BILLY SHEEHAN On MR. BIG's Future: 'We Haven't Made Any Decisions Yet On Anything'

November 9, 2019

MR. BIG bassist Billy Sheehan says that no decisions have yet been made regarding the band's future following last year's passing of Pat Torpey. The drummer died in February 2018 at the age of 64 from complications of Parkinson's disease.

Speaking to Brazil's Lokaos Rock Show, Sheehan stated about the possibility of more MR. BIG live shows and studio recordings: "Well, we haven't made any decisions yet. But myself, Eric [Martin, vocals] and Paul [Gilbert, guitar], we're very good friends, and we really wanted to take a while to stop MR. BIG because Pat was such an important part of the band. We did some shows with another drummer — Matt Starr; he's a great drummer and sang really good. So we'll wait a little while and then maybe make some decisions later. But we haven't made any decisions yet on anything."

Asked if he is still grieving the loss of his bandmate, Sheehan said: "Well, not so much grieving, but we just wanna let life settle out a little bit. Pat was my best friend in music, and we were the closest in MR. BIG — me and Pat were. We were very, very close. So it was a big loss for me and a big loss for the band and a big loss for the fans, and, of course, his family as well. But we wanna honor his legacy. If we do anything, we wanna do something great. We don't know yet what that would be, but we wanna make sure we honor his legacy with going out there. If we do something, it will have to be fabulous."

Last fall, Martin told the "Friday NI Rocks" show that the band was planning to make a new studio record in 2019. But he added that once MR. BIG was done with its touring commitments, it would time for the group to call it quits. "Yeah, that's the last hurrah — that's it," he said. "It feels a little uncomfortable to keep going without Pat Torpey."

MR. BIG's latest album, "Defying Gravity", was released in July 2017 via Frontiers Music Srl.

After announcing his Parkinson's diagnosis in 2014, Torpey continued to write, record and perform with MR. BIG, who also recruited Starr to share drum duties.

MR. BIG, formed in 1988, produced numerous hit songs that ranged across a wide array of rock genres — be it ballads, heavy metal, or blues rock. Their hits include "Alive And Kicking", "Just Take My Heart" and the chart-topping ballad "To Be With You".

Find more on

Prev More News Next

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).