Bill is definitely a great player who never got the recognition he deserves. Equally important is that he is a SUPER cool, NICE guy.
Quick story: When I was rock director for my college radio station in either 2001 or 2002 I spent a day with the Firehouse guys while they were in town. I was doing an 80s based show on the station to try to keep the fire burning (inspired by "Vintage 80s" that was on 89.5 WSOU for all of you in Jersey). So, I met up with them at a local Best Buy and we did some CD shopping. I forget what everyone bought at this point. Then, we went back to their hotel and did an interview there. I also got a station id from them which was AWESOME. They clearly were pros at doing that from their heyday. They were all cool, though Bill and their (at the time, now sadly deceased) bass player Bruce Weibel were the nicest to me. At some point during the morning, I had found out that Bill was also a big hockey fan so after the interview, he invited me to hang out in the room to watch the Stanley Cup playoffs. What a cool guy.
Also, I remember Firehouse being a GREAT live band. I think Bill was using an SLO and it sounded awesome and was perfect for his style.