Unleash The Beast: Billy Sheehan

By Brian Tarquin

In the early ’80s, I was a young musician growing up in New York City. I was walking to catch

the train to see a Talas show enjoying the sweet fragrance of NYC grit rising from the pavement.

You know when those mysterious puddles of water appeared on every street corner, even though

it hadn’t rained in weeks. While the streets were mired with the squeegee patrol, aggressively

commandeering people’s windshields at every intersection. The band Talas was playing La

Moures East, so the buzz was about their incredible bass player, who was causing quite a rave in

the guitar community.

Talas was a great band with a lot of energy, with a terrific singer Phil Naro from Rochester, NY. Ironically,

I would work with both Billy and Phil 30 years later on such charity releases as Guitars for Wounded Warriors,

Band of Brothers and Orlando in Heaven. But what really knocked me was Billy’s acrobats on the bass.

He played it like a lead guitarists would but still could lay down the groove. Lanky, longhaired, and dressed in spandex, Billy ran out to center stage with his Fender P Bass and performed Eddie Van Halen’s “Eruption.”

Most people couldn’t perform “Eruption” on the guitar, let alone on the bass. Yes Billy Sheehan, a legend in hard rock was born. Voted the Best Rock Bass Player five times in Guitar Player magazine’s readers’ poll, Billy earned a place in their Gallery of Greats alongside Jimi Hendrix, Paul McCartney, Geddy Lee, and Eddie Van Halen, to name a few.

As mentioned earlier, I later worked with Billy on a remake of the classic Jeff Beck song “Blue Wind” featured the album El Becko and on the song “Black Hawk” featured on Guitars for Wounded Warriors. I’m an old two-hand tapping fool myself, and Billy played off the tracks I had given him and absolutely nailed it. I talked with Billy about recording “Blue Wind” and about his track “Unleash the Beast” featured on Guitar Masters, Volume 1.

BTQ: What gear did you use on the recording of Blue Wind?

Billy: I used my home studio. I have an Ampeg SVT (turned way down!), as well as an Avalon preamp for direct sound. We recorded in Logic on a Mac. I used my regular bass that I play onstage—the Yamaha Attitude with RotoSound strings.

BTQ: How did you record the bass?

Billy: We miked up the SVT cab, as well as split signals for a direct through a Radial Engineering direct box.

BTQ: What format did you record the song on?

Billy: I’m all digital. We used Logic, Pro Tools, Digital Performer, and Cubase too, but I’ve been using Logic mostly. I use MOTU interfaces and a Yamaha 02R96 to route everything where it needs to go.

BTQ: Give us a little background of your relationship to the classic version of “Blue Wind” with Jeff Beck and Jan Hammer.

Billy: I’ve jammed on the song since it came out many years ago. In many ways, Jeff really got the music scene going again with his releases in the ’70s. Wired and Blow by Blow really ushered in a new era of improvisational jamming. I’ve recorded the song with Niacin, a B3 version that we perform live a lot. It’s one of my favorite Jeff Beck songs—and there are many that I love.

BTQ: What’s your setup, bass, and amps that you used on the recording of “Unleash the Beast”?

Billy: It was done in the back room of a record company office in Tokyo, Japan, on bass and guitar PODs. We had no choice at the time; we needed another song for a single release, so we hustled this up. Sometimes being under pressure and having to make do with inadequate gear makes you work harder—I like the way it came out.

Conclusion:

After working and talking with Billy, I could see why he’s at the top of his field. Talas was just the beginning of his career. As we all know he went on to play on David Lee Roth’s solo albums Eat ‘Em and Smile and Skyscraper alongside another icon Steve Vai. These albums made both Steve and Billy international stars and set a new precedent for bass and guitar performances. Billy went on to form Mr. Big, The Winery Dogs, Sons of Apollo and the fusion trio Niacin. He set a legacy that few bass players can meet for "lead bass" playing featuring the use of chording, two-handed tapping, "three-finger picking" technique and controlled feedback.