They created a stir with To be with you, Just take my heart and Wild world and left a formidable enough legacy of playing assortments of heavy metal, ballad and blues-rock. Mr Big, a group that was big in the early 1990s comprising guitarist Paul Gilbert (42), vocalist Eric Martin (48), drummer Pat Torpey (49) and bassist Billy Sheehan (56), was formed in 1988 and split due to strained relations in 1997. More than a decade later, Mr Big jets off on a reunion tour and, though Delhi gets a miss, they will perform in several cities across India in October. In an e-mail interview, the super group talks about drifting apart and coming together

The super group is reuniting after 13 years? Whose idea was it?
It was Paul (Gilbert) who reached out to the other members after a few of them got onstage and jammed at the House of Blues in Los Angeles. This reunion is a great opportunity for the band to be friends and relive the memories of those days.

Was there a unanimous agreement for the reunion?
Absolutely! We are all in it together.

What were the reasons for the band’s split in 1997?
Our success blew us away in ways that led us to behave like rockstars instead of musicians. After a while, when you keep playing music like machines, it stops being fun. We all got to that place and then Paul (Gilbert) said he was going to leave to pursue some solo endeavors that he’d been wanting to do and that was pretty much it. So it was time to move on.

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