Walker Jr., Billy Jo (29th February 1952-25th July 2017)

He was a guitarist. songwriter and producer born in Midland, Texas, who started his interest in music at a very young age and was already learning to play the guitar by the time he was four years old and then a short while later he was bought an electric guitar and given formal lessons.

By the time he was just a mere six years old he had his own Little Billy Walker Show and when he reached fourteen he left home for Oklahoma City to play in the Copacabana Club’s band and other local venues. He met up with Conway Twitty while there and he recorded some of Billy’s songs and urged him to make a move to Nashville. Not taking his advice, he moved to Los Angeles and became a member of the Palomino Club’s house band and after meeting Cliffie Stone he found himself doing session work at Capital Records.

Nashville didn’t stay away for long though, as Capital asked him to do some session work there and so he eventually settled there and began writing some instrumental music, which got him a record deal. After having recorded and produced seven albums of his own he decided to produce other artists and ventured out on that path while continuing to do session work.

Over the course of his career he worked with a huge array of artists such as John Anderson, The Beach Boys, The Bellamy Brothers, Bonnie Bramlett, Rosanne Cash, Ray Charles, Billy Ray Cyrus, The Dixie Chicks, Crystal Gayle, Vince Gill, Merle Haggard, John Jarvis, Waylon Jennings, Nicolette Larson, George Jones, Martina McBride, Reba McEntire, Ronnie Milsap, Juice Newton, Dolly Parton, Kenny Rogers, Demis Roussos, Dan Seals, George Strait, Pam Tillis, Randy Travis, Travis Tritt, Tanya Tucker and Trisha Yearwood and many more.

The albums where he featured as a musician are seven of his own including Life Is Good, Painting Music, Universal Language, Walk and Warm Front and also Riddles in the Sand by Jimmy Buffett, Legacy 1961-2002 by Glen Campbell, Never Alone by Amy Grant, Healing Hands of Time by Willie Nelson, Border Town: The Very Best Of by J.D. Souther, Wild Streak by Hank Williams Jr. and the soundtracks of the movies Apollo 13 and We Were Soldiers and TV’s Dukes of Hazard and literally hundreds of others.

As a songwriter he wrote many songs that have been covered by a variety of artists including the No. 1 “I Wanna Dance With You” by Eddie Rabbitt.

He ran his own studio called Our Place and a small publishing house in Nashville.

After a decline in his health he passed away in Kerrville, Tecas in 2017 when he was 65 years old.

Sources:

Walker Jr., Billy Jo (29th February 1952-25th July 2017)

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