Mr. Big’s Billy Sheehan On The 30th Anniversary Reissue Of “Lean Into It,” Buffalo, Rick James, David Lee Roth, The Winery Dogs & More
Mr. Big recently celebrated the 30th anniversary of their chart-topping Lean into It album with a remastered and expanded anniversary edition reissue, which is now available digitally, on CD and as a highly-collectible limited edition box set. First released in 1991, Lean Into It was the second studio album by the group, as founded by Paul Gilbert, Eric Martin, Billy Sheehan and Pat Torpey. It was the quartet’s breakthrough album, peaking at number 15 on the Billboard 200 charts, while its single “To Be With You” hit #1 in 15 countries, including a #1 placement on the Billboard Hot 100 for 3 weeks.
The aforementioned bassist Billy Sheehan had found a lot of success both before and after the release of Lean Into It. Prior to the founding of Mr. Big, Sheehan was part of the Buffalo, New York band Talas before joining up with Van Halen’s David Lee Roth for a pair of albums. A supergroup of sorts, Mr. Big experienced continous international success until it took a hiatus in 2002. Sheehan kept plenty busy before Mr. Big regrouped in 2009, recording and/or touring with the likes of Daniel Piquê, Niacin, Richie Kotzen and Terry Bozzio, beyond issuing a few solo albums of his own. These days, he is also part of The Winery Dogs alongside drummer Mike Portnoy and the earlier-mentioned Kotzen.
On September 8, 2021, I had the pleasure of speaking with Billy Sheehan via Zoom, as embedded below. More on Sheehan, Mr. Big and other related projects can be found here, here and here.