Mr. Big — singer Eric Martin, guitarist Paul Gilbert and bassist Billy Sheehan, along with drummer Nick D’Virgilio filling for original late drummer Pat Torpey — recently completed the Asian portion of their farewell tour The BIG Finish performing their 1991 album, “Lean into It”, in its entirety, along with other cuts from the group’s history. However, despite the enormous acceptance and sold-out shows during their visit to the lands of the rising sun, seems the end is near for the band’s touring days.
During an appearance on the September 27 edition of SiriusXM’s Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk, Martin talked about D’Virgilio time with the band, and how they won’t tour anymore after 2024. He said: “Nick is great. He came in and he really picked up Pat Torpey‘s sound and tone on drums, but he sings just as good as Pat, if — I’m not gonna say ‘if not better.’ Pat used to have this Paul McCartney thing, and so does Nick. And he kind of emulates me too. There’s a lot of times where I was on the road singing these… I go, ‘Why the hell am I singing these choruses? This guy can do it for me.’ I’m kind of cheating a little bit… I go, why am I busting my hump right now? He kind of emulated my voice and he took a lot of my lead vocal parts for choruses. Yeah, he’s a really good guy. I’m so glad we got him. I didn’t know of him before, but Paul Gilbert told me that he played with Pau, and then learning about him over these years, he played with Tears For Fears for a bunch of years and Genesis. And he’s just a really great asset to this band.”
Trunk then asked Martin why they are still insisting on calling it quits if everything is going so well with D’Virgilio. Eric answered: “I kind of had to be talked into it a little bit. In the beginning, I kept saying, ‘I don’t wanna do this.’ I didn’t wanna end it for a long, long time. I didn’t wanna call it quits. I always wanted things to be open-ended. Why quit? I mean, years and years from now, we could possibly get back.”
However, Martin confirmed the band will not be touring anymore after 2024. “This is it. The fat lady will sing,” he added. “We’re gonna continue to do some records and do some projects, but we’re not gonna tour anymore. Mr. Big is gonna be done… January, February, March, April, May, we’ve got USA, Europe. We’re gonna go back to the USA, and then we play South America in May, and that’s it. No more touring. That’s it.”
