly what I meant. When
he showed me a thing, I knew what he meant. And
so it came together really, really nicely. Pat
Torpey, as a drummer. Pat and I had a great parallel
without ever having known each other. We kind
of lived the same life. You know, he came from
Cleveland. I came from Buffalo. We both ended
up in L .A. We both played copy bands for years
and years. So if I told him, Robin Trower, Day
of the Eagle, I got it. Jimi Hendrix, whatever.
He knows it. Beatles, all of them. Stones, all
of them. So we had a great language of that.
So he just came up with the right beat at the
right time. And we were off. And I did the lyrics
for it. And that was Addicted to That Rush. Wow.
Well, sticking with the self -titled album, I've
learned over the years through my musical nerdom
that the song Wind Me Up is actually a nod to
Roy Orbison's Oh Pretty Woman only played backwards.
Yeah. I'd love to hear the story behind that.
Backwards, that's Wind Me Up. So that was Paul's
idea. Paul always has an interesting way to come
up with an idea, a thing, or a song, or change
it. For example, not to go off the subject, Colorado
Bulldog, Paul came in and he had this lick that
was ascending. Wow, really going. I go, now can
you do it backwards all the way down? He goes,
hmm. So he comes back the next day. Okay, I got
it all the way up and then all the way down.
And then we just started playing a fast boogie
beat and came up with a thing and that became
Colorado Bulldog. so uh the uh wind me up was
uh it's kind of a it's an interesting way sometimes
to get an idea so i mean here here a lick or
something that you know but here backwards or
in an odd way or in a minor key or some way different,
and it can inspire you to move around. They say,
good writers write, but great writers steal.
Now, this wasn't theft, but if you listen to
songs now, I follow an Instagram page where a
guy points to different songs on the screen,
and they're the same song, modern song. There's
a lot of that that has gone on through the years.
And for me, I always give credit when I get inspired
by a particular song. Addicted to that Rush,
by the way, it was definitely ZZ Top. You know,
heard it on the X, kind of a beat. Oh, yeah.
Definitely. So much of Van Halen, Hopper, Teach,
that was all ZZ Top. They were the influence
of so many bands. So to get your influence from
another band or another song or another artist
is not uncommon at all. David Bowie, Life on
Mars is my way. Basically the same chords. He
loved those chords. And basically, if you listen
to Life on Mars by David Bowie, it takes a lot
from the song My Way. And it was intentional.
He pays tribute to it. And I don't think he hid
that as a secret or anything. So the fact that
Why Me Up was a pretty woman backwards. We told
people that right away. We didn't try to hide
it because it's not a violation of publishing
rules where we would owe them because it's backwards.
So we're off the hook on that. But it's also
such a great, great line. Even backwards, it's
pretty cool. Oh, I absolutely love the track.
And when I found that out, I had to listen to
it and go, wait a minute. That's right. Unbelievable.
Absolutely unbelievable. Well, you brought up
Colorado Bulldog, which was the opening track.
to 1993's bump ahead we talked about addicted
to that rush from the 1989 self -titled album
we might as well dive into the opening track
on the band's 1991 smash album lean into it and
that is daddy brother lover little boy the electric
drill song We can't talk about this song and
not get into the story behind how the electric
drill came part of this song's legacy. Did that
originate from Paul's Racer X days? It did, yeah.
He had, I think, a singer. The singer's name
was Jeff Martin. Wonderful guy. Great singer.
And as a joke, he said to Paul, Paul, you're
so fast. The only way to get any faster is to
put picks on the end of a drill. And so he did.
It turns out Paul's actually faster than that.
The drill can't keep up with him. In fact, it's
true. So he used it for just a little joke for
a while. And we were in the studio doing the
Late Into It album. And I came in with a song
idea. Well, actually, before we rehearsed our
songs first, before we got to the studio. But
I came in with a song idea. I went to the Rainbow
Bar and Grill on Sunset, which was my hangout
when I lived in L .A. And the waitress, her name
was Eileen, behind the bar, a wonderful young
lady, a dear friend of mine. And I'd go there,
and it would be early in the night, not many
people, and I'd have a drink, and we're talking
and hanging out there. And I said, wait, you
got a pen and a napkin or something to write
on? He goes, sure. So I wrote down, Daddy, Brother,
Lover, Little Boy. That was the idea for it.
Again, there's a song title, and then the song
kind of wrote itself after that. So we got together,
worked the song out. It was all ready to go,
and there was some kind of a cool element to
it. So we'll do the solo. And Paul said, well,
I could do it on the drill. You know, I'll play
the solo. Pretty easy, I could do it with a drill.
That'd be hilarious. Okay, good idea. And he
goes, well, as long as I'm doing it on the drill,
why don't you do a harmony version with me on
the bass? I said, well, okay, cool. So I used
his drill and overdubbed my harmony part. I had
to play a Taurus bass pedal with my feet to the
uninitiated. It's a bass synthesizer that you
play with your feet. You only play one note at
a time. So for a big, fat, giant, low -frequency
thing, that's the device to use. And so I had
to hold that note because as I was doing the
drill thing, there was no low note holding the
song together on bass. Yeah, yeah. I used the
Taurus pedal for that while I did that. Then
we also used it at the beginning of the, well,
a little noise because we noticed that the flaw
of using the drill is when you're holding it
close to these pickups, the electric pickups,
and it's spinning, it makes a huge interference.
Now, later on, Ed Van Halen took an electric
screwdriver, put it next to his pickup. He didn't
touch the string with the screwdriver, but just
by playing it, we get the sound of the drill
spinning because it creates a lot of electromagnetic
interference and the pickup picks that up. So
we used a little bit of that noise at the very
beginning. And then another little innovation,
we took Paul's opening guitar chord and had him
hit it real hard with a big... And while he held
it, two other guys grabbed the tuning pegs and
tuned them all down as it's still ringing. So
when you played it backwards, you hear all these
things go... It adds on the chord. So it goes
backwards. So I had two little innovations. So
when you hear that guitar kind of coming together
at the beginning of that song, that's a reverse
guitar that was detuned by two or three other
studio guys. After he just would have just held
that note. So we got to the solo and bang, it
seemed to work out really well. Now, an extra
addition to that story, if you don't mind me
going a little bit more depth in it. Of course.
Here we were out on tour, touring behind the
Lean Into It album. Now we got two albums. We
have enough songs. We don't have to, we can play
all our own originals and stuff. And we had an
amazing manager. His name was Herbie Herbert.
Without him, Mr. Big would have never happened.
He was the man. He's just one of the most iconic
and influential founding fathers of the music
business as we know it today. He was the guy
who said, why don't we sell t -shirts at the
show with the band's name on them? Now, you think,
whoa, merch? I guess when I went to see the Beatles,
they had Beatles shirts. No, I didn't. When I
went to see Hendrix, there were no Hendrix shirts.
And now one of the biggest... Probably the most
lucrative part of the music business at this
point is merchandising. And Herbie was the guy
who said that. So anyway, Herbie was quite an
amazing guy. And unknown to us, he contacted
the Makita Power Tool Company in Japan. And because
To Be With You was becoming a hit and things
were blowing up and things were looking really
good. And he asked them if they have ever had
anyone endorse their products. No, they're a
power tool company. What would I do with that?
And so he flew two executives from Makita to
his office in San Francisco, brought his own
translator and lawyer, explained to these gentlemen
what endorsements were and how they worked and
what artists did what for what companies and
stuff. And quite a speech that he gave these
guys. He asked the translator, are they ready
for the punchline? And they go, yeah. So he said,
we'd like to find out if you would like Mr. Big
to endorse Nikita Power Tools. And they looked
at each other and looked at him and he goes,
yes. Great. Now they said, how much? And Herbie
replied, $1 million. Whoa. And they say, yes.
Wow. Why? This is the greatness of Herbie Herbert.
And sure enough. We got an endorsement deal with
the Makita Power Tool Company. So we got new
drills. And they were amazing to us. It wasn't
like a million in cash. It was a million -dollar
deal. Half of it went to tour support. We took
some profit for ourselves. And Herbie took his
well -deserved commission from that as well.
But they were fantastic to us. And my workshop
is jammed with Makita Power Tools. I'm a loyalist
to them for all time as a result. And then they
re -upped the deal later on. When that deal ran
out, they did it again. And our Makita Power
Tools have never failed us in the song Daddy,
Brother, Lover, Little Boy. They've been there
for us reliably through the years. And as another
side note, I apologize. At the end of the first
term of our endorsement deal, they sent us the
catalog and said, if you guys want anything,
let us know and pick something out. So Pat Torrey
got a miter saw because he was doing some crown
molding. So he had a good, like some kind of
miter saw thing. I think, I don't remember what
Eric got, but Paul got his dad a couple of electric
screwdrivers. And I felt bad about it because
the doubt at the end of the catalog was their
generators. Jeez, they're expensive. No stupid
answer. I go, is it possible to get one of the
generators? He goes, sure, sure. So everybody
got their thing, and nothing showed up in my
house. So now they probably say, that's cool.
I was way overreaching to get that. Unknown to
me, it took them longer to ship it. So sure enough,
this huge crate shows up in my house, and it's
a Makita generator. And so I had it in my garage.
It's still in the crate for the 94 Quake. Wow.
Bang. I was out of town. Went out to get something
to eat late at night. Walked in my house at 4
a .m. and it hit. I was airborne inside my home.
And it's grabbing a smash to pieces. And I live
in a building with seven units. And we're all
dear friends. So we all got together. We all
shut off the gas and went around the thing. And,
you know, the panic. People were killed in that
quake. Our building held up really well. And
we got through the day. figuring things out.
Nighttime's starting to come and there's no power
in anywhere. And one of them goes, geez, what
are we going to do? Nighttime's coming, we got
no power. And I go, I got a generator in my garage.
So we took a tube and siphoned gas out of a car,
put it in the generator. The first poll, we're
the only, in the blacked out LA, there's one
little dot in Sherman Oaks, which is our condo,
because we were the only people that had light
for miles around. So again, thank you to the
Makita Powerful for our safety and comfort. That
is amazing. Now I have to stick with, lean into
this and pivot a little bit away from Makita
for this next question, but. Also go back to
something we talked about earlier, which was
Addicted to That Rush, because on the Lean Into
It album, and this question actually comes from
14 -year -old Brian, because I had the CD in
1991 listening to it, and there's a track on
the album, CDFF, Lucky This Time, which, well,
is short for Compact Disc Fast Forward Speed,
thus CDFF. 14 -year -old Brian would love to
know whose idea that was to start Lucky This
Time with that moment. Because I'll be honest,
I thought my CD player was on the fritz when
I'm listening to it. It took me a few listens
to figure out, oh my God, that's supposed to
be here. Yeah, I think that's Wind Me Up from
the first record. Oh, it's Wind Me Up. That's
amazing. I believe it was. I might be wrong on
it. But it goes there real fast. And your CD
fast forward, it just plays a little. little
snippets of the song instead of speeding up like
an analog record would. So I believe that was
Wind Me Up, I think. Well, with that, I'll CDFF
to the next question because while we're talking
about Lean Into It, I don't think we could talk
about Mr. Big's legacy without discussing To
Be With You, the band's massive number one single
that topped the charts not only in the U .S.
but around the world. Is it true that the band
never intended for this to even be a single?
Yeah, we put it last on the record. If we would
have known it was a hit, we would have led with
it. It would have been the first song on the
record. It would have saved us a lot of time.
Because we toured forever, and we were about
to end tour and go home and start thinking about
the next record when To Be With You hit. So it
was extra pressure on the band because we just
toured the whole world. I mean, to retour the
whole world again behind that hit, which meant...
Some pretty grueling situations. We had a day
off on the Rush Tour where we flew to Berlin
to be on a TV show. It was a variety show. It
wasn't just for entertainment. And they had two
other guests. One was a guest who was raising
money for the Afghan victims of landmines. Terrible,
sad situation. People that, you know, walking
through areas where there was fighting before
and their legs blown off or they're killed. And
so it was quite a sad situation. And then the
next guest was a judge from Italy that was prosecuting
the mafia. So the TV station was shut down with
helicopters circling, snipers on the roof, armored
personnel carriers surrounding with machine guns
all over the place. big giant metal sheets in
every room in case a bomb went off that they
would stop the explosive. And once we got in
there, we couldn't leave the building. So we
couldn't go back and take a nap or anything like
that. So we were in there and, you know, the
Afghan war landmine victims. Okay, the next segment,
the guy talking about prosecuting the mafia and
it was somber and difficult and, you know, nobody
could leave the building once they were in it,
including the audience. machine gun guys and
snipers and helicopters. Unbelievable. Okay.
And now Mr. Big. So we went out and just did,
I think, a lip sync version to be with you. Curtain
comes down to the airport, fly back and to Atlanta
to the rush tour back up. So we were zombies.
And that is another aside. That's the show that
Paul got the drill caught in his hair. Because
he had the drill and what he meant to do to the
audience is like, I can't hear you. But he still
had the drill in his hand. So he held his hand
up and he couldn't let go of it. And his guitar
was feeding back. So I ran over to him on stage
and get behind my amp. And he ran back there
and I did a quick emergency bass solo while I'm
looking over. He came back out. Now, when he
was back there. The crew guy had scissors. He
goes, no, no, don't cut my hair. Just put it
in reverse. This is while the noise is going
and the crowd is screaming and roaring. Put it
in reverse and hit the trigger. So they did,
and it went back the other way. It locked in
there again. So we managed to get the bit out
of the drill and get it out of there, and it
came back. And the next day, Rush put power tools
all over the stage. This is just a comedy. So
that's a B -side. Now, how did we get here? The
original question was? Oh, the original question
was, was it true that the band never intended
for this to be a single? How did the song get
to the level it did? Number one all over the
world. Another backstory. I apologize. I'll do
it quickly. Atlantic Records hated Elena Noel.
Really? They hated the record. They did not want
to release it. They weren't going to release
it. Our manager had to fly to New York. They
had to talk with the president of Atlantic Records.
And our manager was a powerful guy at the time,
heavy, one of the most powerful guys in the biz.
And they had to call security when he was in
the office of the president because there was
so much screaming and pounding and smashing.
It wasn't a physical fight, but a bit of screaming,
yelling. And so finally Atlantic agreed to release
the record, but they said we're going to what
they call sandbag it. In other words, they'll
put it out. Screw you guys. You're on your own.
We don't care what happens to it. We're not going
to promote it. We're not going to do anything.
We're not going to do any marketing. We're not
going to do anything. GTFO. And that's the end
of it. So Herbie knew a guy, I believe by the
name of Jeff McCluskey. He was the most famous
FM radio promotion guy in the country. He was
the man. And Jeff was Herbie's friend. And so
Herbie contacted Jeff and said, here's the situation.
So we need some help on this record, blah, blah,
blah. We had no record company backing us up,
so Herbie found some guys to do it. And sure
enough, the record came out. I think we did two
or three singles first, and nothing quite happened.
And then a guy named John Terry in Lincoln, Nebraska,
began playing it, and it began to get action.
It got phones. People were calling up, who is
the band? And all the people were also calling
in to request it all on its own. No record company
help, no nothing. And then it started to act
at retail. So there's three things you need.
You request, retail, and response calls, people
calling and asking who it is, the metrics that
they judge whether a record's doing well or not.
And it was doing great. It started to shoot up.
Things are going, it's reacting at retail. People
are requesting it. It's looking really good.
So Atlantic Records didn't believe it. They thought
we made it up. They thought we had friends in
Lincoln, Nebraska that we paid money to go into
the store and buy it. I swear to God, they thought
that. So much so, they flew a guy to Lincoln,
Nebraska to see if it was even true. They didn't
believe it. And sure enough, it went from Lincoln
to other cities, and then to Boston, and then
to Miami, and Seattle, and San Diego, and all
over the place. Pretty much all on its own. And
if that wasn't enough to add insult to injury,
radio stations will only... At the time, not
always a hard and fast rule, but nevertheless
generally true, they'd add an artist from CBS
Records to their playlist, a new song, from Atlantic,
Warner, Elektra. To give everybody a fair shot,
they'd add one artist from a label. So when they
added Mr. Big, Atlantic would call the radio
station. No, no, no, no, no. Don't add the Mr.
Big. We got a Phil Collins record. We were working
it. No, no. But they said, it's working for us.
We're going to add it. So Atlantic even tried
to stop it as it was going. And in the end, we
got up into the top 20. We thought, wow, this
is as high as this is going to go. But that's
amazing. Then in the top 10. And then we had
Prince and Michael Jackson both had a single.
that was probably going to go to number one right
said fred with i'm too sexy for my shirt was
the number one song and out of nowhere mr big
popped into the number one for three weeks and
uh our minds were completely blown and it went
and the number one actually in 14 countries around
the world right now it's at over 100 million
views on youtube and all that was great so the
addition to my story that's way too long and
i apologize for it And any of you that are sleeping
out there, I apologize, is we had a meeting with
Atlantic Records prior to the next record. And
the president of Atlantic Records was sitting
there at the meeting and said, I swear to God,
he said this. I got five witnesses, three band
members and two other people that are still my
dear friend that were sitting at the table. And
he said, yeah, the moment we heard to me, we
knew that was a hit. It didn't happen like that,
bro. So that was the story of To Be With You.
And when it was brought to us, Eric had it on,
he co -wrote it with another guy, and he had
it on a little cassette. And he kind of, you
know, I don't think, you know, we shouldn't,
we kind of had to talk him into it. Because we
heard it, me, Paul, and Patty. Wow, it's a great
little song. We should put it on like at the
end of the album as the credits are rolling,
you know, at the end of the movie. Yeah, yeah.
We had to talk him into it. And I'm sure he's
glad now that he went along with our suggestion
because that's an extremely successful song.
Pretty cool. But yeah, the little song that could.
Yeah, not to dive a little deeper into this Atlantic
Records thing, but there was, if I remember correctly,
a very successful music video that was also airing
on MTV that contributed to this song's success.
I've read that this video had a quote -unquote
shoestring budget. Shoestring. Yeah, less than
a shoestring. What kind of shoestrings are we
talking about here? About maybe an eighth. of
what a normal video was going for at that time.
Wow. We had a wonderful lady named Nancy Bennett
who was our director for that. And we shot it
in a train in Train Town, which is a little train
museum off Coanga Boulevard in North Hollywood.
And that's why the long shot. They shot it in
a strange, because we wanted a long room to get
up close and move back. And that was it. We went
in and shot it in a day. And we had our fingers
crossed. It went to MTV number one for a long
time. And it's still playing on anything that
plays videos. It's quite an amazing success.
And we're so glad that it was organic. Because
there's a lot of ways to play the system to get
a record to number one. Now more than ever. And
right around that time, they did a thing called
SoundScan. Which means when you sold a record,
they would scan it. And there was no fudge in
the numbers. Because a record store could call
and say, yeah, we just sold 100 copies. They
sold two. And that's shooting up the chart. But
now you couldn't get away with that anymore.
Right, right. So it was a real number one for
real. There's no shenanigans. People will figure
out a way no matter what. There's plenty of shenanigans
that replace those shenanigans. But in fact,
it was a real number one, which is mind -blowing.
And then from the same album, Just Take My Heart
was also a top 20 hit, reaching number 16 on
the US Billboard Hot 100, number 26 on the UK
singles chart, and cracked the top 20 in Canada,
Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Switzerland.
On the Big Finish Tour, the band was playing
Lean Into It in its entirety. Yes. We talked
about the singles. We talked about the Electric
Drill song, To Be With You, Just Take My Heart.
Were there any non -singles from Lean Into It
that you played on this run that the band said,
you know what? What a great song to be able to
bring back into the Mr. Big Fold. Lucky this
time. What a great song. I really love that song.
And Never Say Never was another good one, too.
Yeah, it's a funny thing. The music biz is unusual.
set of rules and circumstances that you have
to learn to play that game. And I didn't know
anything about it. Fortunately, again, we had
Herbie Herbert, who was a grandmaster, literally,
of that game. And he was the man responsible
for it all. Pretty awesome. Well, we did talk
about 1993's Bump Ahead earlier when we were
talking about Colorado Bulldog. While we're on
that album for a brief second here, I do want
to bring up the band's incredible cover of Cat
Stevens' Wild World, which is also included on
the Big Finish Live album. I've always been a
huge fan of cover songs, and I talk about them
all the time on this show. I'd love to know the
mindset behind what Mr. Big as a band was thinking,
putting their stamp on an already iconic song.
Well, for the next record, Bump Ahead, Atlantic
record, Now That We... Now that we had a hit,
they wanted another should be with you. We said,
yeah, but we don't want to really, you know,
we had a copy because a lot of bands in the old
days did that. The next single sounded like the
first one. I said, nah, you know, we, and fortunately
we had Herbie as our guy, so we could have an
opinion. So we said, I don't know. I mean, we,
you know. Doing another acoustic ballad, you
know, we love it and we play it and I still love
it to this day. But, you know, that was then,
that was a thing. And so we're kind of at a dilemma
and the label is demanding. Paul had a song that
went... It didn't quite catch. We had a lot of
songs that we didn't fully record. A cool thing,
but for some reason it wasn't quite working in
our mind. And I remember saying, wait a minute,
that's Wild World by Cat Stevens. Oh, yeah, cool.
So we checked out a version of it. It's in a
pretty low key. So we changed the key. We bring
it up for Eric's voice. And the song itself,
if you listen to the original recording, it's
a masterpiece. I love Cat Stevens, and I love
that song. But it's not your traditional drum
track, kick, hat, snare. And then the bass and
then the guitar, you know, put together like
so many songs. We just kind of, you know, there's
a little snare hit kind of happens. It's a floating.
It's not like a rock band playing a song. And
so we kind of did it more of our way, a little
bit more cohesive by modern standards. But I
was a huge Cat Stevens fan. Cash Bullet 4, that
record, Peace Train, when that single first came
out, I loved it. An interesting thing happened,
though. It was during the time that some of the
situation in world politics with the Islamic
terrorism thing was starting up, and we started
to catch heat for playing a song by Cat Stevens,
who had converted to Islam. So we go to radio
stations in America, and they go, what about
this? You're contributing to the... Well, no,
we just love Cat Stevens, and it's a beautiful
song, and it's everybody, you know... We're a
school. There's no political agenda or support
of anything bad here. Cat's a wonderful guy,
and we love his music, and we don't want to get
involved in that. But some stations gave us trouble
for that. Unknown to us, in Indonesia, which
is an Islamic country, we played there a lot.
It was one of the first Western bands to play
in some cities in Indonesia. It was amazing.
The crowds were incredible. Thousands of people
at the airport getting hurt by fans trying to
get to the hotel. Total pandemonium. So unknown
to us, they were watching, and we stuck up for
Cat Stevens. So when we went back to Indonesia,
we were the heroes. Somebody actually said something
good about them and their people, which is something
I believe. There's every element of political
or religious groups. There's a bad element, but
it's mostly good. I think not that's a generality,
and there's some wonderful people down there
that we love dearly. And so I get more email
to this day from Indonesia than anywhere in the
world. So pretty cool. Well, you're sitting there
holding your bass and me being a bass player
and you being one of my biggest inspirations
on the instrument. I'd be remiss if I didn't
bring up your bass solo from the Big Finish Live.
Is this track something you composed specifically
in advance for the tour? Or is your bass solo
a different experience each and every evening?
Because to me, it sounds like you're bringing
this dynamic. I almost want to call it cinematic
approach to a bass solo. And I just like to get
inside your head because having seen it live,
it's. I'm at a loss for words. And as a guy who
talks on a podcast, that doesn't happen very
often. Well, that's very, very kind of you. No,
I kind of just let nature take its course. There's
some parts that all do that same part, but it's
never the same, really. It's a different night
to night. And it came from years ago. We got
the name of the band from the song Mr. Big by
Free. We used to play that song in Tallis in
the old, old days. So we're at the Poor House
West in Hamburg, New York in the early 70s and
playing that song. And there's an extended jam
in the middle where the bass player for free,
Andy Frazier, amazing player, does a bass solo
with the band playing. And so I would always
do a little thing there because I love Andy Frazier.
And it was a chance for me to do my little shtick.
And one night I said to the band, wait, wait,
what if you guys just stop? And I'll just go
off and then I'll cue you to come back in. OK,
so that night they did. They just stopped. And
I went. my squiggly bits and all that. And they
loved it because they got a chance to go get
a beer and talk to some girls while they're splitting
away and come back, two, three, four, and come
back into the song again. And so I started doing
it on a regular basis. Then I thought, I'm getting
kind of tired of it, so I'll stop. And then people
say, wait, what happened to the bass solo? Where's
the bass solo? They demanded in a comedy way.
So I went back to doing it. And so doing a bass
solo every night, even when you're not inspired
or there's 10 people there, forces you to dig
really deep and come up with a lot of ideas and
ways to make it interesting. And we were playing
clubs with people dancing and a solo thing. Generally,
that would be, so I had to make it entertaining
to people who normally wouldn't listen to a thing
like that. And that was a great stress. on me
to force me to come up with ways to make it entertaining
to non -bass players and non -musicians to some
degree. So doing that for a decade or more got
me up to the point where I got somewhat confident
at being able to put something together that
is somehow interesting to most. I doubt never
all, most people. And we kept it in there. So
that was the evolution of that. And then by the
time Mr. Big comes, unaccompanied solos were
becoming common. You know, Ed Van Halen's Eruption,
of course. And then everybody had a thing where
they did their solo thing. But back in 1973,
or maybe even earlier than that, I'm not sure
when that song came out. When the song Mr. Big
came out. But since I've been doing it since
then, it kind of made sense that I could pull
disparate parts together and create a somewhat
unified thing. Amazing. Well, when you and I
talked on episode 13, one of the things you said
was the biggest thing you wanted to do with this
final Mr. Big tour was to honor the legacy of
Pat Torpey and to celebrate the band's music
with one final goodbye. Looking back on this
run, did it bring the band as well as the fans
the honor and celebration you were hoping for
when we talked all the way back when? Absolutely,
and then some. It was a wonderful thing. So many
friends came out to these shows. If they weren't
anywhere near us, people flew in. Our shows in
Germany, people flew in from Korea, Singapore,
Japan, all over the USA, from South America,
from all over the rest of Europe. And we were
always very close with our fans. So we had so
many people. The front row was jammed. We knew
everybody in the front row. It was amazing. And
we'd always dedicate a song to Pat. In the spirit
and the love of our dear departed brother, Pat
Torpey. Yeah. And the signature, an iconic beat.
Check this out. All right, Nick, rip it. Take
Cover, which is this great drum beat that he
did, and Nick DiVergilio, and then also when
he had to skip a few shows with us, Edu Comanato
from Brazil came in and played. Both of them
did an amazing job. Nick, amazing drummer, great
singer. He was with us from the very beginning
of this tour, amazing. And we'd start that song,
and it would always be a dedication to the memory
of Pat Torpey, and I think we did it right by
him. And he was always on our minds and always
within the conversation talking about Pat and
what happened here and there and all the things
we remembered about him. And Nick did such a
great job of the finesse and nuance that was
a lot of Pat's playing. It's hard to duplicate.
It's like a fingerprint or DNA or the iris of
your eyes. It's a unique thing for every drummer.
And he was really great. He brought his own style
to it as well. But still, he paid great tribute
to Pat, and we pay him a great honor. And the
gentleman from Brazil also, Edu, they did a great
job of that. So I think we did it right to give
Pat the honor that he so surely deserved for
his awesomeness and how touched so many people
were who knew him. Truly wonderful, great guy.
And we paid the proper tribute. Well, with the
Mr. Big chapter officially closed, what's next
for Billy Sheehan, musically speaking? I've got
about three or four configurations of players
that I'm talking with and discussing a couple
things with. A couple offers from some bands
that I'm thinking about. But I live to play live
and I play live to live. So I'm going to play.
Until they wheel me out and then some. Until
they roll me out on my back and I got the bass
in there. I was like, keep playing forever. I
always want to play. It's so essential to me.
So I don't know yet, but hopefully I'll be out
touring again by next summer. Well, Billy, for
the second time I get to say this to you, this
has been an absolute honor. I'm so glad our musical
paths were able to cross again. Thank you so
much for joining me on my weekly mixtape. Thank
you very, very much for having me. And I hope
I see you around somewhere somehow. And to all
those listening today, I'd like to thank you
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and until next time, enjoy the tunes.