Billy Sheehan: big music geek interview

News:
19-04-2009:
Billy Sheehan:

“It never was. I love Ritchie. We all love Richie and we love what his contribution to the band was. We jammed again the other night. It was myself, Paul Gilbert, Ritchie, Pat Torpey and a couple of other people at the House Of Blues. We love Ritchie. He’s fantastic, but for me, whenever an original member of the band changes, it’s not the same band. I’m a fan. I’ve got sixty thousand songs on my iTunes and I’ve got three hundred gigs of tunes on my drive. I’m a big, big fan of a lot of bands and a lot of different music and it’s always thrown me for a loop when there’s been a personnel change. That’s why, for me, being in the band and having Paul quit was tough. Our choices were to either break up or bring in Ritchie. It just wasn’t the same band. Playin’ all the old songs was cool, but it’s not the same. ...Ritchie’s a more than competent guitarist. He’s a spectacular player with his own unique style, but at the same time, it just wasn’t the same. So to have the original line-up with Paul, Eric Martin, myself and Pat Torpey…that’s the real band. That’s the band that we got our success with. To me, that’s the real version of Mr. Big, but we still love Ritchie. He’s wonderful.”

full interview