WRIF Virtual Rock Room with Billy Sheehan
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00:00Thank you so much for watching Riff TV. Now, this interview is obviously with video, but I don't interview everybody on Zoom.
00:07That's why I put it on my Talkin' Rock with Meltdown podcast. We talk to rock artists from all over the genre.
00:13So check out Talkin' Rock with Meltdown wherever you get your podcasts. And now, to today's video interview.
00:20And there he is, Billy Sheehan, the legend. How are you, Billy?
00:23I'm good, thanks very much.
00:25Yeah, I see you got your bass there, and it's the same color as your walls, just about.
00:30Yeah, kind of. He's got a motif going on here.
00:32Yeah, no doubt. Are you one of these guys, like, I was just talking about this with somebody the other day.
00:36John Five cannot stop playing his guitar. Are you one of those guys?
00:41Yeah, I remember my old apartment back in Buffalo.
00:44People would come and knock on the door, and I'd answer the door with my bass on.
00:47And they'd say, don't you ever put that thing down?
00:50I said, not really. No, I'm not playing all the time.
00:54And it's annoying to some, maybe, but I got to do it.
01:00Yeah. Where were you? Were you in Kenmore, Tonawanda area?
01:04Yeah, actually, Kenmore.
01:05Yeah.
01:06I went to Kenmore East High School, and it was a great spot, close to, not far from UB.
01:13Yeah.
01:13And a nice little spot.
01:16If I was a nine-to-fiver, I might still be there.
01:18It was a very, very pleasant place, but my duty lied elsewhere.
01:25That's right, exactly. Yeah, your travels took you elsewhere.
01:27As did mine. I grew up out by Darien Lake, and I've been here in Detroit now for 27 years, so since 1995.
01:34Wow.
01:34So you've got your show-and-tell with your bass, so I've got some stuff here.
01:38So I got this record here, okay?
01:41Wow.
01:41Yeah, I got that one. I love this record.
01:44Do you know what the cover is?
01:46No, tell us what this is.
01:47Turn it that way.
01:52That's me.
01:55No kidding.
01:56So it is. Okay, I never knew this before.
01:59A lot of people never knew, and I never even saw it.
02:02I think I was working on Michael Schenker's record in England, and, well, they did, after we recorded this,
02:11and I came back home, and I said, here's the cover. What do you think?
02:14And I go, what is it, like a fire or lava?
02:16They go, no, it's you.
02:17I had no idea, so.
02:19Yeah, it almost looks a little bit like the Metallica Load album covers, but, yeah, now I get it.
02:24Okay, yeah.
02:25Okay, I get it now.
02:26And then I got Live Speed on Ice, one of my favorites.
02:29These are all records I had as a kid, by the way.
02:31Oh, great.
02:31Yeah.
02:32I forgot the place we played in Detroit.
02:35What was the big kind of venue, late 80s in Detroit, or mid-80s?
02:40Yeah, I mean, Harpo's or Cobo Harpo's.
02:42Harpo's, yeah.
02:44Yeah, Harpo's.
02:45What a historic place, yeah.
02:46I've still got cassettes.
02:49They've since been digitized from live shows of Vitalis from Harpo's.
02:54It's pretty cool.
02:55And then the final one here, my favorite, I mean, Sink Your Teeth.
02:58I mean, just the title track alone is worth the price of admission, as far as I'm concerned.
03:02I love that song.
03:04And Dave Constantino, I think I've told you this before, but I recorded my demo tapes with Dave when I was in 1988,
03:10and he actually wrote on there, hope the DJing goes well.
03:13This was in 1988, so here we are in 2023.
03:17Incredible.
03:17You got the new Talos record?
03:19I haven't gotten that yet.
03:20No, I haven't gotten that one yet, but tell me about that.
03:241985.
03:25That's right, yeah.
03:25The title.
03:26And that's when I left, but it was kind of a way to pay tribute to that time in music.
03:31It was 1985.
03:32It was an explosion of bands.
03:34In L.A., on Sunset Strip, it was like Mardi Gras every night of just rock and roll people and bands,
03:40and just the most amazing time for music.
03:44And so we pay a little tribute to that by finally correctly recording all the songs that we either didn't record
03:51or just were on the live record, which we had planned to do before I left the band.
03:56So the record did great.
03:59We charted on a billboard with it, so it was a fitting tribute to all those Talos years.
04:06Man, in 1985, boy, your world went topsy-turvy, didn't it?
04:09I mean, that was really where everything started to change for you, didn't it?
04:13Yeah, it sure did, and it came all within about a week.
04:17Everything happened.
04:18It was amazing.
04:20I got a – we had just done a showcase for Gold Mountain Records.
04:24A guy, Danny Goldberg was his name, a pretty famous guy in the music biz.
04:28He went on to manage Nirvana later on, and it's still an industry bigwig.
04:33We did a showcase for him.
04:38We did – we showcased, I think, for the William Morris Agency for an agency as well.
04:44And so all in the course of one week, we got a phone call.
04:48Danny Goldberg wants to sign you guys.
04:49He goes, that's it.
04:51We got a deal.
04:52Amazing.
04:52A major label deal.
04:53Great.
04:54And then William Morris Agency calls and said, hey, we love the band.
04:58We want them to tour.
05:00Yngwie's got a tour.
05:01You guys want to open up for the Yngwie tour?
05:04I said, yeah, summer of 85.
05:06Well, let's do it.
05:07Then the next call I got was from Dave Roth's office saying, you know, Dave would like to have a meeting with Billy regarding his movie.
05:16I said, what?
05:18So when I finally did get there, yeah, there was a movie.
05:22He said, yeah, there's a movie, but that's not really why I called you.
05:24And I was sworn to secrecy.
05:25So that whole tour with Yngwie, I knew I was going to leave the band when the tour ended.
05:29Oh, really?
05:30And bittersweet.
05:32But it was great getting back with the Talos guys again to kind of finish off what we had started in that situation.
05:38So, yeah, it was an amazing year in 1985.
05:42And so it's been an incredible adventure since then.
05:48Pretty mind-blowing.
05:49Yeah, no doubt for a kid from Buffalo.
05:52Now you're down in Nashville, correct?
05:53Yeah, I've been here about five years now.
05:55We left L.A.
05:55Sadly, L.A. is just in bad shape and it's getting really dangerous.
06:01Right.
06:02If I'm on tour, my wife's home alone.
06:04I didn't feel right about that.
06:05So we've got a beautiful, safe spot here and a wonderful neighbors and a great spot.
06:11We love it here very much.
06:12And it's Music City.
06:13So there's musicians everywhere and gear and anything you could possibly need as a musician is here times 10.
06:20It's pretty awesome.
06:21Yeah, I've been down there several times.
06:22I'm heading down there back in coming up in April.
06:24I'll tell you about that later.
06:25But you'll be on tour.
06:26Actually, you're coming here March 11th.
06:28You guys are celebrating my birthday weekend with me.
06:30So that's going to be fantastic.
06:31I can hardly wait.
06:32Great.
06:32Great.
06:33Fantastic.
06:33Come on down.
06:34And if you're in Nashville, we're our last show of this leg of the tour.
06:38There are, as with any dog, there's probably four or more legs.
06:42We're going to play April 6th here.
06:45Oh, OK.
06:46So you might be around when I come down.
06:47So we might have to touch base.
06:49So, yeah, I got something really cool going on.
06:51I'll tell you about later.
06:52By the way, as far as Talos is concerned, to kind of wrap up that, Phil Narrow, were you in contact with him?
07:01Oh, absolutely.
07:03I've produced the vocals on the record.
07:07He was in Toronto, and I'm here in Nashville.
07:10So we used a special program called Audio Movers.
07:12So my main music computer had the output of the recording console exactly in real time.
07:19I sort of know how they do it.
07:20And then we did FaceTime like this with Phil at the mic and the engineer there, Russ McKay.
07:29And so I produced all the records with Phil in that, or all the songs with Phil in that manner, the vocals.
07:36So we knew there was a problem a while ago, but we didn't know that it had come back and how bad it was medically for him.
07:45And we, now that I know what I know, at the microphone, he was given 200%.
07:52He was hitting it like you can't imagine.
07:56He was just killing.
07:57And so great.
07:59Knowing now that he had that on his shoulders, I'm even more amazed at his inner strength.
08:07To really dig deep, sing, he sang amazingly on this record too.
08:13And knowing that he was in, he's in big trouble.
08:17And so after the record got done, things went downhill pretty quick.
08:22And I stayed in touch, of course, and I was in Texas doing another recording and I saw my phone ringing and it was his brother.
08:30And I knew it.
08:32So sadly, we lost him.
08:33And so the record, as I initially said, was a tribute to a time in music.
08:39But since then, of course, we've adjusted that.
08:42That is also a tribute to the legacy of Phil Nero because he's a wonderful, wonderful, sweet guy.
08:47Probably the easiest singer I've ever worked with ever.
08:50So easy.
08:51And what a great performer, great songwriter, and what a voice.
08:56And listen to Crystal Clear on the new record.
08:59Man, he just knocks it out of the park.
09:01So, so great.
09:02So we're devastated with his loss.
09:05And we hope this record pays his legacy proper tribute.
09:11Now, he was, correct me if I'm wrong, I never met Phil.
09:14We followed each other on social media.
09:16Seemed like a super nice guy.
09:17But was he from Rochester that ended up in Toronto?
09:20Is that how that worked?
09:21Yeah.
09:22I think he married a girl in Toronto later on.
09:25After, when I left, I lost touch with a lot of people because it was a busy time for me.
09:30But the drummer, Mark Miller, of course, who's on this record, on the new Talos record.
09:35And he's from Rochester as well.
09:37So I kind of grabbed the two Rochester guys when the original two quit the band.
09:42And then we got the guitarist from L.A., Mitch Perry, who was also on the new record.
09:48The two songs he contributed to the band, Crystal Clear and On The Take, he played a guitar on those for us.
09:55He did a great job of it, too.
09:56It was wonderful to work with him again.
09:58Yeah, that's cool.
09:58So Winery Dogs 3 is out right now.
10:02And a couple of things that right away strike me, when you listen to this record, for me anyways, obviously, you know, the killer playing from all of you guys.
10:11The song, The Red Wine, I really liked.
10:13And I know that you're a red wine guy.
10:15A little bit.
10:16Yeah.
10:16And Mad World.
10:17I love that with the bass solo at the end and stuff.
10:19And, you know, Richie Cotson, everyone says, you know, he sounds, you know, Chris Cornell, which obviously he does.
10:24But I'm trying to trying to figure out what else he sounds like, maybe like a little bit of Todd Rundgren mixed in or something.
10:31He's got this classic sound to his voice.
10:34And he's a very soulful singer.
10:35And he's got those soul moves.
10:38Yeah.
10:38That a lot of singers just don't have.
10:41And and he he's really a strong singer, too.
10:45We did nine shows in a row with him a couple of tours ago.
10:48And no problem.
10:50Sang a two hour show, nine nights in a row.
10:53Pretty amazing.
10:54Yeah, he's an incredible vocalist.
10:57He quit using a pick a few years ago.
10:59So he's all finger style now.
11:01Amazing.
11:02Listen to some of the riffs on there.
11:04I don't know how he's doing it, but it's pretty, pretty incredible.
11:07And incredible songwriter, too.
11:10So it's a he's quite a package and is a joy to work with.
11:14Wonderful guy.
11:16Just a pleasant, enjoyable, funny.
11:19He's a lunatic, too.
11:20He's got a bit of that in there as well.
11:22But he's a him and Mike also, Mike being a supreme talent and has so many other things he brings to the band besides his amazing drumming.
11:33He's a great singer as well.
11:35Great songwriter, arranger.
11:37Always is always on top of his game.
11:39It's really just a joy to work with both those guys.
11:42Now, I'm not a musician, but how unusual is it for a guitar player to just stop using a pick?
11:48Pretty unusual.
11:50Is it?
11:50I was going to say, does that happen all the time?
11:52I don't know.
11:53I think he was down in Brazil doing some solo shows, I think.
11:57I hope I get the story correct.
11:59It's an approximation.
12:01Anyway, and he's just kind of, you know, tired of things and bored.
12:06He goes, I can enter the next set without a pick.
12:08And he did.
12:09And it's amazing.
12:10I mean, it really, he's just some incredible riffs.
12:12He played here on a solo tour and me and a couple of friends went down to see him and say hi.
12:16And the Nashville guys are going, hey, some of those Nashville finger picking guys, they better watch out for him.
12:24Yeah.
12:25Do you spend a lot of time in downtown Nashville since you're there or no?
12:28No, not really.
12:30I love it.
12:30It's great.
12:31I don't have a lot of time to go out.
12:33I can see bands and music scene.
12:35I'm usually, you know, we call it a busman's holiday.
12:38A bus driver goes on a holiday.
12:39What does he do?
12:40He dates around on a bus.
12:41So, you know, I get night off or a time off.
12:45I'm usually hanging at home and doing things around the house and practicing and working and working on my basses and stuff like that.
12:53But Nashville is a riot.
12:54Broadway is just a party every night.
12:58And it's really cool, too.
13:00I'm not a country guy.
13:02You know, I'm not a country music.
13:04I like some of the old school stuff.
13:06Conway Twitty and Johnny Cash, things like that, Dolly Parton and such.
13:11But the modern country is not necessarily my thing.
13:14But it's certainly the engine that drives this town.
13:17But there's a lot more rock guys in town now, too.
13:21I think Tom Kiefer from Cinderella.
13:25Tom Peterson from Cheap Trick.
13:27I think Billy Gibbons just moved here.
13:29The Motley Crue guys.
13:32Ray Lugier, a dear friend of mine, Dr. Arlton Korn.
13:34A lot of rock guys here.
13:37So it's an amazing music community, really.
13:40It's kind of like what L.A. was in the 60s and 70s in many ways.
13:45Yeah.
13:45I was down there for the first time in October of 2020.
13:48You could have swung a dead cat and not hit anybody because that was right during the pandemic.
13:52But during the pandemic, so obviously you were in Nashville.
13:55Were you writing and stuff when you had your downtime, when you were locked down?
14:00I did tracks for people.
14:02People, I didn't advertise.
14:04I just got an email and said, hey, I got the song.
14:05Can you play bass on it?
14:06I go, well, I learned early on I got to hear it first.
14:09Okay.
14:10There's a couple I said yes to and then we got it.
14:12I go, oh, we're in big trouble here.
14:15It was just not very together.
14:16And I only had to actually pass on one or two guys.
14:24And we ended up doing over 600 tracks.
14:27Wow.
14:27So we record it constantly.
14:29My engineer was here all week.
14:31We'd get the tracks.
14:34They'd email us the files and we'd put it up and do bass on it.
14:38Every style you could imagine and some you couldn't.
14:41It was spoken word, death metal, classical, jazz, fusion, prog, rock, rockabilly, country,
14:52some real actual country.
14:53It was a great experience, though, to play all those different styles of music and try
15:00and do it justice to it.
15:01If I'm playing a country record, it's going to be, you know, play it the way it's supposed
15:09to play.
15:09And here in Nashville, all the country guys say, there's no money above the fifth fret.
15:15It's a great little quote.
15:17So, you know, just do it, do it righteously.
15:19And the death metal, do it heavy and, you know, whatever.
15:23Play accordingly.
15:24And I learned a lot because I'm not generally a studio guy.
15:28Of course, I've made a lot of records, but I don't, I'm not like a session guy, you know.
15:32Right.
15:33But this, it really inspired me to push the envelope and understand what music I was playing
15:41and really get that correct feel and do it properly.
15:44And it was amazing to see what tracks, we get tracks and there's no bass.
15:49And a lot of times we'd look at each other and think, oh, man, I don't know.
15:53This is, now we get proper bass in there.
15:56And I don't think because it's me playing it, but just when you get real bass in a track,
16:01man, it, the whole thing comes alive.
16:04It was mind-blowing.
16:05I'd look at, you know, my engineer and I would sit here and go, wow, there's a song there.
16:09This is pretty cool.
16:11And I'm just saying bass in general, without it, man, life is pretty bleak.
16:16Yeah, there's, yeah.
16:17It doesn't really come together.
16:18Yeah.
16:18You get a proper bass line on something.
16:20It's quite an interesting study.
16:22Well, when you're watching a band and like the bass amp goes out or something, like you
16:25notice it right away.
16:26But was this, was this one of those things where like, they would just, you know, pay
16:29you and you were like, not, you know, get credit on the album or did you get credit
16:34on some of them or were some of them just like, you know, you did that.
16:37Sideman, sideman, typical sideman.
16:39You get paid for, for the thing.
16:40You use my name if they want.
16:41If not, it's a, a lot of guys try to, Hey, can we put your picture on the cover?
16:47I go, no, you know, thank you.
16:51But I just, you know, I'm just being a sideman.
16:54I didn't write it or anything.
16:56I give sometimes some advice about the arrangement or I would do two versions.
17:02I say, here's what you wanted.
17:03And here's another one that I think you might find fits it better.
17:07And I generally would, would agree with me on that and, or do a combination of the two.
17:12So, uh, it was a great experience.
17:15It was really good.
17:15So the pandemic, uh, we didn't affect it.
17:18We weren't all that locked down here in, uh, Nashville.
17:21Right.
17:21You know, uh, even at the height of it, we wasn't, wasn't that bad.
17:25Well, I can, I can honestly say I did come home with COVID.
17:28So, you know, what are you going to do?
17:31Right.
17:31So, so you got your, you know, uh, winery dogs, of course, a lot of touring stuff going
17:36on this year.
17:37So what's the deal with Mr. Big?
17:38Like, what do you guys, uh, are you guys preparing for anything you're rehearsing?
17:41What's going on with that right now?
17:42Uh, it's nothing set, uh, yet we're, we're considering doing some shows, uh, to pay a
17:49tribute to Pat Torpy, our drummer who we lost a few years ago.
17:52Uh, no news on it at all.
17:55Uh, behind the scenes, they're looking at the possibility of some gigs and such, you know,
18:00it's not, uh, uh, we'll probably take a, uh, a short time slot at some point this year
18:06to possibly do something, but nothing's set in stone yet.
18:09So we're, we're, uh, I wish I could tell you more, but I just really don't know and
18:13nothing's been decided, but I hope it happens.
18:16I hope it, uh, I'd love to play with, uh, Eric and Paul again and, uh, we'll see what's
18:20happening.
18:21But you said, uh, you said in interviews before that you guys do have a drummer.
18:24So at least you can say you have a drummer or someone's going to go out.
18:26We have, we have a guy, but he has other commitments.
18:28So we don't like to get into it and he, he, he, he's in a position where he, we would
18:33prefer not to be announced at this point because he has other commitments that he
18:36didn't want to cloud the, uh, issue with, with that.
18:39But we found a wonderful guy and he's, uh, sings his ass off.
18:42So we're, we're very pleased about that.
18:44We needed a drummer that sang.
18:45Matt Starr was great.
18:46He can sing great too, but he just doesn't have, he has a different range.
18:49And Pat had a higher range.
18:51So Pat, myself and Paul would do this harmony burst.
18:55And Eric was free to continue singing lead or scat around us.
18:59So we need a guy to do that.
19:01So we have somebody that can do that and, uh, we'll, we'll be announcing it, uh, and any
19:05more information regarding it ASAP.
19:07Yeah.
19:08Uh, so just say it's Dave Grohl so I can get a lot of clicks.
19:11Okay.
19:13I'm just teasing you.
19:14Of course.
19:15Uh, Jesse Galante back home in Buffalo.
19:17She wanted to know, um, what inspired you to start the Buffalo annual Christmas concert?
19:21Of course, you just did that in Buffalo in, uh, you had back there.
19:24So, so what's that all about?
19:26Well, she was kind of the, uh, inspiration in a lot of ways.
19:29Cause her husband, uh, Larry Swiss, uh, the, the Talos record with me sideways on it.
19:35Yeah.
19:35Uh, he, he produced that record and, uh, she ended up, uh, years later, uh, meeting him
19:41and they got married and he passed away sadly.
19:43And I, when I, I, I met her at a NAMM show and I, and it's hard to stay in touch with
19:48your friends, with all your friends from your hometown originally, when you moved to LA
19:52and you got all new friends and it's a much busier life.
19:54So I realized that, and as I'm talking to her, I realized, oh geez, I didn't say anything
19:58about her husband.
19:59I said, as Jess, I, I, I'm so, I, I'm so sorry, but I didn't, I never, you know, gave
20:06you my condolences for, for Larry.
20:07And, you know, she understood.
20:09And I, and I said, you know, it's because none of us really know what's going on in
20:12each other's lives at all.
20:14All the musicians were hung out together back in the day in Buffalo.
20:17There was dozens of us that were in bands.
20:19We all knew each other.
20:20We all hung out.
20:21And so maybe we should do like a Christmas show and have everybody come on down.
20:25We can say hello to everybody and, uh, see what, what's new in everybody's lives, you
20:29know?
20:29And so we did.
20:30And so for each show, uh, due to the situation that was a conversation that started it, we do
20:37a little memorial for anyone in the, in that year that it might may have passed on.
20:41And, uh, uh, and this year I said at the end of it, I hope next year we have nobody, but
20:47sadly, uh, Ken Wilsack, uh, he passed away.
20:50You might've known him in Buffalo area.
20:52I've heard the name.
20:52Yeah.
20:53Yeah.
20:54Sadly, he passed away.
20:55So hopefully he'll be the only one, but it's a wonderful show, a full horn section,
21:00a lot of great music, a lot of Christmas music, but we do a lot of other songs too.
21:04So if you're in the Buffalo area, Christmas time next year, uh, you got to come down and
21:08join us as a riot.
21:10But I know exactly what you're talking about because when you left Buffalo is before like
21:13the internet and stuff.
21:14And now at least you can keep track of people because there was no cell phones and nothing.
21:18When I came here in 1995, it's like, you know, I would call people my five cent a minute
21:22weekend calls because it's like, you know, and that's what I had.
21:25Right.
21:26And so I know what you're saying.
21:28Yeah.
21:28I remember seeing the first couple of cell phones while I was in LA and the big brick ones,
21:32the giant when you hold on to it, you have two guys to hold it.
21:35Uh, but, uh, yeah, it was tough to stay in touch.
21:37I sent a lot of postcards, like I was on tour and stuff.
21:40The old, some of my old friends, I kept a lot of dress and sent them postcards.
21:43Uh, but that was it.
21:44So now there are, you know, as, as awful as some of the aspects of the internet are, it's,
21:49it's one great thing is you can keep in touch with people.
21:51And for me, social media, all the people, uh, writing to me, uh, that I'm very, very happy
21:57to hear from regarding the new Winery Dogs record has been fantastic.
22:01On release day, I must've spent three hours just answering stuff.
22:07I'll just, it's sometimes it's just click the heart or a thumbs up, but then, you know,
22:11some people you got to really respond to.
22:12It has some wonderful comments about it.
22:14And, uh, we got, ended up on number one on Amazon, uh, number three on their overall
22:22charge, which was everybody, which is wow.
22:26Amazing.
22:27Uh, Shania Twain was at number one.
22:29So good for her.
22:32She had to cover with, with her topless with the, uh, with the, the, the cowboy hat on.
22:37That's what you guys should probably done.
22:38Right.
22:39So it'd be time.
22:40I think it would have been a pretty bleak day for sales.
22:43I was on the cover and, uh, with my shirt on.
22:46I'm just using it.
22:48All right.
22:48This guy has a question here.
22:49This guy, Bumblefoot, we took this picture back in the day.
22:52This was in 2019, I think at the forge.
22:55And, uh, that was in, uh, Indiana, I guess, but he wanted me to ask you about the collaboration
22:59you guys did with that Indonesian band, Dua 19 with some of the Sons of Apollo guys.
23:04That looked pretty cool.
23:05We had a riot.
23:06Uh, I played in Indonesia a lot.
23:08Uh, when Mr. Big first went there, we played in some cities, no Western band had ever played
23:12in, and our little, uh, uh, van is going to the hotel from the airport.
23:16Uh, you know, people were amazed.
23:19It was, uh, and the crowds went out of their minds, wonderful, great people.
23:24And, uh, we, uh, so we made a lot of connection with people and Mr. Big continued to play there
23:29throughout the years.
23:29And we always had a wonderful, uh, relationship with them.
23:32Um, so they contacted, uh, I think Derek Sherinian, keyboard player for, uh, Sons of Apollo and,
23:38um, wanted to have us play on this particular song.
23:40So myself, Jessica Soda, uh, Bumblefoot and Derek and Simon Phillips on, uh, drums.
23:46And, um, we, uh, got together with, with, uh, those guys that do a video about four weeks
23:52ago in LA.
23:53And, uh, I never actually met them.
23:55So wonderful bunch of guys, great, great people, really cool song too.
24:00It was an interesting song.
24:01And, uh, so we shot the video for that.
24:03We've been in touch with them a little bit and, uh, it'd be nice someday.
24:06We do a show with them.
24:06Sometimes they're talking about that, maybe flying to Santa get up and do a couple of songs
24:10with that band.
24:11We're pretty, pretty great band.
24:12I think it's one of the most popular ones in Indonesia.
24:14Yeah.
24:15That one's called, uh, love is blind.
24:17Yeah.
24:17Yeah.
24:18It's a pretty cool song and, uh, they're a talented band really, really good.
24:21And, and, uh, they started posting on social media during the video shoot and I'm keep
24:27looking over at my phone.
24:31It's going crazy.
24:32I must've had another 200 friend requests on Instagram, uh, per hour from the Indonesians.
24:41Cause I said, like I said, we, we played, we played in some, uh, cities, most of us, Mercosur,
24:47Pantayanac, Surabaya, Jakarta, of course.
24:51And one other city too, I can't remember, but I think, I'm not sure if it was Mercosur
24:56or Pantayanac.
24:57We were there and in the hotel lobby, they had a little gift shop and they're all these
25:00little globes, little globes of the earth.
25:03And I thought, uh, what, what's, what's with all the globes?
25:06They go, we're on the equator.
25:08The, the, uh, city of Burnley was on or near the equator, I guess.
25:12And that was a, so, uh, pretty, pretty exciting.
25:15No, that's pretty cool for a kid from Buffalo to travel the world like that.
25:18And now you've been to places and Mr.
25:19Big really has a stronghold in places, especially outside the U S doesn't it?
25:25Yeah.
25:26We, uh, when, uh, Nirvana came out and the world went grunge, uh, we had some amazing
25:31years.
25:32Matter of fact, we, in Japan, the statistic is we outsold Pearl jam 40 to one.
25:38Uh, and, and, and, and cause a lot of Japanese folks are, why are they dressing in old clothes?
25:46What, what's wrong?
25:46Why isn't anybody happy?
25:48But I mean, I, and I love Pearl jam and they deserve, uh, uh, they, of course they did fantastic
25:55in USA, good for them.
25:56They deserve it.
25:56But, uh, yeah, we played in, uh, the Philippines was huge.
26:00Thailand, Hong Kong, Taiwan, mainland China, uh, Australia, all over South America, all over
26:07Europe, Russia, uh, Scandinavia, England, Ireland, Scotland, you name it.
26:13We played everywhere.
26:15At one point in Italy, there were four Mr.
26:19Big copy bands in Japan.
26:22There's two or three now, uh, Korea, Korea just went nuts.
26:27It's so great.
26:28Uh, people kind of lump that world into one there, but each country has a whole different
26:34culture and a whole different thing.
26:35It's quite fascinating.
26:37And, uh, I get, uh, I'm very lucky.
26:39I got friends in a lot of places and I'm very happy about it.
26:42I was just, uh, texting with some of my friends, uh, today, obviously, as you know, I've been
26:45telling you here, but, uh, Tyler from theory of a dead man, I was talking to those guys
26:48about hockey or something.
26:49Say, I'm talking to, talking to Billy Sheen later.
26:51And, uh, Tyler says, uh, this is an interesting question.
26:53You probably answered it a lot of times, but who's the best guitar player you ever played
26:57with?
26:57That's probably a trick question, but, uh, can you name that?
27:00Yeah.
27:01It would be tough.
27:01Yeah.
27:03Richie, Paul Gilbert, Steve Vai, Tony McAlpine.
27:08Who did I leave out?
27:09Bumble.
27:11Bumblefoot.
27:11Yeah.
27:11Yeah.
27:12Amazing.
27:12Unbelievable.
27:13Uh, I think all of them are at or near the same level in a lot of ways, but they're at
27:21some point at that altitude, it's just a matter of personal choice.
27:26It's like drummers.
27:27I'm real lucky to play with great drummers, but I do have to choose one out of all of them.
27:32And that's Dennis Chambers.
27:33But then, and when you ask drummers who, who's really the best of them, Dennis,
27:37Dennis Chambers, Dennis, but Dennis, uh, Steve Gadd, Vinnie Cagliuta, a couple of guys
27:43like that, they're at the top of the, of the strata that, that, uh, it's just a matter
27:51of personal choice now and the guitarist I've worked with, uh, and I'm very honored to have
27:56worked with, uh, everybody.
27:58I did a photo shoot with, uh, we, uh, dinner with Larry DiMarzio, it makes guitar pickups
28:03and Steve Richie, Paul Gilbert, uh, all use, uh, DiMarzio.
28:10So, so we had a photo of all four of us together and I, I kept it.
28:13Here's me and my guitar players.
28:16But, uh, but yeah, Bumblefoot and the Tony McAlpine is mind blowing.
28:21And, and he, he is an actual real classical pianist, not a guy that learned a couple of
28:25things.
28:25I mean, he sits down and does Liszt and Rachmaninoff and just amazing.
28:30And then he, with one hand, he's fingering the guitar and playing two complete separate
28:35minds required.
28:37Pretty amazing.
28:38Yeah.
28:38So it'd be tough to pick one.
28:40It'd be tough to pick one.
28:41Paul Gilbert, what a, what an amazing, uh, phenomenon of drive to know more about music
28:49and be a better player, not necessarily a faster player, but just to know so much more
28:56broad spectrum of music and how to handle it on instrument.
28:59Amazing.
29:00Steve Vai, pretty tough to, uh, compare him to anybody.
29:04He's really, uh, a phenomenon of nature.
29:07Like a brother to me.
29:08I love him completely.
29:09All these guys, all these guys have nothing but love for all of them.
29:14Um, uh, Steve is quite a, uh, uh, a phenomenon.
29:18It's, it's unbelievable.
29:19He's, uh, I just talked to him a few weeks ago and I told him that, uh, that band you
29:23guys were in with, you know, David Lee Ross band for me is one of the top bands of the
29:26eighties.
29:27And it's hard to, you know, hard to argue.
29:29It was so good.
29:30We had a riot.
29:31It was, uh, quite an adventure.
29:33And, uh, this huge stage, me and Steve were on a band of crosses, flying around.
29:38And a lot of times I go on the other side of the stage and I can't hear any bass at
29:41all.
29:42I'm playing by visual.
29:44I hope I'm on the right note.
29:47We had, uh, what an adventure.
29:49What an amazing thing.
29:50Jeez.
29:50We, uh, we sit around, have a couple of glasses of wine and, uh, the stories start coming hot
29:55and heavy and it's a riot.
29:56I got a, I got a videotape or audio record.
29:59One of our hanging out sessions one time.
30:01It's we, well, I don't think we're going to release it.
30:04We're going to wait till a few more people pass away before we can release that.
30:07So we'll see just final question here from my friend, uh, JD from black label society,
30:13a school based player went to Berkeley, the whole thing.
30:15I'm like, Hey, I'm talking to Billy.
30:16She and say, what are you, what should I ask him?
30:17He goes, uh, when will the Sabres win a Stanley cup?
30:20That was his question.
30:22Yeah.
30:22Maybe, uh, maybe when the bills win the super bowl, I don't know, but they were,
30:26Bill stood good this year.
30:27I'm not, I haven't followed football as closely as I used to.
30:30Yeah.
30:31Uh, but, uh, Buffalo is a hockey town and it's also, uh, a bills town, uh, uh, football
30:37town.
30:37So it's, uh, I think if, uh, the Stanley cup were one or the super bowl, that party
30:45would last for about six months.
30:47I think about six months ago.
30:50It's cause that town for a while, a few years ago, there was talk of somebody buying the
30:54bills and moving them somewhere.
30:55And, oh man, that would be like, well, let's just rip your heart out and take it out.
31:00It'll be fine.
31:00You know, I think that was a John Bon Jovi and they're going to move into Toronto or
31:05something.
31:05I didn't want to mention it.
31:06Okay.
31:06I'm sorry.
31:07No, that's fine.
31:08I, it's you that mentioned it.
31:10So you get it.
31:10Right.
31:11Well, I guess people could Google it or whatever they wanted to do.
31:14That's another guitarist, a guitarist with, uh, John Bon Jovi now, Phil X.
31:18And what a great player and singer, man, just a Supreme talent.
31:23So anyway, maybe that'll exonerate you from mentioning that it was John Bon Jovi.
31:28That's right.
31:28Yeah.
31:28Almost ripped the heart out of Buffalo.
31:30That's right.
31:30So, all right.
31:31Winery dogs three is out.
31:33She'll be in Detroit here.
31:34The token coming up on a March 11th, uh, celebrating my birthday.
31:38And I can't wait to be there.
31:39Uh, yeah.
31:40Yeah.
31:40Great.
31:41Oh, fantastic.
31:42God, there's a lot of concerts coming through town in March.
31:44So I got to save my liver for a few of them here.
31:46And I think that will be yourself.
31:48Face yourself.
31:49It's important.
31:49That's right.
31:51Whatever you start with.
31:53Stick with that for the whole night.
31:54I've learned my lesson that way.
31:56Yeah, that's for sure.
31:57Exactly.
31:59True, true words were never spoken.
32:00Billy, thank you so much for the time.
32:02It's my pleasure.
32:03Great to see you.
32:04I look forward to seeing you on the 11th.
32:06Uh, I'll be the first to wish you a happy birthday and we'll tip a few, uh, in your honor
32:10for sure.
32:10And we'll see you there.
32:11I appreciate that.
32:13You take care.
32:13Bye-bye.
32:14Bye-bye.
32:14Bye-bye.
32:31Bye-bye.