The band now known as BILL Cleveland's Tribute to Metallica has been together in various forms since Brian Sheehan and original drummer Dan Pachinger founded the band in 1987. We weren't even big Metallica fans until Brian's brother talked us into learning "just one" Metallica song. When we realized how fun the music was to play, we ran with it and kept learning more. What started as just another classis rock band quickly evolved into what BILL is today. We changed the name a few times, changed personnel a few times, and in 1992 "BILL - Cleveland's Tribute to Metallica" was born.

A friend of a friend turned us on to our 1st, 3rd, and current, bass player Brian Crisman, who learned our entire set in two weeks in order to play our first show, "The Burn the Boat Bash". This massive Lake County Ohio party, held every year by the Kosmerl family, was highlighted by burning thirty-foot wooden boats stood on end. BILL headlined a 12-band line-up in front of nearly 2300 people with Dan working overtime as our drummer and singer.
We knew we needed a full time singer and after countless auditions, finding no one, we finally threw the lyrics at our friend Andy Kosmerl and said “guess what, you’re it”. Andy spent more time at band practice than any of the singers we had auditioned so we told him to learn the words and see what happens. While the three existing band members had been playing most of their lives, this was Andy's first band, and he quickly evolved into one of the areas best front men.

The first official hired show as BILL Cleveland's Tribute to Metallica was October 22, 1993 and from day one BILL was a hit. The crowd stood shoulder to shoulder in this tiny basement bar, Derrick’s Down Under in Willoughby Ohio, standing on booths, screaming between every song and floating each other into the ceiling fans. Since then we've maintained a reputation as one of the premier bands in Cleveland. At one time or another, we've sold almost every bar we've played completely out of Anheuser Busch products. Every time we played Derrick’s they ended up having run to the BP station next door to get more beer for the bar. They would always give us a case of beer for our after party, and the last time we played there they took us back to the empty beer cooler and offered us the last 3-pack of wine coolers, the only alcohol they had left……….we passed.

In 2003 Dan was forced to make the hard decision to leave the band. It was rough to lose Dan after being a team for 15 years, but we weren't ready to call it quits just yet. To take over drums we found Scott Pretzeus. We stole Scott from his long time Rush tribute project, a band that had opened for BILL on several occasions. Scott added a whole new element to the band and gave us an enthusiastic hope for the future of the band. We played our biggest shows with Scott, The Scene Pavillion (Nautica in the Flats), House of Blues, etc. One of our first shows with Scott was at Scene Pavillion……the Monsters of Rock Tribute Show. We sold more tickets than any of the 5 other tribute bands, and this is what started our relationship with House of Blues. We’ve had several headlining spots at HOB over the past few years, some of which included national acts as openers.

Now in 2007 Scott is being forced to leave the band. What are we the f-n Spinal Tap of Metallica Tribute Bands??? ……for God sakes. We hate to see Scott leave, but understand his situation. Once again, we’re not done………WE NEED A NEW DRUMMER!!! Are you it?

After all these years BILL is still filling venues and our long time fans are the best part of the show. BILL fans are still enthusiastic about coming out to see the band. We feed off the energy of the crowd, and without their support we might have called it quits a long time ago.

2007 will bring many changes to BILL, a new drummer, more and more non-Metallica material, and finally the originals we’ve been talking about for years. We’ve been doing the Metallica thing for a long time. It’s a blast and we’re not going to give it up totally, but it’s definitely time to open BILL up to a wider audience. Actually……..it’s been a long time coming.

Thank you BILL fans!
……………and thank YOU for your interest in our band.

HELP US FIND A NEW DRUMMER !!
DON’T LET MAY 12th, 2007 BE THE END OF BILL !!