{"id":20886,"date":"2011-07-28T09:05:31","date_gmt":"2011-07-28T13:05:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/?p=20886"},"modified":"2011-07-28T09:05:31","modified_gmt":"2011-07-28T13:05:31","slug":"justins-japan-interview-with-billy-sheehan-of-mr-big-on-touring-tohoku","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/2011\/07\/28\/justins-japan-interview-with-billy-sheehan-of-mr-big-on-touring-tohoku\/","title":{"rendered":"Justin’s Japan: Interview with Billy Sheehan of Mr. Big on Touring Tohoku"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Billy Sheehan, right, with Mr. Big: "We had raised about $100,000 for the earthquake relief, and there\u2019s still more to be raised, too. In the end, we raised a bunch of money, and we got a special letter from the Japanese Embassy in Washington, D.C. thanking us for being there." (William Hames)<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

By<\/em> <\/strong>JQ<\/strong> magazine<\/strong><\/em><\/a> editor <\/em>Justin Tedaldi<\/a><\/em> (CIR Kobe-shi<\/a>, 2001-02)\u00a0for Examiner.com.\u00a0Visit his\u00a0page <\/em>here<\/a> <\/em>for related stories.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the most respected bassists and gentlemen in the music world, Billy Sheehan <\/a>is back with Mr. Big<\/a>, the Los Angeles-based rock band he formed in 1988 best known for the hit ballad \u201cTo Be with You<\/a>,\u201d which shot to number one in 15 countries, including the U.S., in 1992. After splitting a decade later, in 2009 the original lineup reformed, followed by the release of What If\u2026<\/em><\/a>, the first album in 15 years from the original lineup.<\/p>\n

Now, American fans are finally going to get a chance to see Billy<\/a>, Paul Gilbert<\/a>, Eric Martin<\/a> and Pat Torpey<\/a> together on stage since their \u201990s heyday for a month-long American tour beginning Saturday (July 30) at San Diego\u2019s 4th & B<\/a>. In this exclusive interview, I spoke with Billy on Mr. Big\u2019s current jaunt around the world, their triumphant return to Japan (where the band is revered), and the possibility of another album from the guys.<\/p>\n

So far this year Mr. Big has played all over Europe, Asia and South America. What have your highlights been?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Japan is always amazing. The most difficult thing about touring is getting to and from the gigs\u2026once we\u2019re onstage, there\u2019s no trouble at all, and in Japan, it\u2019s just a breeze. We don\u2019t fly in much, and take a lot of bullet trains, which are super convenient and easy and clean and safe and fast and everything. So Japan is always easy. The rest of Southeast Asia was actually pretty cool, too. We were supposed to do two shows in China, but the Shanghai show got cancelled because the promoters had the wrong visa for us. The shows in Korea, Taiwan and the Philippines were unbelievable, and in Taiwan we actually had to speed away from the venue in a van with literally crowds of people chasing after us (laughs<\/em>). It was hilarious.<\/p>\n

Mr. Big toured Japan less than one month after the earthquake and tsunami, and even did gigs in Iwate and Miyagi Prefectures, the areas most affected by the devastation. What was that experience like?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Really touching. There was a [camera] crew meeting us at the airport and then following us around, and we didn\u2019t know, but they went out in the crowd and interviewed a lot of people, so later on we saw that they had interviewed a guy\u2026I think he was from Sendai. They interviewed him for television, and we didn\u2019t see it until we saw the show. He\u2019d lost everything, and a couple of friends and family, and he\u2019d lost his entire Mr. Big collection, so he actually came to the show to start his collection over again. And I\u2019m telling you, it was so touching, this poor guy, that in his life, the important thing was to come and get his music back together again, really amazing. We had raised about $100,000 for the earthquake relief, and there\u2019s still more to be raised, too\u2014I just saw another $22,000, and I have to see what the figures are for the downloads of the special song we did [\u201cThe World Is on the Way<\/a>\u201d], also, so there\u2019s a bunch more, too.<\/p>\n

In the end, we raised a bunch of money, and we got a special letter<\/a> from the Japanese Embassy in Washington, D.C. [signed by Ambassador Ichiro Fujisaki<\/a>] thanking us for being there. We didn\u2019t know how it would go when we went there, was it too soon or not, but [remember] after 9\/11, where after the dust cleared, all the playhouses and restaurants were going out of business because nobody was going to New York City, so what helped was that going to see a show and having dinner to help the economy rolling again, so we were hoping to get that idea happening. We heard from sak\u00e9 dealers that were going out of business because nobody was drinking because they were all in mourning, you know? It\u2019s a shame that so many lives were lost, but one of the most important things after anything like that is to get back up on your feet again. So I think we helped a bit\u2014I\u2019m cautiously optimistic to say I think we helped a bit. And from the tone of the e-mails and speaking with people after the show, we\u2019re very pleased. So it all ended good.<\/p>\n

Was there any hesitation at all about playing those gigs because of the radiation?<\/strong><\/p>\n

For me, no. A couple of the guys in the band were a little concerned about it. I fly transoceanic all the time [across] the Pacific, and you get a dose of radiation every time you do that. I think it\u2019s equivalent to\u2014I forget the figure\u2014one, two or three chest X-rays just by flying over the ocean. And I do know that radiation, to incite fear in people, is almost second to none, you know? It\u2019s invisible, and you don\u2019t know it\u2019s there and the next thing you know, you\u2019ve got a problem. So I knew that there was probably some elevated degree of danger, but I also know that most things of that nature are over-exaggerated, in my experience with my own personal catastrophes of earthquakes and whatever else. They really do overblow it.<\/p>\n

So I wasn\u2019t worried personally, but we were more concerned for the fans, and I know that the Japanese government is very conscientious with their safety and rules. I remember I was in Tokyo one time, and there was a typhoon warning for everyone to stay inside. This was years ago, and I was out with a friend of mine, we were walking around, and the streets were deserted<\/em>; there was nobody anywhere\u2026the people in Japan are really in tune with the warnings and such. And I found out the government wouldn\u2019t have allowed [us] to go on if we were to put a crowd of people in danger, so there was that factor, as well. So a couple of the guys in the band were a little worried about it, but I was okay with it, and in the end, all of us are glad we did it.<\/p>\n

For the complete interview, click here<\/a>.
\n<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

For Justin’s February 2011 interview with Billy, click here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  By JQ magazine editor Justin Tedaldi (CIR Kobe-shi, 2001-02)\u00a0for Examiner.com.\u00a0Visit his\u00a0page here for related stories. One of the most respected bassists and gentlemen in the music world, Billy Sheehan is back with Mr. Big, the Los Angeles-based rock band he formed in 1988 best known for the hit ballad \u201cTo Be with You,\u201d which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,25,340],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articlejournalism","category-interviewprofile","category-justins-japan"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pkZ7m-5qS","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20886"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20886\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20891,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20886\/revisions\/20891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}