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Henny Macc
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Billy Sheehan Oct 13, 2021 7:19:26 GMT Gatr, Zedd Squared, and 9 more like this

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Post by Henny Macc on Oct 13, 2021 7:19:26 GMT

William Sheehan (March 19, 1953)
Years active: 1974-present
Country of origin: United States of America
Recorded vocal range: G1-C6

Band highlights:

1979-1984 - Talas (bass, vocals)
1985-1988 - David Lee Roth Band (bass, backing vocals)
1988-2002 - Mr. Big (bass, vocals)
2005 - Steve Vai (bass, occasional vocals)
2001-present - Billy Sheehan (lead vocals, guitar, bass)
2009-present - Mr. Big (bass, vocals)
2012-2013 - Portnoy, Sheehan, MacAlpine, Sherinian (bass, occasional vocals)
2012-present - The Winery Dogs (bass, vocals)
2017-2021 - Talas (bass, vocals)
2017-present - Sons of Apollo (bass)

SPOILER: Click to show

{Full band history}

1974-1977 - Talas (bass, backing vocals)
1977-1978 - Billion $ Babies (bass)
1979 - Michael Schenker Group (bass)
1979-1984 - Talas (bass, vocals)
1984-1985 - Thrasher (bass)
1985-1988 - David Lee Roth Band (bass, backing vocals)
1988-2002 - Mr. Big (bass, vocals)
1996-present - Niacin (bass)
1997-2001 - Talas (bass, vocals)
2001-2005 - Steve Vai (bass, occasional vocals)
2001-present - Billy Sheehan (lead vocals, guitar, bass)
2007-2008 - Devil's Slingshot (bass)
2009-present - Mr. Big (bass, vocals)
2012 - Talas (bass, backing vocals)
2012-2013 - Portnoy, Sheehan, MacAlpine, Sherinian (bass, occasional vocals)
2012-present - The Winery Dogs (bass, vocals)
2017-2021 - Talas (bass, vocals)
2017-present - Sons of Apollo (bass)
2020-present - Octavision (bass)
2020-present - Miwa (bass)

Recorded high notes:

SPOILER: Click to show

{Questionable notes}
B5: "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" live Buffalo 1984 - cracked note
B4: "Smoke on the Water" live at Budokan Hall 2009 - cracked note

F1: "Colorado Bulldog" - spoken note without musical context

.......................................................
*Blue marks falsetto notes.

*Green marks harsh distorted notes.

*Italics mark non-melodic notes.

*Underlines marks notes in backing vocals or otherwise muffled/obscured in the song mix.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Album ranges}
Talas:

Talas (1979) - E3-G♯4
If We Only Knew Then What We Know Now... (1998) - E2-E♭5

Mr. Big

Lean into It (1991) - A1-D5-F5
Live in San Francisco (1992) - A1-F5-G5
Raw Like Sushi II (1992) - A1-F5-G5
Live at Budokan (1996) - C2-F♯5
Back to Budokan (2009) - E♭2-G♭2-B♭4-B♭5
Live from the Living Room (2012) - E♭2-B2-A4-B♭5
Raw Like Sushi 100: Live in Japan 100th Anniversary (2012) - B1-E5-F5

Billy Sheehan:

Compression (2001) - B1-E2-G♯4
Cosmic Troubadour (2005) - C3-G♯4-A4
Holy Cow! (2009) - E2-G4-A4

Steve Vai:

Live at the Astoria London (2003) - A2-G4-E5

G3:

Live in Tokyo (2005) - A1-G♯4

Portnoy, Sheehan, MacAlpine, Sherinian:

Live in Tokyo (2013) - E3-C4-G♯4-B5

SPOILER: Click to show

{Detailed bio}
Though better known as a virtuoso bassist than as a vocalist, Billy Sheehan has done a surprising amount of singing over the span of his career, and has spanned a shocking amount of range while doing so that most people would never predict him having. Though he is much more of a backing vocalist than a lead vocalist, his backing vocal contributions have made for a distinctive part of the vocal sound of several of the bands he has been in, such as Talas, Mr. Big, and The Winery Dogs, and he has occasionally sung lead in some of those bands in addition to handling the majority of the vocals on his three solo albums. Sheehan naturally possesses a very low, rumbly bass-baritone voice, which lends itself very naturally to strong lower second octave and first octave singing, much of which can be heard in his vocals in Mr. Big. For most of his career, he has also been fairly competent at singing up into the mid fourth octave, though his tone in that range can be a little lacking in personality at times, and he can get rather strained around G♯4 or so. However, in his earlier years, Sheehan also developed a surprisingly strong head voice that he could carry up to some very solid and powerful mid fifth octave notes! Though the tone of this register was rather whiny, his resonance and control over it was still decently impressive. Unfortunately, Sheehan seemed to lose most of his power in that range after a certain point in the '90s, after which such notes became much weaker and less resonant. However, he still has proven himself consistently capable of hitting some impressively high falsetto notes since then, which just goes to show that he still has quite a bit of range to his name one way or another.

Sheehan's first serious band of note was Talas, which he joined in the mid '70s in his hometown of Buffalo, New York. After several years of gigging and lineup changes, the band settled on its long-term lineup, with guitarist/lead vocalist Dave Constantino, drummer/lead vocalist Paul Varga, and Sheehan on bass and additional vocals. The band's vocal harmonies became a distinct part of their sound, and though most of the vocal duties were handled by Constantino and Varga, Sheehan made important contributions to their three-part harmonies, and also sang portions of lead vocals on a few songs such as "Most People" and "Expert on Me", both of which were featured on the band's 1979 self-titled debut album. They later released their second album, Sink Your Teeth into That, in 1982, which only featured lead vocal performances by Constantino and Varga, but began to show signs of a developing fifth octave head voice technique by Sheehan in his backing vocals, most audible on "Outside Lookin' In", "Hick Town", and the title track. It was also on this album that Sheehan first debuted the song "Shy Boy", which later went on to become something of a signature song of his that he would also perform in many of his future bands, the most famous rendition being the 1986 one with David Lee Roth. Though Talas's fame and recognition was growing throughout their regional music scene in the early 80s, in 1983 both Constantino and Varga left the band. Rather than let this be the end of the line for them, however, Sheehan proceeded to reform the band with singular lead vocalist Phil Naro, guitarist Mitch Perry, and drummer Mark Miller. This incarnation of the band only put out the 1983 live album Live Speed on Ice, which featured performances a mix of songs off Sink Your Teeth into That and new material that had not been released on a studio album yet. With this shift of Talas from a band with two lead vocalists to only one, Sheehan's role as a backing vocalist also increased, and he began to perform co-lead vocals on their live cover of Max Webster's "Battle Scar". In addition to this, his high range continued to grow stronger during this time, and he became quite prone to throwing in random fifth octave screams during live performances, as can be heard quite prominently in this 1984 concert recording.

Despite Talas' continued growing success, however, in 1984 Sheehan left the band as well, and went on to briefly join a thrash metal band called Thrasher before landing his first real breakthrough gig in 1985 - playing bass in recent ex-Van Halen frontman David Lee Roth's solo band. He contributed bass and songwriting to Roth's debut solo album, Eat 'Em and Smile, and then embarked on the accompanying tour for that album in 1986. During this tour, Sheehan and keyboardist Brett Tuggle handled the bulk of backing vocal duties, which included sometimes singing Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony's intensely high vocal parts. In addition to this, Sheehan continued to show off his head voice range by throwing in more mid fifth octave screams left and right during live shows with Roth. He went on to also play bass on Roth's second solo album, 1988's Skyscraper, but parted ways before the tour to instead go form his own band, Mr. Big, with frontman Eric Martin, guitarist Paul Gilbert, and drummer Pat Torpey. In this band, all four members contributed to vocals, and vocal harmonies were a big part of their sound. Despite being the lowest-voiced member of the band, Sheehan initially used his head voice to sing the highest harmonies, frequently singing parts up to D5 and E5 on their first two albums - 1989's Mr. Big and 1991's Lean into It. It was also around this time that Sheehan began to showcase his considerably extensive and very resonant low range more than he had in the past, singing some boomy E2s in the backing vocals of "Take a Walk" and even lead vocal C2s and an A1 in the intro of "A Little Too Loose". However, around the time of Mr. Big's third album, 1993's Bump Ahead, Sheehan's head voice seemingly began to weaken, and he became less inclined to continue singing high harmonies in the lower fifth octave all the time. At this point, Pat Torpey took over as the band's primary vocalist for high harmonies, and Sheehan began to sing the bottom parts instead - which also gave him more opportunities to continue exploring his low range.

Though Mr. Big stayed very active throughout the rest of the '90s (releasing a number of live albums and the studio albums Hey Man in 1996 and Get Over It in 1999), around the mid 90s Sheehan began to become active in a number of other projects as well - first starting with the instrumental band Niacin, whom he joined in 1996, and then a reunion with the classic Talas lineup of himself, Dave Constantino, and Paul Varga in 1997. The latter led to the recording of a new live album by Talas, titled If We Only Knew Then What We Know Now, and a small international tour. In the years after that, Sheehan also released his first solo album, Compression, in 2001, and began touring as part of virtuoso guitarist Steve Vai's solo band, whom he had previously played alongside in David Lee Roth's band. Though these other musical collaborations generally yielded good public attention for him, the amount of time away from him with Mr. Big led to his bandmates in that band growing frustrated with him, to the point that they were considering firing him for not being dedicated enough with his involvement. However, it was instead conceded that Sheehan would stay in the band, but that they would break up after the release of their 2001 album, Actual Size, and its accompanying tour in 2002. In the aftermath of this breakup, Sheehan continued to tour with Steve Vai for the next few years, and also released two more solo albums - 2005's Cosmic Troubadour, and 2009's Holy Cow!. In 2006, he also was played in the one off The Who tribute group Mike Portnoy's Amazing Journey, which featured Gary Cherone on lead vocals, Mike Portnoy on drums, and Paul Gilbert on guitar and vocals. This served as Sheehan and Gilbert's first time playing together in eight years (as Gilbert had left Mr. Big in 1998), and also established a working relationship between Sheehan and Portnoy, who would later go on to become bandmates in other projects.

In 2009, Mr. Big reunited for a well-received Japanese tour, and went on to begin writing and recording new music together again from there. They have since released three more studio albums - 2010's What If..., 2014's ...The Stories We Could Tell, and 2017's Defying Gravity. In the meantime, Sheehan has continued to be very active with other projects as well, but has also successfully managed to balance his commitments to these other projects with his commitments to Mr. Big as well. Among these have been two more reunions with Talas - one in 2012 for a one-off show with Constantino and Varga, and another in 2017 with Phil Naro, Mark Miller, and new guitarist Kire Najdovski, which continued until Naro's death in 2021. He also formed the supergroup trio The Winery Dogs in 2012, featuring Mike Portnoy on drums and Richie Kotzen on guitar and lead vocals (who had previously replaced Paul Gilbert in Mr. Big after his departure from the band in 1998), and has since released two studio albums with them - a self-titled in 2013, and Hot Streak in 2015. Sheehan's collaborations with Portnoy have also carried over into other projects since then - the next one being an eponymous supergroup (also known under the acronym PSMS) featuring the two of them, keyboardist Derek Sherinian, and guitar virtuoso Tony MacAlpine. This group mostly performed instrumental arrangements of songs from each of the members' previous bands, but also featured a rendition of "Shy Boy" with Sheehan and Portnoy trading off on lead vocal duties on their 2013 Live in Tokyo DVD. Though their tenure as a band was short-lived, the collaboration between Sheehan, Portnoy, and Sherinian went on to give way to another group a few years later, called Sons of Apollo, which featured the three of them as well as Jeff Scott Soto on lead vocals and Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal on guitar and vocals. This band has been together since 2017, and has released two studio albums to date - Psychotic Symphony in 2017 and MMXX in 2020. Though Sheehan usually has served as an integral part of the backing vocal team in almost every vocal band he has been in, in Sons of Apollo he serves solely as a bassist, leaving vocal duties to Soto, Bumblefoot, and Portnoy. Regardless, he remains an extremely hard-working and busy musician who seems determined to give us as much music in as many different projects as he can, and I have no doubt that he will continue to wow audiences worldwide with his next releases and tours whenever they happen!

Previous version of this thread by Monocus on TRP2.

Last Edit: Aug 15, 2023 5:24:10 GMT by Henny Macc

rob Vocal Adept Offline Posts: 203 Likes: 200 Join Date: December 2020 Favourite Singer(s): Freddie Mercury, Stevie Wonder and Wilson Pickett	Billy Sheehan Oct 13, 2021 13:49:08 GMT via mobile Quote Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Member Give Gift Back to Top Post by rob on Oct 13, 2021 13:49:08 GMT That's a beefy range! Especially considering how low he can go.

Zedd Squared Moderator Offline Posts: 517 Likes: 864 Join Date: September 2019 Favourite Singer(s): Floor Jansen	Billy Sheehan Oct 13, 2021 14:40:33 GMT Quote Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Member Give Gift Back to Top Post by Zedd Squared on Oct 13, 2021 14:40:33 GMT Great to see the thread fully and properly updated like this! Out of curiosity though, why did you not list the lowest/highest lead vocal note for some of the albums? Such as Compression or Cosmic Troubadour.

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Billy Sheehan Oct 13, 2021 21:39:32 GMT

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Post by Henny Macc on Oct 13, 2021 21:39:32 GMT

I did; it just so happens that the lowest/highest notes on those albums are non-melodic, and then the second-lowest/highest are backing vocal. So I settled for listing both and forgoing listing highest/lowest melodic lead vocal.

Though I suppose it's worth asking for opinions on whether I should list the "Toss It on the Flame" A4s as melodic or not. They're rather yelled, but also do seem to follow a deliberate pitch interval:

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Billy Sheehan Jul 28, 2022 1:50:16 GMT

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Post by Henny Macc on Jul 28, 2022 1:50:16 GMT

New Talas song with Sheehan and Phil Naro sharing vocal duties, though I don't quite remember Sheehan singing this much of it in the live versions they played in 2017 and 2019. It also surprises me the way they mixed the vocals in this version - kinda comes out sounding like Sheehan is more of the lead vocalist and Naro is just offering harmonies for support.

Sounds really good otherwise, though! Digging those three part harmonies on the choruses. F♯4s for Sheehan and lots of B4s and C♯5s for Naro.

Last Edit: Jul 28, 2022 1:51:00 GMT by Henny Macc

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Billy Sheehan Sept 27, 2022 6:23:02 GMT

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Post by Henny Macc on Sept 27, 2022 6:23:02 GMT

Billy's first sole lead vocal performance on a studio Talas song! Nothing too showy range-wise here; just a bunch of F♯4s, but it was still something that came as a slight surprise to me. I was initially wondering if this was a track that Phil Naro was meant to do vocals on but died before he had the chance to track them, but it would appear not considering that you can still hear him doing backing vocals on the choruses of this and a few high notes at the end. So to me that suggests that this was always intended to be a Billy lead vocal song, which I find kinda interesting.

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Billy Sheehan Feb 23, 2023 23:56:45 GMT BassSquared, rob, and 1 more like this

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Post by Henny Macc on Feb 23, 2023 23:56:45 GMT

Got to see the man himself live last night with The Winery Dogs! His mic seemed to be turned down pretty quiet, so it was hard to hear his backing vocals at times, but suffice it to say I got a plentiful taste of his bass playing and it was everything you'd expect it to be.

Here's a video someone already uploaded from the show.

It's very faint, but I think it sounds like Billy hits a falsetto G♯5 in the background here? Could use some more opinions though. Also a quick F♯5 by Richie Kotzen here, BassSquared

Last Edit: Feb 23, 2023 23:59:11 GMT by Henny Macc

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Billy Sheehan Mar 28, 2023 13:34:18 GMT

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Post by Henny Macc on Mar 28, 2023 13:34:18 GMT

ultimateclassicrock.com/billy-sheehan-david-lee-roth-skyscraper-tour-vocals/
Ah shit, here I thought Eat 'em and Smile tour footage was the only DLR material I was gonna need to notewatch for this thread, but now this article just went and revealed that Sheehan's pre-recorded vocals were used on the Skyscraper tour as well, despite him not being physically present for it...

Last Edit: Mar 28, 2023 13:34:39 GMT by Henny Macc

Henny Macc Moderator Offline Posts: 1,618 Likes: 1,533 Join Date: April 2020 Favourite Singer(s): Steve	Billy Sheehan Aug 15, 2023 5:27:33 GMT rob likes this Quote Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Member Give Gift Back to Top Post by Henny Macc on Aug 15, 2023 5:27:33 GMT Eyyy new B5 in this cover song that Billy is singing on the current Mr. Big tour Also damn, some impressively strong drumming by Paul Gilbert here!

Billy Sheehan (2,425 views)

Post by Henny Macc on Oct 13, 2021 7:19:26 GMT

Post by rob on Oct 13, 2021 13:49:08 GMT

Post by Zedd Squared on Oct 13, 2021 14:40:33 GMT

Post by Henny Macc on Oct 13, 2021 21:39:32 GMT

Post by Henny Macc on Jul 28, 2022 1:50:16 GMT

Post by Henny Macc on Sept 27, 2022 6:23:02 GMT

Post by Henny Macc on Feb 23, 2023 23:56:45 GMT

Post by Henny Macc on Mar 28, 2023 13:34:18 GMT

Post by Henny Macc on Aug 15, 2023 5:27:33 GMT