Born in Green Bay, WI, Billy was captivated by sounds from the start. In 1970 he turned 14 and “Clark Kent’s Super Joint” opened in town. A club destined to be open only briefly, the place was booked solid with blues musicians that changed Billy’s whole idea of music. Jimmy Rogers and Johnny Littlejohn, Mighty Joe Young, Luther Allison and Johnny Young were among the talents coming through. He was sitting outside one night when Jimmy Dawkins saw him sitting there with a guitar. He talked the club owner into letting Billy inside and even invited him up to jam. It was a new world.  Billy’s jam that night with Dawkins was the beginning of a long relationship. Dawkins called him up in ’75 with an offer to join the band. He jumped at it, touring with Dawkins on and off for four years. Never willing to stick with only one musical avenue, Billy also played in home territory with Sunnyland Slim, Mighty Joe Young, Luther Allison, and others. In the early 1980s he became a regular member of the trio, “Jim Liban and the Futuramics,” an eight-days-a-week road band that wore any rough edges off his guitar chops in a hurry. 

In the late 1980’s, Billy played with ex-Muddy Waters side musicians Pinetop Perkins, Willy “Big Eyes” Smith, and Calvin Jones in the “Legendary Blues Band”.  

Billy’s voracious appetite for variety continues to be his calling card. Stints with groups like “Mississippi Heat”, Kim wilson and Otis Rush, are interwoven with individual gigs that feature the cream of the Chicago Blues community. Extremely active despite living three hours from Chicago, Billy works regularly with a host of Chicago musicians and makes himself available to all comers. “I played with 30 bands last year. I like that because every night I have to learn all the songs,” he said.