Billy Sherwood admits he was never one to sit down and practice technique and scales and “all that stuff.” But he knew he needed dexterity, so, like many aspiring musicians of his generation, he would practice along to things on records that were difficult — and he played along with a lot of records as a kid. “It helped me get a grip on figuring out what I was trying to do with the thing,” he recalls. “I had a natural ability to detect what a bass line was within a song and figure it out by ear.” Among the records and artists he played along to, none casts as long a shadow as Yes. Billy’s youthful affinity for the prog-rock stalwarts would factor predominantly into his professional career, though, at the time, one couldn’t have been predicted that the music of Yes, and Chris Squire’s bass lines, were his road maps to the future. Sherwood was born in 1965 in Las Vegas, Nevada. His dad was actor, musician, and bandleader Bobby Sherwood. His uncle was Milton Berle. He