THE WINERY DOGS Bassist Billy Sheehan - "The Power Trio Is One Of My Favourite Things"
November 8, 2013, 11 years ago
THE WINERY DOGS bassist Billy Sheehan is featured in a new interview with Radio Metal. An excerpt is available below:
Q: Just like MR. BIG, everyone in this band is able to sing. It looks like it’s very important for you…
Sheehan: "Yeah, I always urge players to sing. If you’re standing up there, put a microphone in front of you and sing! You have a voice, so why not use it? It’s always a very important thing. When I first started to sing, I was in a band and I never sang before. They needed an extra harmony part, so they put a microphone in front of me and said: 'You sing this!' And I said (hesitant) '… OK' and I just started to sing it. (Laughs) I think that it’s a great thing for musicians to know about singing, because singing is the instrument that everyone has. Everyone has a voice, for the most part. And everyone likes to sing along. Knowing that, I think it gives your music a much greater appeal."
"I’m not striving for music to have appeal in order to sell, I just find it’s a lot more fun to have three hundred friends in a room than fifty. When you have a full room of people singing along, it’s an amazing thing. Last time, our show in Paris was unreal, incredible, people sang along to everything so loud, they blew us off the stage! (Laughs) It was amazing! So I encourage the musicians to sing! Why not? You’re standing up there, you have a voice, let’s use it! Especially in a three piece band, everybody has to do more: I sing, I play bass, I play bass pedals. Mike’s using every limb: both feet, both hands and his voice, all the time. Richie: guitar, piano, singing the leads and everything. So there’s no wasted people, everybody does a lot. That’s the wonderful thing about three piece bands, everybody has to do a lot to fill up for any extra keyboard, or rhythm guitars, or horns section, or backup singer, etc. We have to do it all ourselves and I kind of like that."Q: Was it important since the beginning of the band to work as a trio or did you think about hiring other musicians?
Sheehan: "No, we like to be a trio. Power trio is one of my favorite things. I grew up playing in a power trio band called TALAS. Some of my favorite bands of all times,CREAM, GRAND FUNK RAILROAD, JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE, ZZ TOP, were trios. Even bands that weren’t trios were a trio with a lead singer: LED ZEPPELIN or THE WHO for example. So, the three piece thing for me has always been appealing. We started it that way and we never had any plans otherwise."
Go to this location for the complete interview.
