The Winery Dogs are an American hard rock supergroup formed in 2012 by Mike Portnoy, Billy Sheehan and Richie Kotzen. The idea of the band started out as a project featuring drummer Mike Portnoy and bassist Billy Sheehan, who were aiming to form a power trio rock band with a lead singer/guitarist as the frontman. After an aborted project, tentatively titled "Bad Apple", with guitarist/vocalist John Sykes, talk show host Eddie Trunk heard about it and suggested Richie Kotzen, who had previously played with Sheehan in the band Mr. Big from 1997 to 2002.