Mr. Big is preparing to release its ninth studio album, Defying Gravity, on July 7th via Frontiers Music Srl followed by a worldwide tour. The album was recorded in six days at a Los Angeles studio. It will be available on CD and Deluxe Edition CD/DVD featuring music videos and behind the scenes footage of the making of the album. An LP edition is slated for sometime later this year.

Original members Eric Martin (lead vocals), Paul Gilbert (guitars), Billy Sheehan (bass) and Pat Torpey (drums) reunited with producer Kevin Elson (who was behind the boards for the band’s 1989 self-titled debut, 1991’s Lean Into It and 1993’s Bump Ahead) for an intensive six-day recording session in Los Angeles. While Torpey was unable to perform some of the songs on Defying Gravity due to a recent diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease, Matt Starr has been filling in for him on a majority of the album. Starr also been touring with the band for the past couple of years, with Torpey able to play a couple of songs at each stop.

“It was great to get back in the studio with our original producer, Kevin Elson,” says guitarist Paul Gilbert. “Kevin recorded all of our original classic albums from the ’80s and ’90s, and we immediately felt that magic chemistry with him on Defying Gravity. We basically played live in the studio. Over the years, we’ve all had a chance to experiment with every recording technique possible, but it’s still always the best just to play together as a band. Most of my guitar solos were tracked live with the band. I’ve worked hard on my improvisation in the last few years, and it really paid off on this record, both melodically, and on the face-melting stuff.”

Defying Gravity is the follow-up to 2014’s The Stories We Could Tell, which Ultimate-Guitar.com described as “An exceptional offering of accelerated hard rock from one of the more dominant ‘supergroups’ of the late 1980s, Mr. Big return with a vengeance on The Stories We Could Tell.”

The band will launch their latest worldwide tour May 31st in Milwaukee, WI at the Potowatami Casino. The tour will make stops in New York, Nashville, Lexington and more before heading to Brazil for four dates in August. Tickets and VIP packages can be purchased through Mr. Big’s official website.

CD | CD/DVD | LP

1. Open Your Eyes
2. Defying Gravity
3. Everybody Needs a Little Trouble
4. Damn I’m In Love Again
5. Mean to Me
6. Nothing Bad (About Feeling Good)
7. Forever and Back
8. She’s All Coming Back to Me Now
9. 1992
10. Nothing At All
11. Be Kind