Billy Sherwood
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William "Billy" Wyman Sherwood (born March 14, 1965), is a musician, record producer, and engineer.
Billy comes from a musical family which includes his father Bobby, who was a big band leader, his mother Phyllis who is a singer and drummer, and brother Michael who is a pianist, keyboardist, and singer.
Billy's music career started with a band that he formed with his brother Michael while growing up in Las Vegas. The band was called Lodgic, where he played bass and sung while Michael played keyboards and sang back up. The band also included Guy Allison on keyboards, Jimmy Haun on guitar, and Gary Starns on drums. They eventually moved the band to Los Angeles in 1980. After many years of trying to get things together, they recorded their debut album "Nomadic Sands" which was released in 1986. Billy showed his talents not only as a musician, but also as engineer, mixer, and producer of the album.
Lodgic eventually broke up, and Billy set out to putting a new band together with Guy Allison. They recruited guitarist Bruce Gowdy and drummer Mark T. Williams to form World Trade. They recorded their self-titled debut in 1989, with Billy taking on the roles of engineer, mixer, and producer again, along with his band duties as the bassist and lead singer.
Then through a twist of fate, Billy and Bruce were asked to come and jam with Chris Squire, Alan White, and Tony Kaye of Yes. Singer Jon Anderson was planning on leaving, as was guitarist Trevor Rabin. The idea was for Billy and Bruce to replace them in the band. Though they wrote and recorded demos of some material, the plan never developed, as Anderson and Rabin continued on after all. Like Trevor Horn before him, Billy was uncomfortable with the idea of replacing Anderson as the front man of Yes. But he struck up a friendship with Squire that would lead to working with him throughout the next 10 years.
During the hiatus of Yes, Squire put together the Chris Squire Experiment, having Billy as the lead singer while playing some guitar and keyboards. Then he would produce, engineer, and mix a couple of tracks on Yes' "Union" album. These were songs that Billy wrote with Chris and he even performed on. He then would go on to record a project called The Key with guitarist Marty Walsh and drummer Hugh Meign, though they would not release the album until 1997.
His talent behind the board led him to work with Motörhead, Dangerous Toys, and Paul Rodgers formerly of Bad Company as producer and engineer. Billy was also brought in by Toto to sing and play bass on their Kingdom of Desire album. He also produced a couple of tribute albums, including "Jeffology" a tribute to Jeff Beck. Billy then joined Yes on tour as an additional musician, playing guitar and keyboards for their "Talk" tour.
Billy finally got back together with his band mates from World Trade, and released "Euphoria" in 1995, with Jay Schellen replacing Williams on drums. After this, he worked with a multitude of artists. Most of his work was as producer, mixer, and engineer. Most significantly was his involvement on two more tribute albums. "Dragon Attack", a tribute to Queen, "Salute to AC/DC", and "Crossfire", a tribute to the last Stevie Ray Vaughan.
The call from Yes would come again, as Billy officially joined Yes as a second guitarist alongside Rabin on the 1994-1995 "Talk" tour. Sherwood left Yes the next year, but he would co-produce, engineer, and mix the new studio tracks for their "Keys to Ascension" and "Keys to Ascension 2" albums. After Billy would start putting into the works a third album by World Trade, but the band would fall apart. He would later use much of that material as his debut solo album "The Big Peace", released in 1999.
After the two "Keys to Ascension" albums, Rick Wakeman left Yes. Billy's friendship with Chris Squire would then lead him being asked to join the band again. The material that they had written together was used as the basis of what would become "Open Your Eyes" released in 1997 by Yes. Billy would play guitar and keyboards. Igor Khoroshev would join the band before the tour as the keyboardist leaving Billy to playing guitar and supplying backing vocals.
After returning from the tour, Billy and Yes returned to the studio to record "The Ladder". During this time too, Billy and Chris would start putting the finishing touches on their album "Conspiracy", which was released while Yes was on tour in support of "The Ladder" in 2000. Bill also took time to perform on his brother Michael's album "Tangletown", released in 1999.
Yes recorded a show during "The Ladder" tour in Billy's hometown of Las Vegas at the House of Blues. This was released as an album and DVD titled "House of Yes". Then after the tour, an announcement came that Billy was no longer a member of Yes.
In 2003, Billy released another album with Chris Squire, the project becoming known as Conspiracy. The album is titled The Unknown.
[edit] External links
| Yes |
|---|
| Jon Anderson | Chris Squire | Steve Howe | Rick Wakeman | Alan White |
| Peter Banks | Tony Kaye | Bill Bruford | Patrick Moraz | Geoff Downes | Trevor Horn | Trevor Rabin | Billy Sherwood | Igor Khoroshev |
| Discography |
| Studio albums: Yes | Time and a Word | The Yes Album | Fragile | Close to the Edge | Tales from Topographic Oceans | Relayer | Going for the One | Tormato | Drama | 90125 | Big Generator | Union | Talk | Open Your Eyes | The Ladder | Magnification |
| Live albums: Yessongs | Yesshows | 9012Live: The Solos | Keys to Ascension | Keys to Ascension 2 | House of Yes: Live from House of Blues |
| Compilations: Yesterdays | Classic Yes | Yesstory | The Ultimate Yes: 35th Anniversary Collection |
| Remix albums: Yes Remixes |
| Box sets: Yesyears | In a Word: Yes (1969 - ) | The Word is Live |
