Joe Rock of Long Island’s rock station 102.3 WBAB, Mr. Big frontman Eric Martin admitted that he is “second guessing” the announcement that that the band’s ongoing The BIG Finish farewell will be the last time he and his bandmates tour.
He said (as transcribed by blabbermouth.net): “Now since we’re all getting along perfectly and the band’s so super tight, I’m thinking, why are we dissolving our partnership? I’m second guessing now. I hope we do more records, but I get it. Paul [Gilbert, guitarist] probably doesn’t want to tour as much, just like I don’t. We’ve been on this road trip for a year. I don’t wanna do the really lengthy tours. I’m not 30 years old anymore. I’m not even 40. I’m not even 50 anymore.”
He continued, “I love people when they go, ‘Oh, what about The Rolling Stones? Yeah, what about The Rolling Stones? They’re super butt rich. They play one gig a week and they fly in, in a jet and five-star hotels. They’re a little older now and they still rock out, but I’m thinking Mick Jagger gets carried to the stage. Come on.”
When asked if he, and bandmates, would ever considered the idea of doing a residency somewhere in the future? Martin replied: “Well, I would. I would. I know that we’ve all agreed that — I hope there’s a one-off here and there, but after August 23rd, that’s all she wrote. And we’re gonna stick to our guns — try to stick to our guns. I hope that we do one or two more shows. It’s funny that you say residency because our drummer, our new drummer, Nick D’Virgilio, that’s his idea lately, going we should do a residency — in Japan, for God’s sake. We could do that. Las Vegas, move over Elton [John] and Celine Dion, and we could just maybe get in on the off strip and do a month or do a couple of weeks a year. That would be — in the immortal words of my father — that would be swell.”
In recent news, the band will be releasing their last-ever live album, The BIG Finish Live, on September 6th through the Evolution Music Group. The performance will be available in many different multiple high-quality formats: 180g Black Vinyl (3 LP), Hybrid Stereo Multi-Channel SACDs (2), MQA-CDs (2), MQA-CDs + Blu-Ray (2), 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray (featuring behind the scenes and interview footage), and cassette (2). All of these formats will come with a booklet/insert that includes previously unreleased photos from their Budokan performance, as well as a sticker or postcard gift for fans. Pre-orders are available now here, and further details about the release, can be read here.
Mr. Big‘s tenth studio album, Ten, was released on July 12th through Frontiers Music Srl. Ten features 11 new original tracks written by Martin and Gilbert, along with André Pessis and Tony Fanucchi.
To listen to a couple of songs from Ten, please click on the highlighted song titles: Good Luck Trying and Up On You.