Billy Roberts

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For other people named Billy Roberts, see Billy Roberts (disambiguation).

Billy Roberts
Background information
Birth nameWilliam Moses Roberts Jr.
Born(1936-08-16)August 16, 1936
Greenville, South Carolina, U.S.
DiedOctober 7, 2017(2017-10-07) (aged 81)
Years active1960s–1990s

William Moses Roberts Jr. (August 16, 1936 – October 7, 2017)[1][2] was an American songwriter and musician credited with composing the 1960s rock music standard "Hey Joe."[3]

Biography

Roberts attended

busked on the street and played in coffeehouses. It was there that he composed the song "Hey, Joe," which he copyrighted in 1962. Early the same year, after a brief and turbulent marriage, Roberts traveled to Reno, Nevada to obtain a divorce. After that, he went to San Francisco
where he again played in coffeehouses. It would become his base of operations for the rest of his career.

In 1964-1965, Roberts was part of a San Francisco-based folk trio called The Driftwood Singers (with

Dino Valenti was very likely in the audience, serving a term for a drug charge.[citation needed
]

In 1965, Roberts was alerted by a friend to a recording of "Hey Joe" by the Southern California rock band, The Leaves. Roberts knew nothing of the recording and the friend (Hillel Resner, later his producer) offered to ask his father, an attorney in San Francisco, to look into the matter. The attorney discovered that folk singer Dino Valenti had claimed authorship of the song and signed a publishing contract with Third Story Music of Los Angeles. This led to negotiations that resulted in Roberts retrieving his author's rights, but it did not prevent numerous recordings being released that named several other songwriters, in addition to Valenti, as the author.

In 1967,

Hastings College of Law in San Francisco, but in 1968, decided to be a drummer, performing with the Billy Roberts Blues Band.[6]

In September 1968, Roberts played at the Sky River Rock Festival in Washington, and jammed with Big Mama Thornton, James Cotton, and members of the Grateful Dead.[7] His friend Dino Valenti was also on the bill.

While residing in the Bay Area, Roberts performed in many of the local clubs and as the opening act for the Steve Miller Band at the Straight Theater in Haight-Ashbury in September 1967. He also opened for Santana at a Bill Graham Winterland concert in 1970.

In 1975, Roberts recorded the country rock album Thoughts of California with the band Grits, which he produced with Hillel Resner.

After a serious car accident in the early 1990s, Roberts was hospitalized for a time in Sonoma County, California. He later moved to Atlanta, Georgia to undergo rehabilitation. Roberts did not perform or record subsequently, but he held copyrights on nearly 100 songs. He died on October 7, 2017.

Guitarist Roy Buchanan recorded a version of "Hey Joe" (on the 1974 LP That's What I Am Here For); Buchanan also recorded Roberts' "Good God Have Mercy" on the 1976 LP A Street Called Straight.

Roberts had been residing in Atlanta at the time of his death on October 7, 2017.[8]

Discography

  • Thoughts of California (1975)

References

  1. Allmusic
    . Retrieved December 14, 2023. Born: August 16, 1936 in Greenville, SC; Died: October 17, 2017.
  2. ISBN 0-252-02427-3
    .
  3. ^ "Billy Stapleton Guitar Stories: Billy Roberts". Archived from the original on April 6, 2009. Retrieved April 3, 2009.
  4. ^ Music in Washington: Seattle and Beyond, Blecha, Peter, Arcadia Publishing, 2007, pp48
  5. ^ "1964-11-13". The Stanford Daily Archives.
  6. ^ "Five decades of cheesecake: A history". The Cheesecake Factory. Archived from the original on November 3, 2005. Retrieved March 17, 2022.
  7. ^ "1968's Sky River Rock Festival revisited Friday". The Seattle Times. August 12, 2011. Retrieved October 27, 2021.
  8. ^ "Obituaries". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. October 11, 2017. p. B5. Roberts, Jr. William M. "Billy": Age 81, of Atlanta, passed away October 7, 2017.

External links

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