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Billy Sheehan
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William 'Billy' Sheehan (born on March 19 1953 in Buffalo, NY) is an American bassist known for his work with Talas, Steve Vai, David Lee Roth, Mr Big, and Niacin. Sheehan has won the "Best Rock Bass Player" readers' poll from Guitar Player Magazine five times for his "lead bass" playing style. Guitar Player has likened his soloing on the four-string instrument to Eddie Van Halen's on the six-string guitar. Sheehan's repertoire includes the use of chording, two-handed tapping and controlled feedback.
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Encyclopedia
William 'Billy' Sheehan (born on March 19 1953 in Buffalo, NY) is an American bassist known for his work with Talas, Steve Vai, David Lee Roth, Mr Big, and Niacin. Sheehan has won the "Best Rock Bass Player" readers' poll from Guitar Player Magazine five times for his "lead bass" playing style. Guitar Player has likened his soloing on the four-string instrument to Eddie Van Halen's on the six-string guitar. Sheehan's repertoire includes the use of chording, two-handed tapping and controlled feedback. However, Sheehan is also noted as a steady "true" bassist, fulfilling the traditional supportive role of the electric bass in the rock rhythm section. He has been a member of the Church of Scientology since 1971 and appeared on the street offering to defend it during Project Chanology.
Career
Early years
Sheehan's first instrument was an acoustic guitar that he borrowed incessantly from his sister. Legend has it that Sheehan wanted an electric guitar, but his grandmother said: "Over my dead body!" and that there would never be an electric guitar in her house as long as she was alive. She died soon after, and with some of her life insurance money Sheehan bought his first electric guitar. However, Sheehan says that when he saw Tim Bogert of the band Vanilla Fudge using a Fender Precision bass with a maple fingerboard, he switched to the bass.
In 1971 after he read the Scientology Dianetics book, he became a member of the Church of Scientology and now holds a level of OT III (Operating Thetan Level 3).
Billy Sheehan's first electric bass was a Hagström FB, which was soon sistered by a Precision bass similar to Tim Bogert's. After acquiring the Precision bass, he removed the frets from the Hagström. Over the years, he heavily modified the Precision bass as well, adding a neck pickup and additional support for the bolt-on neck, which Sheehan considers its greatest weakness. The neck pickup was added for what Sheehan referred to as "super deep low end" modelled after Paul Samwell-Smith of the Yardbirds. The EB-O type pickup in the neck and the original split Precision bass pickup each have their own separate output jacks on the bass itself, allowing for control of the tone via the bass. Sheehan also uses two amps to achieve his signature tone (as do Chris Squire of Yes and Doug/Dug Pinnick of King's X), one with full distortion and notch filtering to sound more guitar-like for solos, and one super clean for the low end of the neck pickup. This bass has been retired, but he affectionately refers to it as "The Wife."
Sheehan regularly played "The Wife" until the late 1980s when he began using self-designed Yamaha Attitude basses. These instruments are modelled on his Precision, but feature, in Sheehan's estimation, a number of improvements, including multi bolt-on neck construction style and an aftermarket device called the Hipshot D-tuner on the E-string, which allows him to quickly drop the pitch of the string to D and raise it again.
Sheehan's main bass is a Yamaha Billy Sheehan Attitude 4 string bass with aftermarket blue LEDs and laser pointer, by Sims UK. He is a long time user of the Hipshot Bass D-tuner which allows him to drop the low E to a lower D on his bass' 4th string, all of his signature Yamaha basses have them factory installed. He also has a special deal with Yamaha that, as he puts it : "The basses in the store are the ones that i play, i don't get a custom shop version and a kid goes out with hard earned money and gets a plywood version." Sheehan is a long time Ampeg user, he has used Ampeg SVT-4Pro amplifiers for several years. Ampeg also makes his signature SVP-BSP pre-amps. A few more of his main rack units are: a no longer produced Pearce solid state dual channel pre-amp, he uses it to get distorted tones, as well as an Ashley dual channel compressor. He runs it all through two or four (depending on venue size) Ampeg 8x10 bass cabinets. He also has been known to occasionally use Hartke gear.
Sheehan cites a variety of influences, from Tim Bogert to Johann Sebastian Bach, but credits Jimi Hendrix as his primary influence, possibly because his first show was a Hendrix concert. He also claims to have gotten the idea for two-handed tapping from Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top, who he saw use his right hand index finger to tap a note on the fretboard of his guitar at a concert. He also got the idea of artificial harmonics from Billy Gibbons. Billy Gibbons played on his next record to come out called Holy Cow.
Late 1970s-1980s
Sheehan’s first full-time band was Talas, a power trio with Dave Constantino on guitar and Paul Varga on drums. The band played a mixture of cover songs and original material, and all three instrumentalists alternated on lead vocals. Talas was one of Buffalo's most popular local bands for over a decade, arguably attaining cult status which spread into the northeast US and into Canada. In 1978, Talas released their eponymous debut album, which generated the regional hit single, "See Saw". It was during this time that Sheehan wrote some of his most famous songs, namely "Shy Boy" (later re-recorded with David Lee Roth), and the complex and frenetic "Addicted to that Rush" (later re-recorded with Mr Big).
In the late 1970s, Sheehan also played in a band called Light Years with drummer Ron Rocco who had earlier played in a band called Black Sheep with Foreigner singer Lou Gramm in Rochester, NY. After Sheehan returned to Talas they opened a show for UFO in Buffalo. This led Sheehan to an association with guitarist Michael Schenker and also helped land him the job touring with UFO in 1983. Talas' first national exposure was in 1980, when they opened thirty shows for Van Halen. However, success was elusive, and even as their brand of what came to be known as "glam metal" gained popularity over the next few years, Talas remained an unsigned act, due largely to poor management. They independently released their debut eponymous "Talas" LP on Evenfall Records (reissued by Metal Blade) and then "Sink Your Teeth Into That" on Relativity Records.
Seeking to take Talas further than just regional success, Sheehan reformed Talas with another drummer (Mark Miller), guitarist (Mitch Perry, also later of Heaven), and a dedicated vocalist, Phil Naro, with whom in the late 1970s Sheehan had previously worked in his side project (the Billy Sheehan Band). Talas would release only one more album, Live Speed on Ice. After Mitch Perry left the band, he was replaced by Johnny Angel, who played guitar with them for their 1985/86 US tour opening for Yngwie Malmsteen's Rising Force. There was a fourth Talas record, tentatively titled "Lights, Camera, Action" to be issued on Gold Mountain/A&M, but it never got past the demo stage due to Sheehan leaving to join David Lee Roth's solo band. Talas did briefly continue on under Phil Naro sans Sheehan, enlisting Jimmy Degrasso on drums, Al Pitrelli on guitar and Bruno Ravel on bass, but by this time Talas was dead.
In the early 1980s, Sheehan became involved with the proto-thrash metal band Thrasher, during this time he shared the stage with future Anthrax guitarist Dan Spitz. His involvement with Thrasher did not last long but he did play on 2 songs from the self titled LP, which has not been released on cd to date. Sheehan has recently reunited the original Talas trio for a few shows here and there as well as the live CD If We Only Knew Then, issued on Metal Blade. ("Sink Your Teeth Into That" and "Live Speed On Ice" were combined and re-released as the CD Billy Sheehan: The Talas Years on Relativity Records.) On 2006 December 23, Sheehan sat in with the Dave Constantino Band at Club Impact in Buffalo. Johnny Angel was the solo opening act for the evening. On February 10, Billy Sheehan attended an Anti-Scientology picket answering questions regarding his allegiance to Scientology.
Late 1980s-2000s
David Lee Roth tapped Sheehan, guitarist Steve Vai, and drummer Gregg Bissonette to be his band for the Eat 'Em and Smile album, Roth's first after leaving Van Halen. After Roth's Skyscraper album was issued, Sheehan left the band to pursue other opportunities. Steve Vai followed after the tour ended. In 1988, Sheehan, along with singer Eric Martin, guitarist Paul Gilbert, and drummer Pat Torpey formed Mr Big. Mr Big had two American hits with "Addicted to That Rush" from their eponymous first album and the ballad, "To Be With You" (from their second album, Lean Into It,) but were unable to duplicate it with later releases. However, the band had a dedicated following in Japan. Internal tensions led to Gilbert quitting the band in 1997. Richie Kotzen replaced him, and was with Mr Big until the group's breakup in 2002. Sheehan has toured Poland with UFO.
Sheehan has performed on many of Steve Vai's solo albums and was the bassist for Vai's touring band from 2001 until early 2007, an incarnation which Vai dubbed "The Breed". The Breed was noted by Vai as having "worked beyond his expectations" and has expressed that he hopes to will work with Sheehan and The Breed in the future as schedules permit. In 1999, he helped to record the album "Brotherhood", with the multi-platinum Japanese band, B'z, and subsequently played with the band live for their 2002 "Green" Tour in front of total 750,000 audience. In 2001, Sheehan released a long-awaited solo album, Compression, and in 2005, he recorded his second solo effort, Cosmic Troubadour. Both feature Sheehan singing and playing guitar.
In 2002, Sheehan guested on metal fusion band Planet X's MoonBabies, which led to his involvement on Planet X keyboardist Derek Sherinian's solo album Black Utopia 2003. Another of Sheehan's projects is the three-piece jazz-rock-fusion band, Niacin, which also features drummer Dennis Chambers and Hammond B3 player John Novello. Sheehan is also the author of a popular series of instructional books and videos, and, even though he has little formal training on the electric bass guitar, gives bass clinics and has hosted seminars at the famous Berklee College of Music. Sheehan along with Mike Portnoy, Gary Cherone, and Paul Gilbert performed three concerts in the end of May 2006 as Amazing Journey: A Tribute to The Who. Sheehan recently joined up with bassists Jeff Berlin and Stu Hamm, along with guitarist Jude Gold and drummer John Mader for the bx3 tour; a spin off of the G3 tour focusing on bass instead of guitar. They recently completed a short Southeast Asian tour, stopping in Bangkok, Hong Kong and Taipei.
In January 2009 Billy Sheehan reunites with his old Mr. Big bandmembers: Eric Martin, Paul Gilbert and Pat Torpey for a reunion tour in Japan.
See also
External links
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