Billy Sheehan
Billy Sheehan was born in Buffalo, New York, United States on March 19th, 1953 and is the Guitarist. At the age of 71, Billy Sheehan biography, profession, age, height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, measurements, education, career, dating/affair, family, news updates, and networth are available.
At 71 years old, Billy Sheehan physical status not available right now. We will update Billy Sheehan's height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, and measurements.
William "Billy" Sheehan (born March 19, 1953) is an American bassist known for his appearances with Talas, Steve Vai, David Lee Roth, Mr. Big, Niacin, and The Winery Dogs.
Sheehan has been named in the "Best Rock Bass Player" section of Guitar Player magazine five times for his "lead bass" playing style.
Sheehan's repertoire includes chording, two-handed tapping, right-hand "three-finger picking," and monitored feedback.
Personal life
Sheehan has been an active member of the Church of Scientology since 1971, having converted from Catholicism.
Career
Billy Sheehan's first electric bass was a Hagström FB, which was soon followed by a Precision bass. He took the Hagström's anxieties after acquiring the Precision bass. He significantly upgraded the Precision bass over the years, scalloping the five top frets, adding a neck pickup and additional support for the bolt-on neck, which Sheehan says is the instrument's greatest drawback. After Paul Samwell-Smith of the Yardbirds and Mel Schacher of Grand Funk Railroad, the neck pickup was modified for what Sheehan described as "very low end" modelled. The Gibson EB-0 type neck pickup and the original split-coil Precision bass pickup all have their own separate stereo output jacks on the bass itself, allowing for precise control of the tone through the bass. The Precision bass has since been discontinued, but Sheehan affectionally refers to it as "The Wife." Sheehan's signature Yamaha Attitude bass is patterned after this instrument. Sheehan also has two amps to produce his signature sound, one with complete distortion and high pass filtering to sound more guitar-like, and another with full distortion and high pass filtering to make it sound more guitar-like, as well as one super-clean for the low end of the neck pickup.
Talas, a power trio with Dave Constantino on guitar and Paul Varga on drums, was Sheehan's first full time band. The band performed a mixture of cover songs and original material, and the three main players alternated on lead vocals.
Talas, a well-known local band in Buffalo for over a decade, has risen to cult status in the northeast United States and Canada. Talas' debut album, "See Saw," became the regional hit single. Sheehan wrote "Shy Boy" (later re-recorded with David Lee Roth) and "Addicted to the Rush") during this period (later re-recorded with Mr Big).
Sheehan also performed in Light Years with drummer Ron Rocco, who had appeared in a band called Black Sheep with Foreigner singer Lou Gramm in Rochester, NY, in the 1970s. UFO in Buffalo opened a show after Sheehan returned to Talas. Sheehan was led to a friendship with guitarist Michael Schenker and later helped him land him the job as a UFO tour guide in 1983.
Talas' first national exposure came in 1980, when they opened thirty shows for Van Halen. However, success was elusive, and even as their brand of "glam metal" gained a following over the next few years, Talas remained an unsigned act, partly due to poor leadership. On Evenfall Records (reissued by Metal Blade), they released "Talas" LP and "Sink Your Teeth Into That" on Relativity Records, which followed "Sink Your Teeth into That."
Sheehan and his colleagues formed Talas with another drummer (Mark Perry, also later of Heaven) and Phil Naro, a dedicated singer who performed in his late 1970s (the Billy Sheehan Band), in the hopes of taking Talas deeper than regional success. Live Speed on Ice by Talas will be released just one more album. After Mitch Perry left the band, Johnny Angel, who played guitar with them on their 1985/86 US tour opening for Yngwie Malmsteen's Rising Force, was replaced. On Gold Mountain/A&M, there was a fourth Talas record, tentatively titled "Lights, Camera, Action," but the demo was never completed, due to Sheehan's departure to join David Lee Roth's solo band. Talas did briefly live under Phil Naro without Sheehan, enlisting Jimmy DeGrasso on drums, Al Pitrelli on drums, Bruno Ravel on bass, and Gary Bivona on keyboards, but by this time, Talas was dead and Ravel formed Danger Danger. Sheehan has also auditioned for Max Webster, a longtime friend of Max Webster guitarist/guitarist Kim Mitchell.
Sheehan joined the proto-thrash metal band Thrasher in the early 1980s, sharing the stage with Dan Spitz, the current Anthrax guitarist. His time with Thrasher didn't last long, but he did participate in the self-titled LP, which was reissued on CD in 2008.
Sheehan formed the jazz fusion band Niacin in 1996 with drummer Dennis Chambers and keyboardist John Novello. The band's name derives from the Hammond B3 organ's timbral foundation; vitamin B3 is also known as niacin.
In 1996, Niacin unveiled their first studio album. The band's main instrument is instrumental, with the exception of their third studio album, Deep (2000), which features vocals by Glenn Hughes of Deep Purple. Steve Lukather of Toto's guest guitar appears on the album as well.
In the second half of 2012, Sheehan toured with PSMS (Portnoy / Sheehan / Sherinian), an instrumental supergroup.
Sheehan, as well as Portnoy and Richie Kotzen, produced their debut album The Winery Dogs in August 2012. The self-titled album was released in Japan on May 5, 2013 and in the United States on July 23, 2013. In 2015, Hot Streak's second album Hot Streak was released.
He formed Sons of Apollo, a progressive metal supergroup formed in August 2017, as well as keyboardist Derek Sherinian, vocalist Jeff Scott Soto, and guitarist Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal.
