“Changed my outlook on life”: The album Billy Sheehan has listen to more than 2000 times.
There are many, many strange facets about hair metal, chief among them is that you had some of the most talented, progressive musicians of their age playing in the most lightweight bands possible. More often than not, this held true for guitarists. Ritchie Sambora with Bon Jovi, Nuno Bettencourt in Extreme, Mick Mars in Motley Crue, to name but a few. However, Billy Sheehan is one of the best examples of this phenomenon, with one notable exception.
Where the others in the list work in six strings, his work came in four; though often, you wouldn’t know it to listen. Quite simply, Billy Sheehan does things with a bass guitar that few people thought possible before he turned up and perfected the art of what he called “lead bass”. His style was technical, melodic and demanded just as much attention as the more traditionally flashy roles in a band, which brings us to the hair metal of it all.
Where did one of the most mercurial and unforgettable bass players of his day cut his teeth? Why, with the 1980s also-rans Mr Big, of course! Y’know, the guys that did ‘To Be with You’! Although what they’re probably most known for today is being one of the best examples of the ‘Big in Japan’ phenomenon, as their popularity in the ‘Land of the Rising Sun’ lasted well beyond their 1980s heyday.
They can’t even claim to be the originators of it, though, since they were beaten to it by — and this is cruelly hilarious irony — Spinal Tap themselves. This does a heroic disservice them though, as the band’s technical prowess points to a group of musicians with very esoteric influences. Sheehan is the best example of this, as his musical hero isn’t any oft-cited bass slayer like John Entwistle or John Paul Jones, but one of the most divisive, exciting figures in American rock music.
Who inspired Billy Sheehan?
When tasked by Goldmine Magazine to collate a list of the ten records that changed his life, chief among them was Freak Out! by Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention. Of Zappa’s band of misfits, he says, “I know every single thing on this record by heart, having listened to it about 2,000 times. It changed my outlook on life as well as music.” Something he goes into deeper when making a list of his favourite live albums for Classic Rock Magazine.
Talking about The Mothers’ 1972 effort Just Another Band from LA, he says, “I got so much from Frank Zappa musically, socially, personally. He changed my whole attitude about so many things.” He wasn’t alone either. In a tribute to the expansive taste of all these virtuosos, he discussed bonding with other musicians on his level over the works of Zappa.
He said, “When I got together with Steve Vai to do David Lee Roth’s Eat ‘Em and Smile, we had a lot of common ground because we could both recite the first four or five Zappa records from beginning to end. We had a great starting point because of our love of Frank Zappa.” While the Spinal Tap-esque reputation of these musicians as witless dullards will never quite go away, no one can develop a skill at anything without a keen mind to match, let alone at a skill as complex as musicianship.
Their technical ability progressed what was possible to achieve on the guitar and bass, and for that, I’m sure Zappa is looking on proudly. Probably less so at the music itself, but hey, can’t win ‘em all!
