Bassist Billy Sheehan was born on March 19, 1953 in Buffalo, New York. He is of Irish descent.

Sheehan’s discovery of music contains something of an urban legend. According to the legend Sheehan’s first instrument was an acoustic guitar – actually his sister’s – which he constantly borrowed. He actually wanted and electric guitar, but his grandmother is said to have responded to the request with “over my dead body”. She died soon after and Sheehan used some of the insurance money received to buy his first electric guitar. Whether this is true, well, Sheehan probably won’t confirm any time soon.

Needless to say Sheehan didn’t stay with the guitar long, as he switched to a bass guitar soon after seeing Vanilla Edge bassist Tim Bogert playing on his bass. He soon bought a Hagstrom FB, and soon after that bought another bass that was very similar to Bogert’s. Both faced a great deal of customization to cover what Sheehan perceived as fundamental weaknesses in their construction.

In his early years Sheehan also became a devout Scientologist and continues with the religion to this day as an Operating Thetan Level 3.

Though he’d played with bands prior Sheehan’s first full-time gigs came with Talas, a trio of players featuring Dave Constantino and Paul Varga. The three alternated between who would be thevocalistof the moment, and they played a mixture of cover songs and original material. They remained one of Buffalo’s most popular local bands for over a decade, and in 1978 Talas released itsdebut album

Sheehan also played with a band calledLight Years in the late 1970’s, though he eventually went back to Talas and played in a show that saw him acquainted with guitarist Michael Schenker, who would help him land a job touring with band UFO in 1983. Talas would not last much longer; despite its local popularity and the surging adoration of glam rock in the 1980’s, the band was poorly managed, and never expanded its popularity much past Buffalo. They released three albums and had another in demo stage before breaking apart.

After the end of Talas Sheehan went on to play with metal band Thrasher, though his involvement with them didn’t last. Eventually Sheehan was brought on board withDavid Lee Roth, former member of Van Halen, as a guitarist for his second solo album. Sheehan helped with the album but left soon after, and by 1988 Sheehan and several other artists formed a new band calledMr. Big.

Mr. Big met with some initial success on its first album, hitting hard with hits the likes of “Addicted to that Rush”, though later releases were never quite as successful. Sheehan continued to bop around with various bands until he debuted solo in 2001 with Compression. A second solo album, Cosmic Troubadour, was released in 2005.