Billy Lee Riley

Billy Lee Riley was born on 5^th October 1933 in Pocahontas, Arkansas. As a young boy Billy was fascinated by the black man’s music, and he liked nothing more than listening to the sounds of the Delta blues blasting from either the jukeboxes or some live band crammed into the corner of one of the beer joints, in that part of town the white folks referred to as “black town”. When he was thirteen, his family moved to a plantation in St Francis County, Arkansas, where there were four white and thirty-six black families living together. It was here that he was taught to play the guitar by the black farmworkers who also taught him Delta blues music.

In 1948, Riley’s family moved to Mississippi where he began to travel with preacher singing gospel songs. In March 1949, Billy joined the US Army and after his discharge four years later he joined his family in Jonesboro, Arkansas. He immediately formed a hillbilly band, playing at local high school dances and nightclubs. Riley married and moved to Memphis, Tennessee in 1955 and in March 1956 he cut his first demo at Fernwood Studios. The demo was taken to Sam Phillips at Sun Records, who then signed Billy to a recording contract.

Proficient at harmonica, guitar, bass, and drums, Riley contributed, as a sideman to many a classic Sun session. His backing band, The Little Green Men, which at one stage included the then unknown Jerry Lee Lewis on piano, became the resident Sun house band. Riley recorded for the Sun label from 1956 until 1960, with his most notable releases being Flyin’ Saucers Rock ’n’ Roll and Red Hot.

After he left Sun Records in 1960, he either owned or worked for a variety of record companies, having some success as a record producer and a session musician. After a performance in Memphis in 1979, he was soon back on the road throughout Europe and England, where rockabilly commands a large and loyal following.