SONS OF APOLLO: featuring members of Dream Theater, Mr. Big, Guns ‘N Roses, and Journey.
From his early band Talas, to stints with Steve Vai, David Lee Roth and Niacin, to several years on top of the world with Mr Big, and a triumphant return alongside drummer Mike Portnoy with The Winery Dogs, Billy Sheehan and his bass have been places most of us would never dare dream of. And for the past few months, rumors have been circulating about a new secret project including former Dream Theater members Portnoy and Derek Sherinian. The new band, Sons Of Apollo, also includes Ron ‘Bumblefoot’ Thal (ex-Guns N’ Roses) and Jeff Scott Soto (Journey, Yngwie Malmsteen’s Rising Force). “This is a real band,” said Portnoy. “This is going to pick up for me and Billy where The Winery Dogs left off, in terms of this being the next logical full-time thing for us. I’m not saying The Winery Dogs have broken up, because we haven’t, we’re just on a break. Sons Of Apollo is absolutely going to be a full-time band and we plan on touring all over the world all throughout 2018 and, honestly, it is the priority for all five of us.”
But what to call the next great supergroup?
“Derek was the one behind the name,” says Portnoy. “I have a list that I keep on my phone of about a hundred different band names, which I constantly have to refer to every time I have a new band. So, I pulled up the list and Apollo was one of the names on the list. It was a word that both of us really liked. We started fiddling with different variations of the word. One of the original band names we were working with was Apollo Creed, the character from the ‘Rocky’ movies, but after lots of different discussions on different variations, Derek suggested Sons Of Apollo and it seemed to stick. Apollo is the God of Music so with that in mind it seemed like a fitting name.”
“The music is modern, but we have an old school soul. What’s unique about Sons Of Apollo is that we have true rock n’ roll swagger along with the virtuosity – it’s a lethal combination!”
The bands debut album, Psychotic Symphony, will be released October 20 on InsideOutMusic/Sony Music. “I have known Mike and Derek for a long time, so when they came to me with Sons of Apollo, I jumped on this straight away,” said Thomas Waber, Label Manager/A&R International of InsideOutMusic. “However, the album they ended up recording exceeded my already high expectations by a long mile! We couldn’t be happier about it!” Sons Of Apollo will hit the road in 2018 for their first worldwide tour.
