MR. BIG played the final show of its “The BIG Finale!” tour on February 25 at Nippon Budokan in Tokyo, Japan. Earlier that same month, the band played three other shows: on February 14 at the Bloomverse Festival in Meghālaya, India, on February 16 at the Bloomverse Express in Bengaluru, India, and on February 22 at the Osaka Music Hall in Osaka, Japan.
Asked in a new interview with Finland’s Chaoszine if it was “a very emotional moment” for him to to sing most of those songs for the last time, Eric said: “Yeah, actually, the last show was supposed to be August 2024 in Romania. Then the Japanese asked for two shows in Osaka and Tokyo. And out of the blue, India asked, and we played a couple of shows there — huge festivals, and we were headliners. We’d done some shows in India before. We played in Osaka, which was killer, and then in Tokyo at the Budokan. It was more sold out than I’ve ever seen it. Usually, it’s around 12,000 or 13,000 people, but this time they sold the back too, so it was like 14,000, maybe 15,000. It was mega. We had already played in Japan earlier in the tour, in the first couple of weeks. I said this the other day on a radio show, some people think it’s, like, ‘Oh, it’s a cash grab.’ But no, it wasn’t. The Japanese were the ones who basically opened the door for MR. BIG in the first place, and they’re the greatest audience. No offense to everyone else, but they’re the greatest audience ever.
“If you’ve ever played Japan, you’re missing out if you don’t. Crowds elsewhere — Finland, South America, America, Europe — they’re different. In Japan, though…They just stop, and they wait for you to talk. At first, you think, ‘I don’t know if they’re into it,’ but there are 15,000 people silently hanging on your every word. And I’m like, ‘Okay, the next tune…’ Yeah. No, no, no — but they love us. And I felt the love, big time. When they asked us to come back, we were all excited — Billy [Sheehan, bass], Paul [Gilbert, guitar], Nick [D’Virgilio, drums] and I. It was the perfect way to end it. Granted, but it kills me that we had to end it. We should have, could have, would have kept going. But that’s the way it is. That’s the way the cookie crumbles.”
Regarding the possibility of more MR. BIG shows in the future, Eric said: “Look, I’m not gonna… This is the truth: I’ve heard Billy Sheehan — though I don’t listen to his interviews that much — say, ‘Never say never’ and ‘Who knows?’ Maybe after THE WINERY DOGS reunion tour, when they do their farewell concert someday, if we’re still alive and kicking, maybe we’ll do another MR. BIG tour. I hope you guys still want us back, yeah.”
In an October 2024 interview with Ruben Mosqueda of We Go To 11, Sheehan was asked if the band’s “The BIG Finish” farewell tour was just the end of extensive touring for him and his bandmates, with plans to make special appearances from time to time, or if MR. BIG was going to become a studio-only project going forward. Billy responded: “The end is the end. It’s finished. If some extenuating circumstances come up, we might do a show or two, maybe, but touring and recording… We kind of wanted to put a period at the end of the sentence. And as I’ve said many times, we wanted to run over the finish line, not crawl over it. And for us, a fully functional band is on tour playing live and doing the thing and writing recording, and then go out on after the record and do another tour, to do that, we’ve done that for 34 years, and it’s been an amazing run. We have friends all over planet earth. It’s fantastic. And it’s probably our greatest asset, personally, for me, the amazing people that we’ve touched around the world. But we decided to really, ‘Let’s do it the right way,’ and not to have some continual farewell thing that goes on for an eternity.”
He continued: “Our last show was in Romania. Unusual. That’s where the roulette ball fell into that as we spun the wheel. And we had a great time. And our last shows in Europe, we did a bunch of shows in Germany. Amazing. We have a lot of friends in Germany. We had big hits in Germany as well. And all over Europe and England. We got to play Ireland — Belfast and Dublin. And I’m an Irishman, so that was very nice. We played Liverpool, the Holy Ground. It was quite amazing. I had to put one little BEATLES melody in my solo at the end. Pretty cool. So it was a nice way to go out. I’m glad we did it. We did it with as much class as we’re capable of. We did the final tour, and I’m very, very pleased about it.”
In a separate interview with George Dionne of KNAC.COM, Martin once again admitted that he was second guessing the group’s decision to stop touring after the completion of “The BIG Finish” farewell tour. Asked what “The BIG Finish” means to him, he said: “Yeah, I’m not pulling the wool over anybody’s eyes. It means the touring is over. Which kind of bums me out, because I was there in the meeting a year and change ago going, ‘Yep. I agree. It’s time that we call it quits.’
“I didn’t wanna quit for the longest time,” he admitted. “I mean, this was brought up, like, five years ago. ‘Should we do a farewell tour?’ We’ve got other projects going, and it’s kind of hard to keep the MR. BIG thing alive. And I was, like, ‘No,’ cheerleading, ‘Please, no. We’ve gotta keep it going.’ But yeah, a year and a few months ago, I was totally in agreement with everybody going, ‘Yeah, this is it.’ I even thought of the name ‘BIG Finish’. So I put the nail in the coffin. But now I’m, like, oh, I wish I had a nice big hammer to unclog that nail. ‘Cause the band’s so good and so tight. The crowd’s coming out. New album came out. The momentum is there. And the band just sounds so tight on stage.
Circling back to what “The BIG Finish” meant as far as the possibility of future MR. BIG live shows, Eric said: “What I mean by ‘The BIG Finish’ is there’s no touring anymore. I would hope that we still leave the door open. I mean, I brought this up many times online. Even Nick D’Virgilio, our drummer, he goes, ‘Man, we should do a residency in Indonesia or Japan or just anywhere,’ like do a residency. And I go, ‘Man, I just hope we can play in a few years, play four or five shows here and there, maybe play a festival with bands in our ilk.’ It’d be great to keep that door open. And no response. I think also, a whole year and almost a half of touring, everybody just kind of wants to take a break. But I’m, like, ‘Let’s ride this wave, brother. Let’s do this.’ But yeah, no more touring. No more multiple dates. It’s over. The big lady has sung.”
In August 2024, Eric told Roppongi Rocks‘s Stefan Nilsson that there was no chance of him and his MR. BIG bandmates going back on their word that they would not tour ever again. “We’re not the kind of band — when we say that we’re gonna quit and it’s over and we’re not touring anymore… We may do a one-off here and there every couple of years or whatever, but we’re not going to be like the MÖTLEY CRÜEs and the KISSes,” he explained.” And no offense to them, because the crowds keep coming to see ’em, but we’re not gonna do it. We just maybe have too much pride in it.”
Asked if there was a chance of MR. BIG making more studio albums in the future, Eric said: “I did an interview the other day with Billy, and… I’m not my brother’s keeper. I don’t know what he thinks. I know what I think, that I’d like to do albums. If we’re not gonna tour anymore for different reasons — I mean, I just don’t wanna tour lengthy…. This has been a year. I just can’t do it. I’m too old to… Everybody goes, ‘Oh, what about THE ROLLING STONES?’ Yeah. What about THE ROLLING STONES? Flying in, playing one show and two weeks later playing another show. Yeah, this is back-to-back touring. Hardly any hotels. I mean, the bus will suffice, but it’s like a big camping trip for older men. So, I would like to do other albums. But the interview went like this. The guy goes, ‘You gonna do another album?’ And I’m, like, ‘I’d like to.’ And Billy goes, ‘No, that’s it.’ I’m, like, ‘All right.’ But he’s the guy that always says, ‘Never say never.'”
MR. BIG played the last show of its “The BIG Finish” farewell tour on August 23, 2024 at the Way Too Far Rock Festival in Bistrița, Romania.
After the concert, Sheehan took to his social media to share a picture from the gig and he included the following message: “Romania!!! Crowd was a little bit light, but they made up for it in enthusiasm! The last MR. BIG show (not MY last show, goddammit!!).
“What a great run we’ve had since 1988. We made Great memories and millions (literally) of friends all around the world. My unlimited love and respect to all who listened, watched, purchased records, tickets and T -shirts. — without you we would have been nothing. Fact. Moving on now to other adventures, but never forgetting this amazing experience.”
Gilbert added: “What an adventure! MR. BIG wraps up over a year of touring! Many thanks to ALL! I’ll get home just in time for my son’s 10th birthday. I hope he remembers who I am!”
D’Virgilio, who joined MR. BIG in 2023 as the replacement for the late Pat Torpey, commented: “It has been an amazing run with @billysheehanonbass @paulgilbert_official and @iamericmartin I’ve been able to rock n roll all over the world with the guys and I will be forever thankful. Big Love for MR. BIG!”
MR. BIG‘s tenth studio album, “Ten”, was released on July 12, 2024 via Frontiers Music Srl. The LP features 11 new original tracks written by Martin and Gilbert, along with André Pessis and Tony Fanucchi. “Ten” was produced by Jay Ruston and MR. BIG.
D’Virgilio missed most of the final European leg of MR. BIG‘s “The BIG Finish” tour due to his commitments with his band BIG BIG TRAIN. He was temporarily replaced on the trek by Edu Cominato, an experienced drummer from São Paulo, Brazil who has previously played with Sheehan and Martin, Jeff Scott Soto and Geoff Tate (QUEENSRŸCHE),among others.
When MR. BIG announced “The BIG Finish” tour in 2023, the bandmembers said that it was “time to mark the end of this chapter of their legacy” after drummer Pat Torpey lost his battle with Parkinson’s disease in 2018. The first leg kicked off in Japan and Southeast Asia in July and August 2023, where the band performed for hundreds of thousands of loyal fans at 11 sold-out shows including Budokan in Tokyo, Japan.
MR. BIG‘s last-ever live album release was “The BIG Finish Live”, which came out on September 6, 2024 via the Evolution Music Group.
“The BIG Finish Live” was a brand-new live album and concert film of MR. BIG‘s “The BIG Finish” farewell tour, where the band played their million-selling “Lean Into It” album in its entirety, plus additional MR. BIG classics.
Source: blabbermouth.net
