Video of live performance - Sink Your Teeth (Talas / Billy Sheehan). Bang Gang band produced by Ace Frehley from KISS. MaryAnn Scandiffio / lead vocals, Gordon G.G. Gebert on Keyboards.
Billy Sheehan (born on 1953 March 19 in Buffalo, NY) is an Irish American bassist known for his work with Talas, Steve Vai, David Lee Roth, Mr Big, and Niacin.
Sheehan has won Guitar Player Magazine's "Best Rock Bass Player" readers' poll 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 idiom.
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.
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.
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.
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 second after leaving Van Halen. The recording yielded the hard rock classic "Yankee Rose" and showcased Sheehan's rhythmic sensibilities. 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 widely acclaimed 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 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.
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Talas Live At The Waterfront- Sink Your Teeth Into Thatby busterocks38,151 views
I see a million posts about Gordon Gebert from u. r u secretly in love with him?
GreatShare 4 years ago 4
aceFrehleyismine is one of those KISS stalkers who ACE has a retraining order against and cant get near him.
califsucks 3 years ago 3