Billy Sheehan says that MR. BIG is “strongly considering” playing some shows in 2023

MR. BIG went on hiatus following the death of drummer Pat Torpey, who passed away in February 2018 at the age of 64 from complications of Parkinson’s disease.

Speaking to Dr. Music, Sheehan said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “We might do some MR. BIG [dates] at some point next year. We’re not sure. Possibly.”

When asked if MR. BIG has replaced late drummer Pat Torpey, after using Matt Starr during the recording sessions of their latest studio album “Defying Gravity“, Sheehan said: “Possibly. We’re looking at a couple of people. We loved playing with Matt Starr — he was really great — but we need a higher-pitched voice. Matt’s a great singer but he doesn’t have the range that Pat Torpey had. And to make everything sound the way it did, we’re gonna need that extra thing there. So that makes it a little difficult for us and it narrows the field down. But there’s a couple of people we might look into. But we still don’t know.”

Billy added: “After we did the shows without Pat — the first time after we lost him — again, Matt Starr did a great job. But it wasn’t Pat; Pat wasn’t there. So I’m glad we took some time — a couple of years — to just kind of lay off of it. But a lot of people write all the time and they really wanna see the band. We would like to play for them too. So we’ll see. Nothing’s for certain at this point, but we’re certainly strongly considering it.”

MR. BIG‘s latest album, “Defying Gravity“, arrived four years ago via Wowow Entertainment, Inc. in Japan and Frontiers Music Srl in the majority of the rest of the world.