Bass legend, Billy Sheehan is up first. We went back throughout his entire career, to his Talas years, joining David Lee Roth, to releasing a record last year. We talk about the late Phil Nero and his passing. “He was giving it 200%” Billy said about his vocal performance on the last album.
Winery Dogs 3 is out now. Billy talks about playing with Richie Kotzen and Mike Portnoy. Apparently, Richie stopped using a pick while playing his guitar. That’s a crazy story.
What did he do during the lockdown? “I did tracks for people.” He did over 600 tracks for bands and musicians from all over, and all styles of music. He told some amusing stories about doing that for people.
He gives an update on what’s going on with Mr. Big. He said they have a drummer ready to go, but that person is currently doing other things, so they can’t announce who it is just yet.
Billy goes home every year for the Musicians of Buffalo Annual Christmas Concert. He told me what inspired that and what a joy it is to play. We talked about a collaboration he did with an Indonesian band called Dewa 19. Tyler Connolly from Theory of a Deadman gave me a great question – who’s the best guitar player he’s played with? Billy has shared the stage with legendary players. His answer? “That would be tough”
On his time in David Lee Roth’s band “We had a riot…what an adventure!”
See Billy with the Winery Dogs at the Token Lounge on March 11th.
Next, I had the chance to talk with Ricky Warwick from Black Star Riders about a lot of stuff. Their new album is called the Wrong Side Of Paradise. He tells me about the album and explained the album cover art. He laughed and said “We had a great band picture, but we didn’t know who was going to be in the band”. He talks about Scott Gorham’s semi-retirement, Christian Martuci leaving the band and going back to play with Corey Taylor, and new members of the band.
He’s been doing in-stores over in Europe. He tells me about that and how much he liked doing them. “For me, I love to meet people”.
He talks about becoming sober. He said he doesn’t want to harp, but “It works for me”.
“I can’t say enough good things about them” talking about the new record label, Earache records. He said it was time for a change for the new album. He also talks about the killer tour they’ll be doing in Europe.
Of course, I had to text my friend, producer Jay Ruston, to send me a question. He just sent me this….ask him about “too many wires”. Pretty funny!
-Meltdown-
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