The Legendary Billy Sheehan On This Month’s Groove – The No Treble Podcast

“Wait… did I miss something? Why is there an article about a bass podcast on Six Pixels of Separation?”

Here’s why:

In the late nineties my first job was as a music journalist (actually, my first interview was with Tommy Lee from Motley Crue right before the band released Dr. Feelgood).
I spent many years interviewing musicians and artists for local weekly alternative newspapers, national and international magazines (and even published three music magazines – before we had the Internet).
I also studied and played the electric bass (in high school and post-secondary) and always felt like bass players never really had a chance to tell their stories.
So, about ten years ago, Seth Godin introduced me to Corey Brown (founder of No Treble – one of the world’s biggest bass platforms – and he also worked on Squidoo with Seth).
From there, Corey and I decided to try this monthly podcast where I would interview bass players and talk about their music, art, creativity and more.
I’m hopeful that these conversations will inspire your work, creativity and innovation as much as they do for me…

Billy Sheehan is this month’s conversation on Groove – The No Treble Podcast.

You can listen the new episode right here: Groove – The No Treble Podcast – Episode #133 – Billy Sheehan.

Billy Sheehan has spent a lifetime expanding the vocabulary of the electric bass, not by chasing novelty for its own sake, but by insisting (again and again) that the instrument deserves the same expressive range, melodic authority and emotional responsibility as any lead instrument on the stage. Long before “virtuosity” became a shortcut for excess, Billy was showing how discipline, touch and intent could turn technical fluency into something deeply and rockingly musical. From the early days of Talas in Buffalo, where his approach already challenged the idea of what a bass line in rock could carry, to the David Lee Roth Band’s legendary Eat ’Em And Smile, which landed like a declaration that the bass could drive harmony and momentum without breaking the song, Billy’s influence began to ripple outward. Mr. Big didn’t just make that influence visible… it normalized it, placing a melodic, articulate, unapologetically present bass sound at the center of mainstream rock for decades. He never stopped. Later work with The Winery Dogs and countless collaborations proved that evolution doesn’t require abandoning fundamentals. In this conversation, Billy reflects on practice as a lifelong ritual, on why four strings still offer endless terrain, on developing tone and articulation without amplification, and on the belief that melody and rhythm are not opposing forces but a single musical truth. What emerges isn’t a retrospective victory lap, but a philosophy… one rooted in listening, restraint and respect for the song. For many of us, Billy was the first bassist who quietly gave permission to think differently about the instrument (it was for me)… to hear it not just as support, but as architecture, conversation and emotion. We dig into his newest project, The Fell, where that same restless curiosity is being funneled into something collaborative and deliberately unpolished, a reminder that legacy doesn’t mean standing still. This show marks Billy’s second appearance on the podcast (after being the very first guest we ever recorded live at NAMM back in 2018). This isn’t just a discussion about bass technique or career highlights… it’s a reflection on how one player’s values helped reshape an instrument and how that ripple continues to move through almost every bassist who ever stopped, rewound the tape, and thought, “wait… you can do that?”. Enjoy the conversation…

What is Groove – The No Treble Podcast?

This is an ambitious effort. This will be a fascinating conversation. Our goal at Groove is to build the largest oral history of bass players. Why Groove? Most of the content about the bass revolves around gear, playing techniques, and more technical chatter. For us, bassists are creative artists with stories to tell. They are a force to be reckon with. These are the stories and conversation that we will capture. To create this oral history of why these artists chose the bass, what their creative lives are like, and where inspiration can be found.

Listen in: Groove – The No Treble Podcast – Episode #133 – Billy Sheehan.

Are you interested in what’s next? How to decode the future? I publish between 2-3 times per week and then the Six Pixels of Separation Podcast comes out every Sunday. Feel free to subscribe (and tell your friends).