...not only with his genuinely humble way, but my God...
(8:23)
(8:23)
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This guy never ceases to amaze me...
- Thread starter songwriter21
- Start date
That guy exists in a whole different realm that few will ever occupy.
I got to hang with him and chat a few times. He's a super nice guy on top of being a monster player. I'll watch that in full later, but the clips I watched were great. Thanks for sharing.
Probably shouldn't mention that I got to hang with Rudy Sarzo, too
Kept rubbin it in, why don't you Monster
Kept rubbin it in, why don't you Monster
If it helps even the score, I also had to hang around with Kip Winger, that week.
No score to even good sir, I will live vicariously through you.
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I was lucky enough to meet Billy at NAMM in 2014. I'll echo what others have said about Billy being, not only, a monster player, but a genuinely great guy.
I once had the pleasure of being Billy's tech, along with Stu Hamm's and Jeff Berlin's (also nice guys), back in April of '06, on the first Bx3 tour. It was bass nirvana (duh), and one of the most fun and memorable experiences of my life. I actually got the referral from one of my best buddies at the time, who worked at a local GC. He called and told me that a guy had just stopped in, looking for someone who wanted to go on the road for a couple of weeks to be the sole tech for these guys. When my buddy asked me, I totally thought he was joking, almost like that scene in "Rock Star", because being that day at my day job at the time, I happened to be reading Bass Guitar magazine, with the issue featuring Billy on the cover. HUH???
Yes, backing up what others have said here, Billy is very approachable, confident, and knowledgable, along with being and at peace with himself...almost zen-like. One of the coolest little things I happened to hear/see, was after the first soundcheck in Shank Hall, in Milwaukee (yes, the one of Spinal Tap fame). Jude Gold (Guitar Player mag) was the guitarist gun-for-hire (John Mader was the drummer-for-hire...AMAZING player, too), and even as good as he is, he was having a little uncertainty about parts in "Shy Boy". So, he asked Billy, when they finished his set, "Hey, Billy, can we spend a few minutes working on some of those unison parts in Shy Boy?" Billy simply and enthusiatically, said, "Sure!" I don't know why I thought this was so cool, maybe because it was so real, and that Billy was as helpful as can be with things that I'm sure he's been asked/bugged about since his Talas days. My favorite moment, though? I remember being a bit daunted with how to piece Billy's rig together, so I thought, I'm hear to help and learn, so I simply asked Billy before soundcheck (already having put Stu's and Jeff's more-straightforward together), "Hey, Billy, I was wondering, if you have the time, can you show me what goes where on your rig, so I know how to piece this together quickly?" Again, he was cool as hell, and said, "Sure, let me get my stuff situated and we'll walk through the whole thing." He not only made it very understandable (amazingly enough, for this rig), but did everything with me step-by-step, and to this day, in my storage, I still have the schematic that I made up of the wiring and everything. Yeah, he autographed some used strings for me (Rotosound box), along with signing the promo poster, but those were just little mementos. The memories will last with me forever, and that tour was one of the best things I've ever done.
From r to l: Jude Gold, me, Billy, Stu, Jeff, and John Mader
Our road manager/my boss, Bob Snyder, took this picture at a German restaurant in Milwaukee, called Mader's (not related to the drummer, haha). We did this as a celebratory kick-off dinner, after soundcheck at Shank Hall, a day before the first show at that venue. Billy was also gracious enough to pick up ALL of the tab!
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Waaaaaaay to cool Song, Now I have you as well as Monster to live very vicariously through!
One very important thing I learned from Billy Sheehan: the tone in the mix can sound very different from the tone solo'd. While I respect his immense talent, I've always hated his tone but you can hear in this video how well it works in the mix:
Ha, it sure was awesome! Perfect example of how so much of that industry is the "it's who ya know, right-time-right-place" sort of deal. I later on, in '09, worked at GC (same as my buddy), and was able to get a NAMM pass from them, for the winter show. I met Billy again, this time at the Ampeg booth, and we chatted and laughed about how fun that tour was...great guy.
Agreed on that, Check out a thread Joe Nerve has got up right now, kinda in the realm of being with the who, and, in the know.
My hats off to you gentlemen!
Great player. I like his tone here, without compression. Speaking of which, its great to see a virtuoso admitting and even demonstrating their flaws and failures.
Billy is one of the reasons I picked up a bass...and set it right back down.
