Fran Sheehan is well known as the bass player for the band Boston. What might be less widely known, however, is that his music career began in Swampscott.

Sheehan is a third-generation Swampscott native and has lived in town his entire life, following in the footsteps of his grandfather, who came over from England with a soccer team, and his mother, who attended Swampscott High School.

Sheehan met Boston guitarist and Lynn native Barry Goudreau in high school. Shortly after graduation, the two connected with drummer and Lynn native Sib Hashian – whom Sheehan called “Sibby” – and vocalist Brad Delp, a Danvers native.

Growing up, Sheehan “played in a lot of bands before Boston.” In high school, he and Goudreau performed together at an assembly at Lynn Vocational Technical Institute. He later formed a college band with Delp called Bagshot Row.

“In the ‘70s, we’d get to see other bands play and everybody got to know everybody, who were the good players, who were the kind of marginal players,” Sheehan said. “You would play in your band over the winter and then in the summer, a lot of the time, you’d put together a new band. You’d find some better players, and it kind of always spiraled up. Guys would find better guys to play with…It just kept evolving.”

At one point, Sheehan and Delp’s band played in Reading at a large restaurant that doubled as a nightclub, where hundreds of people could fit inside. The owner suggested the group start with “background music” so people could finish dinner, followed by a regular set.

“He said to Brad, ‘We don’t need any of your singing. I just want to have some instruments playing.’ I know it bothered Brad a little bit, so at the end of the show, we were driving home, and Brad said ‘I got to talk about some stuff,’” Sheehan said. 

Delp told Sheehan he wanted to focus on studio work rather than performing live.

“He said, ‘I just want to work in a studio and sing in a studio and just kind of stay put for a while,’” Sheehan said. “I said I wanted to keep playing out. I like playing out, and I like to make my living doing that.”

Sheehan pointed out that if Delp became a successful studio singer, he would eventually need to tour.

“He said to me, ‘Well if you become a famous player out in the circuit playing live you’ll have to come into the studio sometimes,’” Sheehan said. 

So the two made a deal.

“I said, ‘Alright. Listen. If you make it first and you get a band that’s going to record, I’ll join that band. If I make it really popular and have a chance to go in the studio, I’ll call you to do the singing,” Sheehan said. “We had this pact.”

In 1976, the band signed a recording contract with Epic Records. Boston’s self-titled debut album that year became one of the best-selling albums by an American rock band and, as of 2025, has been certified 17-times platinum by the RIAA.

Sheehan largely stopped playing bass in the 1990s after injuring his arm and hands in a biking accident. Today, he says he still has a “bunch of songs” he hopes to return to someday.

Now Sheehan is bringing his story to the Swampscott Tides’ Fish Tales event.

The event supports the Swampscott Tides, which has been covering the town for the past 10 months. The Swampscott Tides works to ensure readers receive accurate coverage of what’s happening in Swampscott, from School Committee meetings and the town budget to new business openings and community events.

“It was such a quaint town,” Sheehan said. “All my friends are here. We’re a pretty tight community. I played sports in Swampscott.”

Fish Tales will be held on March 28 at 7 p.m. at the Swampscott High School. 

Tickets are now available for the Fish Tales community event, celebrating local storytelling and supporting independent journalism. Kim Carrigan will host the event, with speakers including Sheehan, author and lawyer Robert Jauron, artist Claire Donnelly, magician Anton Andresen, former METCO student Naina Alves Varela and CEO Jo Ann Simons.

“I’ll probably talk about two or three stories,” Sheehan said. “There’s one where the band went to Japan. There’s a couple of others meeting people that I’d always idolized like The Who and the Rolling Stones.”

For more information to buy tickets, visit swampscotttides.org/fishtales.