Billy Sheehan

Career

Early years Billy Sheehan's first electric bass was a Hagström FB, which was soon joined by a Precision bass. After acquiring the Precision bass, he removed the frets from the Hagström. ("...after acquiring your first 00:57 fender precision bass you removed the 00:59 frets from the Hagstrom.) I did." Sheehan's signature Yamaha Attitude bass is patterned after this instrument. Sheehan also uses two amps to achieve his signature tone, one with full distortion and high pass filtering to sound more guitar-like, and one super-clean for the low end of the neck pickup.

Talas

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 a popular local band in Buffalo for over a decade, attaining a cult status which spread into the northeast US and into Canada. In 1979, Talas released their eponymous debut album, which generated the regional hit single "See Saw". It was during this time that Sheehan wrote "Shy Boy" (later re-recorded with David Lee Roth) and "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 happened 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, partly due to poor management."02:04 [...] I'm sure was a contributing 02:06 factor [...] but [our manager] it wasn't 02:08 horrible"

David Lee Roth band

Mr. Big

Niacin In 1996, Sheehan formed the jazz fusion band Niacin with drummer Dennis Chambers and keyboardist John Novello. The band's name comes from the timbral foundation of the Hammond B3 organ (Vitamin B3 is also known as niacin).

Niacin released their first studio album in 1996. Their music is primarily instrumental, with the exception of their third studio album, Deep (2000), which features vocals by Glenn Hughes of Deep Purple. The album also includes guest guitar by Steve Lukather of Toto.

Sheehan, along with Portnoy and Richie Kotzen, recorded the debut album for their new band The Winery Dogs in August 2012. The self-titled album was released in 2013. Their second album, Hot Streak, was released in 2015.

In August 2017, he joined another band with Portnoy, a progressive metal supergroup named Sons of Apollo also featuring keyboardist Derek Sherinian, vocalist Jeff Scott Soto and guitarist Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal.

Influences Sheehan has cited Paul Samwell-Smith, Paul McCartney, Jack Bruce, Tim Bogert, James Jamerson, Glenn Cornick, Jack Casady, Andy Fraser, Larry Graham, John Entwistle, Jaco Pastorius, Stanley Clarke, Ray Brown, Ron Carter, Miroslav Vitouš, Mel Schacher, Peter Cetera, John Wetton, Jim Fielder, Greg Ridley, Felix Pappalardi, Glenn Hughes, and Doug Pinnick as influences.

Personal life Sheehan has been an active member of the Church of Scientology since 1971, having converted from Catholicism. Sheehan and his wife, Elisabetta, live in Nashville, Tennessee.

Partial discography

With Talas 1979: Talas 1982: Sink Your Teeth into That 1984: Live Speed on Ice 1990: Talas Years (compilation) 1998: If We Only Knew Then What We Know Now – Live in Buffalo 2022: 1985

With Thrasher 1985: Burning at the Speed of Light

With Daniel Piquê 2009: Boo!! 2012: Chu (websingle) 2013: Oldboy (websingle)

With Tony MacAlpine 1986: Edge of Insanity

With KUNI 1986: MASQUE

With David Lee Roth 1986: Eat 'Em and Smile 1986: Sonrisa Salvaje (Spanish language re-recording of Eat 'Em and Smile) 1988: Skyscraper

With Greg Howe 1988: Greg Howe

With Mr. Big

1989: Mr. Big 1991: Lean into It 1993: Bump Ahead 1996: Hey Man 2000: Get Over It 2001: Actual Size 2010: What If... 2014: ...The Stories We Could Tell 2017: Defying Gravity 2024: Ten

With Niacin 1996: Niacin 1997: Live 1998: High Bias 2000: Deep 2001: Time Crunch 2003: Live! Blood, Sweat & Beers 2005: Organik 2005: Live in Tokyo (DVD) 2013: Krush

With Explorer's Club 1998: Age of Impact

Solo 2001: Compression 2005: Cosmic Troubadour 2006: Prime Cuts (compilation) 2009: Holy Cow!

Terry Bozzio and Billy Sheehan 2002: Nine Short Films

With Richie Kotzen 1998: What Is... 2003: Change 2006: Ai Senshi Z×R

With The Winery Dogs 2013: The Winery Dogs 2014: Unleashed in the East / Unleashed in Japan 2015: Hot Streak 2017: Dog Years (EP) / Dog Years: Live in Santiago 2023: III

With Michael Kocáb 2014: Aftershocks

With Sons of Apollo 2017: Psychotic Symphony 2019: Live with the Plovdiv Psychotic Symphony 2020: MMXX

With Mari Hamada 2018: Gracia 2023: Soar

With MIWA 2018: Reach Out and Touch Me 2020: Hell Is Real

With Octavision 2020: Coexist