Billy Sherwood

William Wyman Sherwood (born March 14, 1965) is an American multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, singer, record producer and mixing engineer.

Sherwood was born on March 14, 1965, in Las Vegas, Nevada.

He was born into a musical family; his father Bobby Sherwood was an actor, musician, and big band leader and his mother Phyllis is a former singer and drummer.

His brother Michael was a singer and keyboardist.

Sherwood's godfather was comedian Milton Berle.

Sherwood's music career started when he joined a band called Lodgic formed by his brother Michael.

Billy played bass and sang, while Michael played keyboards and sang back up.

Lodgic also included Guy Allison on keyboards, Jimmy Haun on guitar and Gary Starns on drums.

They eventually moved the band to Los Angeles in 1980.

After many years of trying to get things together, they recorded their debut album Nomadic Sands, released in 1985.

After Lodgic broke up, Sherwood put together a new band with Guy Allison.

They recruited guitarist Bruce Gowdy and drummer Mark T. Williams to form World Trade.

They recorded their self-titled debut in 1989, with Sherwood taking on the roles of engineer, mixer, and producer again, along with his band duties as bassist and lead singer.

By 1989, Sherwood was invited to meet Yes bassist Chris Squire after singer and record executive Derek Shulman suggested his name.

By this time, Yes had suffered a setback when singer Jon Anderson had left and formed Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe (ABWH).

Sherwood was invited to jam with the remaining Yes members, Squire, guitarist Trevor Rabin, drummer Alan White, and keyboardist Tony Kaye, with the intention of Sherwood on lead vocals.

Outside of these bands, Sherwood has worked as a producer since the 1990s, most notably on tribute albums dedicated to Pink Floyd, The Beatles, Queen and many others.

He is also a solo artist, having released ten studio albums to date.

By the time the five had recorded some demos, they merged with members of ABWH in 1990 to become an eight-man formation of Yes, which lasted until 1992.

The two groups recorded songs for Union (1991), which features the first song that Sherwood and Squire wrote together, "The More We Live - Let Go".

Sherwood struck up a friendship with Squire that would lead him to work with him throughout the next 20 years.

He is best known for his tenures in the English progressive rock band Yes as guitarist and keyboardist in 1994 and from 1997 to 2000 and as bassist since 2015, following the death of original bassist Chris Squire.

He is also known for working with former and current Yes members on other projects.

In addition to his involvement with Yes, Sherwood is the frontman of progressive rock groups World Trade, Circa and formerly Lodgic.

In 1994, Sherwood toured with Yes as additional guitarist and keyboardist on their tour supporting Talk (1994).

Sherwood got back together with his bandmates from World Trade and released Euphoria in 1995, with Jay Schellen replacing Williams on drums.

Sherwood would co-produce, engineer and mix the new studio tracks for their following studio albums, Keys to Ascension (1996) and Keys to Ascension 2 (1997).

Following Rick Wakeman's departure in 1997 Sherwood and Squire continued to write songs, which Yes decided to record for their next studio album, Open Your Eyes (1997).

This made Sherwood become a full-time member of the group, playing rhythm guitar and keyboards.

The addition of Igor Khoroshev in 1997 left Sherwood to handle backing guitar and vocals for live shows.

In 2000, after recording and touring their next album, The Ladder (1999), Sherwood left the group.

A live album and DVD of the show at the House of Blues in Las Vegas, Sherwood's hometown, was released as House of Yes: Live from House of Blues.

In 2003, Sherwood released The Unknown, another album with Squire as Conspiracy.

On May 19, 2015, it was announced that Squire would be undergoing treatment for acute erythroid leukemia, and that Yes would continue their 2015 North American tour with Sherwood filling Squire's role.

After Squire's passing on June 27, 2015, Sherwood (along with other former and current members of Yes) made a public statement expressing his grief.

In regards to his new role as the now-permanent bassist for Yes: "Chris Said to me, 'play the music, be yourself and make me proud'. It's my true desire now [to] live up to his wishes."

His first studio album with Yes after returning to the band was The Quest (2021).

After his departure from Yes, Sherwood worked with Squire to release the album Conspiracy, which includes some work they composed together some years before.

In 2017, he joined Asia after the death of original singer and bassist John Wetton.

In 2017, Sherwood reunited with World Trade to record a third album titled Unify, which was released on August 4, 2017.