Written by the band with help from their songwriting cohort Andre Pessis, this swaggering rocker finds lead singer Eric Martin letting a girl know that he's there to fulfill her desires: When your body needs salvation I'll be your tender touch I'll take all the love you give me And give you twice as much The Lothario in Mr. Big was their bass player, Billy Sheehan. He wrote the lyrics based on his many encounters with adoring female fans, and Martin reworked them a bit. "This was early '90s, so it was a little on the 'cock rock' side," Martin said in our 2015 interview. "But I wrote it about his conquests: I'll be your daddy, your brother, lover, little boy, I'll be all those kind of characters for you."
Guitarist Paul Gilbert used an electric drill to play the song's solo, and replicated this feat in concert, where it was always a crowd-pleaser. The drill was fitted with a special three-sided pick that was attached to the bit. By activating the drill, he could pick the strings at hyperspeed, creating a very unusual sound. The phallic imagery of the drill also went with the song's lyrical content.
Concertgoers expecting the acoustic, soothing sounds heard on Mr. Big's huge hit "To Be With You" got quite a surprise when they learned that the band was more likely to deliver testosterone-fueled rockers like this song. The band dabbled in many different genres, but power ballads were big at the time and more likely to get radio play. Extreme is another example from this era of a rock act that was only heard in acoustic form via their radio hits.
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