Mr. Big’s original three members to reunite with new mystery drummer

Mr. Big’s original three members to reunite with new mystery drummer

Mr. Big frontman Eric Martin was recently interviewed by Kenny Kessel for Canada’s The Metal Voice.

Mr. Big consisted of Martin on lead vocals, Billy Sheehan on bass, Paul Gilbert on guitar and Pat Torpey on drums from 1988 to 1999 and again from 2009 onwards when the band reformed. Martin, Sheehan and Torpey also played as Mr. Big with Richie Kotzen (ex-Poison, The Winery Dogs, Smith/Kotzen) from 1999 to 2002. Torpey suffered from Parkinson’s Disease and drummer Matt Starr was brought in to support him in 2014 while the band was touring. Eventually, Torpey passed away from complications with Parkinson’s Disease at the age of 64 on February 7, 2018.

Martin was asked about Mr. Big‘s plans to which he replied (as provided by The Metal Voice with slight edits):

“I’m here to tell you, folks, I have been talking about it lately. I still can’t really say the drummer now. Mr. Big, it’s definitely gonna happen. There’s no question about it. It’s gonna happen in the middle of 2023 [summer). There are going to be multiple dates. We are working on the US with a possible tour of… Paul Gilbert is involved, the original guitar player, Billy Sheehan [bass] and the spirit [of] Pat Torpey. There will be a phenomenal drummer. It won’t be Matt Starr. Matt is doing his own thing. He’s playing with the Ace Frehley Band. We have this new drummer,  I will tell you that he [drummer] sends  an audition video and I watched it and (he played), “Lucky This Time” which is a song that we’ve hardly ever done because mainly me, because it was really hard [for me] to sing it. It’s on the ‘Lean Into It‘  album.

What he did was, he thought  he would one up the audition, so he played drums on it and he sang the lead and the harmonies, on everything.  It was phenomenal.  I don’t want to mention the guy’s name until the press release comes out. But the guy really stepped up and everybody knows him and then one really really cool thing is that he was a big fan of Pat Torpey. I think Pat, he’d approve of this new mystery man.”

You can listen to the interview with Eric Martin on The Metal Voice below: