About live shows, desert storms, Eric Clapton and many more

He's a GREAT singer.The Bulgarian fans had already chance to check his talent LIVE back in 2009 when MR.BIG played for the first time in the country at the Tangra Mega Rock night at theВ Arena Muzika 2009 festival.

NowВ MR.BIG are back for a show withВ CINDERELLAВ on 15В Jine in Sofia.

And we talkВ with their singer on the phone...

an interview conducted by Nasso Ruskov

HEY ERIC, HOW YOU DOING, MATE?
I'm doing good, thank you. I'm working on my third day off. I just got back from Asia with Mr Big - 8 weeks in Japan, Taiwan, Korea, China...I was playing a festival in China with the biggest sandstorm they've had since the 1930s and I swallowed up all that earth, that's why my voice sounds a little bit sore.

SO, DID THE STORM SWEEP AWAY THE AUDIENCE?
No, haha, it was 10,000 people pretty much in a dirtbowl.

WHERE WAS THAT - CHINA?
Yeah, Beijing.В 

YOU GUYS ARE MASSIVE IN ASIA. THAT KEPT YOU GOING THROUGHOUT ALL THOSE YEARS WHEN THE SNOBS IN THE US WERE DISCARDING HARD ROCK FOR A WHILE.
Haha, can you actually say snobs and get away with it? Hell yeah you can.

YEAH ALL THOSE MISERABLE BASTARD IN CHECKERED SHIRTS...
Hahah, I love that - and the big jackboots. Yeah, but you know what - that was just a disguise, it's still rock'n'roll, it was just a disguise. Yeah, I remember back in 1996 I felt the musical climate change and, granted, we were lucky enough to go to parts of Europe, but we were doing great, like I said - Indonesia, Thailand...

YOU WERE BIG ON THE ORICON CHART.
Oh yeah, Japan was open arms from the beginning. Look, they love rock'n'roll. One of the biggest magazines is called Burrn magazine. and how many times have I seen Ritchie Blackmore's face on the cover!В  They eat, sleep and breathe rock'n'roll.

SO THEY LOVE RITCHIE BLACKMORE, EH?
Oh yeah - Deep Purple...anything classic rock sounding.

I HEAR A COUGH, HAVE YOU GOT A SORE THROAT?
Like I said, after swallowing part of that sandstorm...We were right in the middle of 'Just Take My Heart' and I could just feel the earth move under my tongue.В 
В 

OK THEN, I'LL TALK MORE AND YOU TALK LESS, CAUSE WE WANT YOU IN TOP FORM FOR YOUR GIG HERE IN SOFIA.
Oh, you can't keep a good man down. I've got two more days. Actually, I have today and then I have a show tomorrow - we're playing with Whitesnake in Baltimore, Maryland.

OH YEAH? WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THEIR NEW ALBUM?
I haven't heard it, I just heard one song. I listened to it on youtube and I liked it a lot. I mean, I like David Coverdale. I got a funny story - a couple of years ago I met my idol Paul Rodgers at a Pollstar award show.

SO IT WASN'T A QUEEN GIG?
No, it was after Queen. And he was just there, presenting. And so I'm talking to Paul Rodgers for about an hour and all these people, all the punters, everybody's hanging out. It was like punters and rock stars, mixed breed of people. And they're all looking at me talking to the King! And so, out of the blue, the Red Sea parts and it's David Coverdale and he's kind of sneaking up and he goes: "Hello Eric, would you introduce me to your friend?" I thought that was so surreal.

"Paul Rodgers, this is David Coverdale."

OUT OF ALL THE 80S HARD ROCK BANDS, WHICH ONES DID YOU THINK HAD THE MAGIC?
Can I say Mr Big?

OF COURSE. YOU CAN SAY WHOEVER YOU WANT, WHETHER IT'S RATT, LA GUNS, FASTER PUSSYCAT OR ENUFF'Z'NUFF...
Actually Tracii Guns is a friend of mine and I liked the rebel rock back in the day.

HE'S A WICKED PLAYER.
Yeah, he's great, he's a cool guy too, real genuine cat. Only a couple of years ago I met Mark Slaughter and we became really good friends. When I first met him we were hanging out and we immediately had a connection, except out of my Mr Big mouth I go: "Hey pretty boy, where's your bomber jacket?"

YOU TOOK HIM BACK ALL THE WAY TO THE VINNIE VINCENT BAND.
Oh yeah I know, man. Hey, this whole rock'n'roll world is ancestral - everybody's played with everybody. Even, like, when Mark meets me and he goes: "Oh, yeah - the 'To Be With You' guy".

YOU ACTUALLY WROTE "TO BE WITH YOU". ALL THE "COOL" PEOPLE WILL ALWAYS SAY IT'S A CHEESY BALLAD, BUT ACTUALLY IT'S A GREAT SONG.
It IS a great song.

AND IT'S A LIFESAVER, ISN'T IT?
Well, it's funny that it's a lifesaver and I wrote it when I was 16 years old. And then about a year before I got in Mr Big...I mean, my version was more Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young sounding. Through a publishing set up I got together with this guy David Grahame. He was an actor kinda, he was a bass player in a play called "Beatlemania". He suggested a bass drum and a handclap, kinda like 'Give Peace a Chance' and then - boom! I guess Mr Big's always been kind of a quirky band, where we have all kinds of styles of music. I mean we still have the foundation of rock, but we also have a song called 'Green Tinted Sixties Mind', which is a bit psychedelic.

YOUR VOCAL HARMONIES ARE AMAZING LIVE. DO YOU REHEARSE A BIT?
Oh God, do we rehearse! It's like - overkill! Seven hours a day, for three weeks...Look, I play in a band with Billy Sheehan and Paul Gilbert - these guys are machines. We work on everything, there's no strings attached, no loops or tapes or crap like that, man. It's us in the flesh and we work really hard on doing everything. We rehearsed for this tour about a month and then we'll go out for a year or two and then not get back together for a while. And I tell you, this show is...I told Billy the other day: "What are we, the Grateful Dead of rock? Why do we have to play two and a half hours?"

Billy's like: "Hey man, we're doing it for the kids." Two and a half hours man - can you believe it?

OK, TELL US AN INTERESTING STORY.
Right, well, I was in Japan back in, I don't know, the beginning of the 90s. Let me just start by saying, I asked Paul Gilbert one time, when I first met him, he goes: "What kind of guitar players do you like, Eric?"

And I said: "I like Eric Clapton. What about you, are you a Clapton fan?" And he goes: "Well, I don't really care for Clapton." And I was like: "WHAT?!" It was almost a make or break situation. I almost actually quit.

I UNDERSTAND, IT'S LIKE IF I'M WITH MY GIRLFRIEND AND SHE DOESN'T LIKE VINCENT PRICE MOVIES - THAT'S IT!
Oh yeah. Hey, when I first met my wife, I said: "If you can't name the Beatles, you're gone." And she actually did, she was like: "Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, John Lennon and George HAMILTON!" I let her stay.В  But, anyway. So, Eric Clapton....and we're in Osaka and Eric Clapton's playing this gig. I dragged Paul to the gig and he was blown away, going: "Wow, Clapton is great!" I mean, Paul's young, he didn't know. So we go backstage and we meet Eric Clapton.

Actually I'm talking to him first. And I'm talking to him a little bit and Paul comes round the corner, so AGAIN I'm introducing somebody to somebody, it's funny. So I go: "Eric, this is Paul Gilbert, the guitar player I play with."

And Eric goes: "You're the guys with the drills!"

YOU KNOW, YOU'RE LUCKY YOUR HAIR NEVER GOT CAUGHT IN ONE OF THOSE DRILLS.
Yeah, like Paul's.

SO YOU'LL BE PLAYING WITH CINDERELLA IN BULGARIA. HAVE YOU PLAYED WITH THEM BEFORE?
No. I've only seen them on MTV. But Tom Keifer looked like Mick Jagger, so he was ok. Behind all the scarves and the veils and the paisley and the velvet, they're just a really good classic rock and blues band. When I first heard them on the radio back in the 80s and 90s, I immediately dug 'em. So it is kinda funny, after all these years...I mean we've never played with them before, we played with everybody else.

I don't care who opens or headlines or anything - it's gonna be fun to get a free ticket to see Cinderella.В 

rights Tangra Mega Rock

В