Laughing Monkey Music caught up with Mr. Big frontman Eric Martin for an in-depth career-spanning interview. Check it out below.

On how Mr Big got back together after their first breakup

Martin: "I reached out to Billy Sheehan, and said, 'My son was interested in playing bass guitar, but he's left handed...' and Billy goes 'Hmm, I don't think Yamaha makes a left handed bass guitar, but I'll look for one.' And he found in a music store in Japan, this left handed bass guitar and he sent it one Christmas for my kid when he was maybe six, seven. And along with Billy Sheehan, learn how to play...  learn how to play the bass instructional video and some guitar picks. And I got a little video of Dylan playing at Christmas time. This was in the middle of the hiatus, and I hadn't talked to Billy in years. So that one Christmas and I'm going 'Hey, Dylan, do you like the bass that Billy Sheehan sent?' and my son's holding up his fingers (sshhhhh) because it's Billy's voice talking to him and it's instructional audio. Just to hear Billy's voice again, it was cool, and then it's through that directly that we started talking again about getting Mr Big back together."

On the breakup , moving forward and the death of drummer Pat Torpey

Martin: "When we got back together in 2009, nobody really talked about it (the breakup), which is okay, because you lose the taste for hate. After so many years, you just sort of forget about it; we sweep it under the table, we got back together. There was a few little animosities here and there, but the key to why we stayed together was we had respect for each other. I lost a little respect in some of those hardships back in the day, and I'm sure they did too with me, but that wasn't the case anymore. I love Pat Torpey, respect Billy Sheehan and Paul Gilbert so much, but after Pat's death the wind just came right out of the sails. It was really difficult to play without him. It was the grieving process for a really long time. I would love to get back together with Mr Big and do another... possibly a record, maybe. I don't know. When I write songs I constantly think Mr. Big in my head, so even when I try to write acoustic songs it always comes out Mr. Big. But I would love to do a tour, definitely. I would love to do something again with Mr. Big. I love that band. I love playing live on stage with the with Billy and Paul and the spirit of Pat Torpey. I love that music."

During an interview with Sonic Perspectives, Martin offered some details on a new live set, Raw Like Sushi Mega Edition - Revive 2017: 2017 Japan Tour Official Bootleg Box, that was released in February.

Martin: "A couple of months ago, I got an e-mail from our record company in Japan saying that they recorded all nine concerts - Pat Torpey's last shows, as well, in Japan - but all nine concerts in Japan. I even called Michelle Sabolchick, who's our sound engineer, and has been for the last 10 years - live sound - and I go, 'Did you see any Pro Tools equipment? You're front of the house. Did they record?' And she goes, 'Nobody was recording around me.' And I'm, like, 'How did you guys do that? We didn't even sign off on it or anything. I didn't realize this, but they kind of did it every year that we were there; I just never knew it. And they did it on the monitor board. So they have the monitor mix of all nine concerts."

"That being said, they mixed it, and what it is is nine shows, a lot of the same songs, different energy in different cities, and there's about three or four shows that have a medley of songs that we never freakin' play live; switching instruments and that kind of thing, if you've ever seen a MR. BIG concert. It's pretty good. I'm glad that they captured it, and I'm glad I didn't know about it because if I knew about it, I'd get all scared."

An overview of the package from Japan's WHD Entertainment is below:

"Japanese 18 CD set. Mr. Big release the complete collection of their performances in their Japan tour in 2017. Features all the nine concerts from their tour in Japan, which took place between September and October 2017. Cardboard sleeve packaging.

*Only the Budokan show is supplemented by another sound source because the data after the middle of the latter half of the show "1992" is missing.

*All performances are multitrack recordings. Some parts have noise from the sound source."

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