By Martin Popoff
"The new record, it's a good record, but it doesn't have a lot of the playing on it that I generally prefer. Mr. Big is an important band to me and this record kind of got put together with a different producer, Ritchie Zito, and there's really not a lot of fiery playing on it at all, which I'm kind of disappointed about. My plan was to come back from a trip I took overseas and we were going to cut three or four songs with some meat, some substance, which we never did unfortunately. The other guys changed their minds. I think it's a good record, but it's not my favorite Mr. Big record. It's not very heavy, which is one of my complaints, which I prefer. Like my solo record is heavy, in a Pink Floyd-y, early Bowie kind of way. And the last Mr. Big record Electrified, I thought was cool. And most Mr. Big records are well-balanced, everything from an emotional ballad to something that is pretty crunchy. And this latest record doesn't have a lot of crunch on it."
Is the writing chemistry different?
"A little bit. On Get Over It, the first record we did with Ritchie Kotzen in the band, we wrote a lot of stuff together, which was cool. I think it's kind of the publishing thing, where guys run off and write with their friends and bring a song in. That way they make all the money from the songs. If you write with the band, thing have to be split with the band so it turns into a real unfortunate situation. Hopefully we can redeem ourselves in the future and make a record that has input from everyone more evenly and is a balanced record like Lean Into It or Hey Man or Bump Ahead or the first record."
BILLY SHEEHAN - America's Mad Bassist... Everywhere! Page 4