Bill was born in 1951 in Lubbock, Texas into a musical family. His dad, Bob played trombone in late 1930’s big band swing, and mom, Mary sang and played the piano. Every Sunday she’d sing harmonies with the congregation on all the church hymns. Bill listened. At age 5, Bill was singing in the church choir. In 1960 Wyoming, piano lessons at 9 years old couldn’t keep his interest for long. By age 13 he was playing snare and bass drum in junior high school marching band. After the Beatles appeared, Bill’s older brother Jim showed him a few chords on guitar, and he joined with some school buddies to start a band. He also sang second tenor in high school choir and played tympani and snare drum in concert band. Every day after school, Bill and his buddies practiced in a bandmate’s basement (whose mother was very tolerant!). Hashing out surf songs, Beatles, Who, Stones, etc. Soon they were renting out a local County Fair Hall on weekends and charging two dollars a head and giving the local cops a ten percent cut. They also traveled to nearby towns playing school dances, parties, and events.

After high school and two years of local colleges, Bill spent the summer of 1972 in Denver scouting the music scene. He worked day labor and hooked up with various players, jamming, testing his chops with “big city” musicians, one of whom Bill would meet up with again in future projects. Meanwhile, a Wyoming guitar buddy had moved to Texas and was calling Bill to come south and join his band. In January 1973, Bill loaded his 1961 Dodge panel truck, said goodbye to Dad and Mom in Wyoming and headed south to Bryan College Station, Texas where he reunited with hometown guitar whiz kid, the late great Tim Rodriguez. Tim is still talked about today among those who knew him and heard him play. At age 18, Tim had advanced prowess and rare natural skills as a guitarist and singer. Bill played bass and he and Tim decided on a power trio. They used local drummers and played area roadhouses, biker bars and college rooms throughout the Brazos Valley. The late great Tim Rodriguez passed away in August 1973 and Bill sadly left Texas and landed back in Colorado where he settled in Boulder. He worked in the oil fields east of the front range and jumped into the thriving Denver-Boulder music scene.

Musicians, bands, clubs, bars provided plenty of work along the front range. Bass players were in demand and Bill stayed busy. Then came a lucky reunion with the late great premier Denver guitar maestro Bob Hornbuckle, whom Bill had jammed with in the summer of ’72. They had clicked then so the reunion was welcome and fortuitous. They both wanted the power trio format and quickly bounced into the Denver bar band circuit. They ended up working together on and off for the next 20 years. The Denver scene lost a beloved Icon when Bobby Hornbuckle passed away in December 1996. Bill worked steadily into the 70’s until disco music put a damper on live music. In Boulder, Bill met up with a couple of east coast musicians who invited him to move to New Jersey where they had connections with the management of the up-and-coming rock outfit “Blackfoot.” Eight New Jersey months of infrequent gigs kept Bill working cleaning horse stalls and driving a tractor. In mid-1976, the band split up and Bill split back to sunny Colorado, working moving companies by day, and playing music at night.

By the late 1980’s, Bill developed into his own booking agent, successfully selling his own power trio project, “Billy and the Rattlers” working the Denver-Boulder mountain town circuit. Bill was on bass and vocals and a handful of guitarists and drummers were rotated. Bill had been a family man since 1986 when he married Bobby Hornbuckle’s sister Suzanne. With Suzanne’s scholarships to western Colorado colleges, he and Suzanne packed up their two daughters, Shannon and Katy and moved to Rifle, and later to Grand Junction. Bill took advantage of the rich music scene along the I-70 mountain corridor covering Aspen-Vail to Moab Utah. Bill did an acoustic guitar solo project and revived a new incarnation of the power trio “Billy and the Rattlers.” He also tapped a new daytime market playing guitar at retirement and senior centers. At this time, Bill immersed himself back into his childhood roots when he had listened to his parents’ record collection of folk, country and blues.

In 2005, Bill and his family moved back to the Denver area where Bill continues doing his acoustic guitar show playing clubs, coffee houses and daytime gigs at senior centers. He commands a wide-ranging repertoire spanning 250 years of Americana, and Old English-Irish folk, early 20th century gospel and country of the Carter family and Jimmy Rogers, including Woody Guthrie dustbowl. In addition, he plays a one-hour tribute to Hank Williams, and covers Nat King Cole, Fats Domino, Patsy Cline, Ernie Ford, Johnny Horton, Tex Ritter, Harry Belafonte, and Jimmy Driftwood. He also includes a newer fare of Outlaw Country, Beatles, Creedence, Skynyrd, Dylan, and a 2-hour show of Townes Van Zandt. In 2002, Bill recorded 32 original songs on C.D. He’s still writing music, playing shows, and enjoying rotating his collection of 12 Gibson, Guild, Taylor, Martin acoustic guitars. He also plays kazoo, spoons, and knee slap.