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Thread: Billy Sheehan - TALAS 1980 - Replacing Mike Anthony

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    Billy Sheehan - TALAS 1980 - Replacing Mike Anthony

    TALAS – Billy Sheehan

    What was it like when your band Talas opened for Van Halen on their 1980 tour?


    It was like a Ph.D. in show business. I mean, we got to see some stuff that we had no idea, you know, that show business worked that way. And we saw [Van Halen] so consistently awesome, that on their worst night they were merely spectacular, these guys [laughs]—it was like a military operation. They’d get up and hit that stage, and man—that machine would kick in, amazing. From the openings to the banter between songs, Dave’s storytelling and Eddie’s spectacular playing, the whole band, the groove, and oh—it was just amazing. I look back on it as one of the luckiest things that ever happened; we opened for them about 30 or 40 shows in 1980—oh, God, it was amazing. I came off that tour knowing so much more about how it’s supposed to work [laughs] than I ever could have imagined on my own.

    How did you get picked to open that tour?

    There was a woman named Barbara Skydel with Premiere Talent in New York City, a booking agent, that booked Van Halen, the Who, a lot of the huge acts. We showcased for them in New York City for them to become our agents and to book us. Unknown to us, they sent our demo tape to Van Halen, who wanted kind of an unknown opening act, but somebody who’s not going to, you know, blow it. And they said yes—we had no idea that we were even in line for it! So the Talas guitar player [Dave Constantino] pulled up to pick me up for a gig and he had a bottle of champagne with him…he broke the news, we freaked out. When we did the shows they were actually pretty cool with us; they let us do a couple of encores and we did really well in front of the crowd. To this day, I get e-mail from people that saw that show.


    With Talas, you got the chance to tour with Van Halen a couple of times. What was the scene like at that time?
    Van Halen was the greatest band in the world. At their worst, they were only spectacular. It was just an amazing experience. It was Showbiz 101 to see that band in action and behind the scenes and [to see] how incredibly precise and awesome [they were] and [with] almost military precision [how] they could get up on stage and make it look like it’s a big-ass party.

    You know, to do a party, you just have a room with beer in it and have people in there. But if you do it right, it’s a riot and they always would do it right. And it would never seem like there was any effort put into it at all, but behind the scenes, there was great effort. The lighting, the sound and the cues and everything was all worked out, but when you watched it — even though we watched it every night and it was the same every night, we’d still laugh at every joke. It was all worked out and scripted to a large degree, but boy, it was just done magically and perfectly.

    A lot of that was Dave, of course — he’s just a grandmaster of showbiz and the greatest frontman in my humble opinion that there ever was — and still is. It was an incredible lesson to learn and they were very, very nice to us. They let us do some encores and they chose us personally to be on that tour, because they got a tape from Premier Talent, the booking agency. We had no idea we were even up for it until we finally found out, “Hey, you guys got the Van Halen tour” and we were like, “We got the what?” We didn’t even have a record out, really — so we were very surprised. We made friends with everybody and I’m friends with all of them to this day, thankfully.

    That was a band that was knocking a lot of people for a loop at the time. Particularly the bands that were touring with that band, it seems like if you’re in that position, that would cause you to take at least a second look at all areas of your process to make sure you had everything dialed in.

    Yeah, when you’re up on that stage and it’s Van Halen’s stage, you’re under a microscope and there’s a whole lotta people watching. We got lucky. We scored and we got a bunch of encores and we did real well and they were real pleased with us. I created a relationship there that, of course, led to the Dave thing later.

    It was a little spooky though, getting up on a stage like that in front of all of those people and telling them that we’ve never played there before and we had no record out and we just gotta go up there and do it. There again, we get back to the power trio thing and with everybody singing and playing, we got up there and did our thing and they responded positively. Sometimes you roll the dice and the sun comes up.

    One of our readers wanted to ask about how you were asked to join Van Halen quite a few times. It’s surprising that never panned out or went that way.

    Yeah, in the end I’m not really sure what the purpose of any talks with me to join the band was. But it happened a couple of times. I love Michael Anthony and I felt totally torn, because I love the band too — I didn’t want to see the band change and [have them] bring some new guy in, even if it was me. I’m a real believer in the original lineup — I love that concept as a fan. Whenever anybody changes, even if it’s some peripheral person, it’s kind of not the same to me — once in a while, it works. So I was torn a little bit, but it never really panned out.
    In a way, nature took its course. When Dave left, he called me and we started that band and that was close enough. I always said when I was in Buffalo, the only band I’d ever leave Talas for was Van Halen and when Dave called, I said, “Okay, close enough, I’m gone.” That was it!

    ED ASKS BILLY SHEEHAN OF TALAS TO JOIN VAN HALEN
    That Metal Show 2015 – Speaking to Billy Sheehan

    And Billy now, Dave got you in his solo band because Talas opened for Van Halen back in the day? Is that when he originally saw you right?
    BS: Exactly. 1980, we did about 30 shows with them.
    That’s when Eddie knew about your bass playing too and all that stuff too, and Dave recruited you.
    BS: At the end of that tour, Eddie came up with me, and Valarie had given him a card. Eddie tore that card and wrote his phone number on it and said, “Hey, here’s my number, and don’t tell Michael!”
    Wow

    __________________________________________________ ____

    RMS: Yeah, Talas opened on the Van Halen tour in 1980. And five years later, you were in David Lee Roth’s solo band.

    BS: Yes, Talas did open for them and I have those shows in my archive collection as well. Three or four years ago, I transferred all of those live performances, from a huge box of tapes to digital, using eight tracks and pro tools. So, I’ve got it all. I managed to save them from deterioration. But those Van Halen shows meant a lot to us. Van Halen was showbiz 101. When we played those shows, we found out how it worked, and it was incredible. At time the time, Van Halen was the greatest band ever, in our opinion. Every element that we loved in music, they had. And then I was lucky, the summer of 1985, David Lee Roth called me and asked me to work with him. It was an amazing time, an incredible life changing event for me. It was a dream come true. It was amazing, But, I love those guys and I apologize that I haven’t listen to the new Van Halen CD yet. But, I will. But for something like that, I want to wait until I actually have the entire CD, so I get a night on my own, go down to my studio, crack open a bottle of red, sit back and just really listen. So that’s what I’m going to do.

    What does Talas mean, anyway?

    [Laughs] It was the name of a horse. Our guitar player had a girlfriend who had this horse called Talas Lady. It’s just a goofy story, but our guitar player’s a little timid around horses, so he gets on this monster, giant horse, and the horse kicked up, reared up, and jumped over his car [laughs]; he was flying, and landed on the ground, but he was okay, so he said, “Hey, let’s call the band Talas!” It came from nonsense, but it was hilarious.
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