Mr. Big has returned to form with a new album called “What If.” The album features the original lineup of Eric Martin, Paul Gilbert, Billy Sheehan, and Pat Torpey. Mr. Big lead singer Eric Martin recently spoke with Backstageaxxess.com and gave a no holds barred interview discussing the Mr. Big reunion and some of the bands he almost wound up in, including Van Halen, Toto, and Foreigner.
THOM: Thanks for agreeing to this interview.
ERIC: No problem, where are you calling from?
THOM: I am in Rochester, New York.
ERIC: I have been talking to a lot of Brazilians and Germans lately.
THOM: That leads nicely into my first question, which is why Mr. Big has been so much more popular overseas than in the US?
ERIC: We definitely are a talented bunch of guys but you can’t do it alone, you need help. It took us three years before we were playing bigger venues. I realize you can’t be the king of the mountain forever, but we slid down pretty quick in America and eventually we traveled abroad. We went from tour buses to vans, like a lot of other bands, but at least we had some places to play. We needed the backing and we didn’t get it at the time. Although it may sound contradictory, later on I was able to do it alone as a solo artist, making a living booking my own gigs. I found bands all over the world willing to learn my songs. Mr. Big was more of a machine and we needed help, so to answer your question, I wish we had more help and I wish we had stayed together and had the longevity of bands like Bon Jovi or Aerosmith.
THOM: So is that where the title of the new album “What If” came from?
ERIC: You mean like what if we had stayed together? It’s kind of an inside thing. Something we used to say as a band when someone would bring in a song that didn’t win everyone over and someone would say, “what if we added this, or what if we did that? Even though sometimes I would get frustrated because it meant somebody was about to give me their two cents worth, I realized that the end result was a positive one and we wound up with a great song. When Pat Torpey came up with the pig with wings for the cover, we laughed for like an hour and a half and we just left it.
THOM: The new album is great and has been getting excellent reviews but I am wondering what it was like to get back together in the studio after you suffered the fate of many bands. You split up and then there are a series of quotes in the newspaper.
ERIC: Yeah (laughs)! You mean we bashed the shit out of each other? Except Paul, he just didn’t say anything. He took the high road.
THOM: To be fair, you guys didn’t beat each other up as badly as Van Halen or even The Eagles.
ERIC: Well whenever we tried to do something as solo artists, we would be asked when Mr. Big was getting back together a million times. Some of the rock magazines became gossip magazines. I mean, as much as you don’t want those old wounds opened again, I guess there are sometimes where you are just expressing some frustrations. Even though it wasn’t always whiskey and roses offstage, onstage we were amazing and I think we all missed that. The sad thing is that when it all fell apart, it was just due to a communication problem. I can’t tell you exactly what it was, but it was a giant war of words.
THOM: Do you think it was due to the fact you were a super group and not a band that formed organically?
ERIC: Yeah. There is this band called Tesla. They all grew up together, and when you hang around them, you can tell they grew up together. I think most bands that grew up together stay together. For us, we were a band that admired each other musically and then we became friends on the road. It was difficult because we were all leaders in our own bands before. Of course this is the way I saw it, the others may have a different take on it, but it felt like we were little kids just trying to learn how to share our toys. They were different than the people I grew up with and when we broke up, it was sad but not the end of the world to us. But to our fans, it was a really big deal. I remember when I was a kid and you expected bands like Aerosmith and Van Halen to come out with an album a year. You grew up expecting that and when it didn’t happen it was a disappointment. When break up, fans feel like they are a part of the band and get involved in all the internal combustion. I am amazed at the amount of fans that come out to see us after all these years and that kept the torch burning.
THOM: The new album doesn’t sound like it was done for money, the band sounds very tight and the material is very strong. What motivated you guys to get back in the studio instead of just touring, because touring seems to be where the money is today?
ERIC: We are a different animal now. We aren’t motivated by the coin. There is no record company pressure for us to make the next “To Be With You.” Let me tell you, that happened a million times, they would tell you to say this and wear this. They wanted Mr. Big to be this corporate thing. In spite of that, there were still fans keeping the music alive.
THOM: Well, a lot of bands don’t record new music after reuniting.
ERIC: I think I always had that in the back of my mind when we started having conference calls and getting together for dinner. We agreed we were going to reunite and play our big hits- at least what we thought were the hits- and we would play Europe and Japan. I thought to myself that I wanted more than a concert and a t-shirt. I wanted to experience the magic again and keep it going. Paul said we should take baby steps, or something like that. He wanted it to be fun and stress free and he figured if we didn’t kill each other after touring for a few months, we could get together and discuss the next step. On the tour, nobody rocked the boat, we all got along great. I also began to appreciate things more. In the old days when Paul was playing his solo, I might go offstage and have a glass of wine. Now I watch him and I am in awe at how much he has raised the bar in guitar playing and I really appreciate what I didn’t have for a lot of years.
THOM: Of course, Billy Sheehan is somewhat of a local hero in this part of the country.
ERIC: Over the years, I think I have met every Talas fan in the world! They say, “I saw Talas at Uncle Sal’s,” or The Armory. Mr. Big played The Penny Arcade (in Rochester, NY) and there were more Billy Sheehan fans than there were Mr. Big fans!
THOM: As far as your career outside of Mr. Big goes, it has been reported in various publications that you were considered as a vocalist for Van Halen, Rainbow and Toto. Could you talk about that?
ERIC: Well the Van Halen thing happened around the time I released my first solo album for Capitol Records. I was really happy with it. At that time, I really hadn’t forged an identity yet, I was kind of an R&B and middle of the road rock singer. When I was younger, I sang a lot more metal. Danny Kortchmar, who produced my album, had just finished producing Don Henley’s “Building the Perfect Beast,” which is why the album sounds a lot like “Building the Perfect Beast” b-sides. Anyhow, Danny met up with Eddie, I mean Edward as he told me, “call me Edward not Eddie” Van Halen at The David Letterman Show. Danny gave him a copy of my album and told him that if he needed a singer this was the guy. I think that was sometime around 1985 when Edward Van Halen gave me a call and said, “I hate your album but I love your voice.” He told me he wanted to get together and jam at his 5150 studios in Coldwater Canyon and it was surreal. For about a week I told everybody I could be in Van Halen, luckily I didn’t buy a car or anything. I remember one of my friends saying, “Wow, David Lee Roth and now you,” and I thought to myself, “that sure doesn’t sound right, does it?” I realized those were some pretty big clown shoes to fill. This next part sounds like something out of a movie. I was in California working on a soundtrack with Neal Schon and we were in the airport and ran into Sammy Hagar. Neal says to Sammy, “Eric’s going down to talk to Eddie about being in Van Halen.” I remember Sammy saying, “I’m gonna get that gig,” and then Neal asked him if he had auditioned and he said he didn’t have to audition because he knew them. I looked at Sammy and thought it made sense. Roth and Hagar bathe in the spotlight, they are major entertainers who love being the center of attention and I just felt like I wasn’t in that league. The conversation gave me chills. Now I wish there was a happy ending to the story, but what basically happened was that I chickened out. I booked a hotel a mile up the road from the 5150 studios and Eddie called me and asked, “are you coming or what?” I told him I wasn’t feeling well, he called me a couple more times that day and finally said “we’ll make it for some other time.”
THOM: So you never even went to the audition?
ERIC: Yep, and do you know how many times I have told that story and guys like you say “how disappointing.” I wanted it because I was in a little fish bowl and that gig would have put me in the ocean. What it came down to is that I just got scared.
THOM: What about when Hagar left?
ERIC: Yeah right, imagine me calling him up years later and saying “Eddie this is Eric,” he probably would have told me to go f**k myself (laughs). Nonetheless, Steve Lukather played on my solo album and we wound up becoming good friends. He asked me to join Toto and I thought that would be a better fit for me anyway. I wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice and so I went to the audition in LA and spent a week with them jamming tunes like “Africa” and “Hold the Line.” I remember at the end of the week, the whole band went to a restaurant together we were sitting around the table and I noticed that Jeff (Porcaro) was missing. Later I got a call from Steve saying that Jeff thought I was too green. Joe Williams wound up getting the gig after that. I must admit, I took that pretty hard. I thought I had the perfect voice for that gig and that I would have been comfortable because my voice was a lot like Bobby’s.
THOM: What about Rainbow?
ERIC: Well that never really happened, my manager got a call that Ritchie Blackmore was looking for a singer for some group that turned out to be Rainbow. We just didn’t follow through on it. It’s funny because sometimes I look at actors who turn down roles in famous movies and go “what were they thinking?” I guess in some ways, I was like that. I mean even though I felt like I wasn’t good enough for Van Halen, I certainly thought I was right for Toto. And Foreigner was another one! Right before my children were born, Mick Jones called and really wanted me to join Foreigner. He sent me backing 
tracks for “Waiting for a Girl Like You” and “Urgent,” and I sent him some demos. I didn’t chicken out that time, I just didn’t want to be away from my kids, and I had nothing going at the time. It was right after Mr. Big, so I had a little money in the bank but I could have made a nice living with Foreigner. I remember hearing horror stories from my friends like Jack Blades, guys that were married and married to the music business at the same time, telling me how they didn’t get to spend any quality time with their kids. They missed first steps and birthday parties. I didn’t want to be that guy. Now you are going to make me cry in this interview (laughs).
THOM: I don’t think that is all that uncommon, and it certainly is a good reason for not going on the road. Things seem to have worked out for Foreigner as well.
ERIC: I agree, Kelly Hansen is perfect for Foreigner.
THOM: Around here, there are certainly mixed emotions because Rochester is Lou Gramm’s hometown.
ERIC: Well no matter who took over, Lou Gramm is still a legend. You can never take that away from him. I don’t know what it was that caused the split, personality issues or Lou’s health, but sometimes bands just decide to move on. Just like Van Halen had to decide what to do when Roth and Hagar left. Bands don’t just have to quit.
THOM: Of course Foreigner is a bit different, it’s just Mick and his hired musicians, very corporate.
ERIC: Sure, but it would have been a great gig for me at the time because I was driving around from gig to gig in a van with guys who didn’t speak English. But in the end, it worked out because I got to spend the time with my kids and eventually, Mr. Big got back together.
THOM: Thanks for taking the time to talk to us at Backstageaxxess.com.
ERIC: Thanks You.
We would like to thank Jenna LeCakes of VQPR for setting up the interview with Eric. For more information on Eric, you can go to http://www.ericmartin.com/fr_home.cfm. For more information on Mr. Big, please go to: http://www.mrbigsite.com/.
