Billy Sheehan: any question

[diamondclaudio]

Yesterday I got a phone call from a friend who happens to be a producer, and he s bringing Billy to Montevideo for a bass clinic next April 27th.
Knowing that I`m a VH DLR diehard fan he made an appointment for a personal conversation , a space where me and my family could chat and take some photos in the lobby before the clinic, at nineteen o clock. I wonder if you guys would like to recommend some questions about topics that any fan would be interested in at this point in time. So I `d tell Billy what the Roth Army page members wanted to know.
Feel free to suggest, please...

[FORD]

Two questions for Mr. Sheehan:

1) Has the EEAS band "reunion concert" been rescheduled yet?

2) Whatever happened to that "original master" tape of the SkyCrapper album (minus all the synthesizer Velveeta crap & overproduction) that Billy says he has and was threatening to release a few years back. Does he know how bittorrent works? Release that thing already. Hell, I'd even buy it if it was released officially, but if that's not happening, just leak it already!

[Terry]

Yeah, what Ford said.

Basically, will the EEAS band reunite, and will there be footage of it available.

[jacksmar]

I always wondered if the Greg Howe record was as fun to record as it sounded. Red Handed is one of my favorite songs and Billy's sig is all over that track.

[Nickdfresh]

How are your E-meter levels?

[twonabomber]

lol

On a related topic: has he ever seen Jenna Elfman naked?

[vandeleur]

On a scale of 1-tom cruise how weird is dave ?

[FORD]

Does Xenu's spaceship really look like an old DC-9 airplane?

[78/84 guy]

Yeah what the fuck did Dave mean when he told Billy that dance music was the new next big thing or whatever the fuck he was talking about in an older interview Billy gave ? Billy made it sound like that was a reason he left the band. He made it sound like Dave was going to stop making rock or something ? Makes no sense too me ? Rock was still huge in 1988. And Dave's next album rocked more than Skyscraper so......? I never got that explanation. At least that part of it.

[Nickdfresh]

Yeah what the fuck did Dave mean when he told Billy that dance music was the new next big thing or whatever the fuck he was talking about in an older interview Billy gave ? Billy made it sound like that was a reason he left the band. He made it sound like Dave was going to stop making rock or something ? Makes no sense too me ? Rock was still huge in 1988. And Dave's next album rocked more than Skyscraper so......? I never got that explanation. At least that part of it.

Me neither. And if Billy was so alienated over the keyboards and softening of the production on Skyscraper, how does he explain his apparent change of heart with the wussy power-ballads of Mr. Big?

[78/84 guy]

So true. I always wondered if Dave just didn't want to pay these guys anymore. Really stupid more breaking up that band.

[Terry]

On a scale of 1-tom cruise how weird is dave ?

I think he's a bit out there. Probably more than a bit, these days.

Once he got booted off Warner Brothers in the mid-1990s, he slowly yet steadily morphed from cool to...strange.

Think I've said it before, but he really strikes me nowadays as a guy who probably is at his most comfortable when he's off in a secluded location essentially by himself when he's not working.

Honestly, seems like he'd be a moody loner in private, and not really someone I'd even want to meet or spend a substantial amount of time with.

[Terry]

So true. I always wondered if Dave just didn't want to pay these guys anymore. Really stupid more breaking up that band.

Maybe there were some points of contention with the business end, in terms of production or songwriting credits, and all of that was coupled with the shift in musical direction between EEAS and Skyscraper.

Like, it didn't surprise me when Vai left the fold, because Vai really isn't a long term team player. He never was before hooking up with Roth, and he wasn't after. With Billy, it was a bit odd at the time to me, because he bailed even before the album was released. However, once I listened to it, the one thing that stood out to me (and still does) is how restrained the performances are. Billy's playing is restrained. I mean, even if you took out the keyboard parts, a lot of the backing tracks are a bit too smooth. Calculated. Certainly in comparison to EEAS.

For me, with Skyscraper, the songs really weren't quite there. I can find a riff in each (or most) of the songs that I can latch onto, but for whatever reason there are precious few tunes on the album that sustain my interest from beginning to end. The only song that really still grabs me today is the one that did back when the album was released, which is Damn Good (a song I always thought was sadly neglected when Roth began touring again as a solo act in 1999 through 2006: I think it would have worked great live at that stage of his career).

Put it this way: Skyscraper was no EEAS II. Too much by way of production technique in comparison and virtually none of the flat-out rawness EEAS had. That's my take on it, anyway. Some people LOVE, say, The Bottom Line...or Two Fools A Minute. I was a bit underwhelmed hearing it when it first came out, and it hasn't really grown on me the way ALAE or YFLM did later with repeated listens. I have it in my collection, but it's probably been 15 years since I've taken it out and spun it from start to finish.

Hey, at least [Skyscraper] wasn't nearly the turd that the 2003 Diamond Dave album was: THAT was scraping the bottom of the barrel.

[diamondclaudio]

Finally my 10 years old daughter and I met Billy.

[diamondclaudio]

Some pictures...