Billy Payne

BIOGRAPHY OF BILLY PAYNE: I was raised in a small community. The same place I have been all my life. A Coal Camp. My Dad was and still is a Very Hard Working Man. He is retired, but you can't tell him that. He always has to be doing something. My Mother is retired and she likes it!!! They are wonderful people and I love them dearly and so does everyone that knows them. Neither one of them is musically inclined. I have a Brother - six years my junior. He's not a Singer he is a Surface Miner by trade, just like my Dad. When I was a child I used to ride in the back window of our car. I didn't ride in the seat, I really liked to lay down and look up at the sky and the stars and just think and listen to the radio. I did this in every vehicle we had until I couldn't fit up there anymore. When I was in the first grade my Parents bought me three Christmas presents that year. One being a flip-up lid type record player and two long play LP's. "Johnny Cash at San Quentin" and "The Best Of Charley Pride". This was my first "trip" down the Country Music Highway. I say "trip" because that is what it was in my mind. I was just mesmerized by the sound I heard. I was on a "journey" that I really saw coming early in my life, but did not know when. But I knew what I wanted because I would act the part, stand in front of a mirror and sing my heart out. I would pretend to be Johnny, Charley, or the other Country Singers that I watched on television back then, such as Porter Wagner and Bill Anderson. By the early 70's I was knocked out by the "Outlaw Movement" even though George Jones is still one of my favorite Country Singers. The music of Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson was it for me. It has an edge to it that other country music does not. Well for me it does. I was doing the same thing, pretending to be those guys not knowing I was really practicing to be what I am today. Time went on and I never walked away from music. I always had to have the latest new LP or 8-track from either one of those men. I would buy them and listen to each one over and over again. I was hooked. It was definitely an addiction so to speak. I just had to have it! I would ride my bike with an 8-track player tied to the handlebars so I could listen to all of my music. I bought the music with the money I was making cutting my Grandmother's lawn. I can remember listening to Hank Williams, Jr. singing "Angels Are Hard To Find" over and over 'til I learned every word. That was one of my favorite songs back then and still is today. I also would listen to George Jones like he was the only man on earth. I would collect everything I could find of him and sing all of his songs too. And of course Elvis also. But that goes without saying. Then there was Merle Haggard. He had the same edge as Waylon & Willie to me. I always like to hear Merle, Waylon, & Willie play their guitars and wish they would play more riffs on their albums than they did. They always left me wanting more. I love to hear a guitar really talk especially the way they could make the guitar sound. Without a doubt, they are the reason I play guitar today. I got my first guitar around the age of 12. My Dad bought it from his first Cousin for $12 dollars. I wanted it so bad. I can remember it was a Silvertone Black with white binding "F" note. The reason for getting it for $12 dollars is that I can remember my Dad asking how much his Cousin wanted for it, and he asked my Dad how much would he pay and Dad said, "I'll give you what I have in my pocket". Then his Cousin said "okay". It was the only $12 dollars my Dad had at the time. I'll never forget that ever! I kept it for a long time until it was damaged and unrepairable. I wish I still had it today. That was when I would sit and play guitar with my Cousin and watch them and try to learn everything they did and go home and play it. But I could only play it my way. I just couldn't get it to sound like they did. I basically taught myself how to play the guitar. I'm sure glad I did. I love it so much!! But to get back to the music. I would sing at home then after I was grown, I joined a Local Band and played a brief stint with them, and then helped form another Band and then six months later - I had my own Band and I still do. That is all I've ever wanted to do. So I do just that. I get on the stage and I sing to the crowd and I use the stage presence that I learned from all of my Heroes. I love the "Legends" that I grew up listening to. I have always said "I couldn't have lived in another time on this Earth other than our era". I know it was meant to be for me to play music. I am a very fortunate man to be able to do what I love and mean it at the same time. I will always be a Singer until the day I die. I just want everyone to know that! Give me my guitar and a stage and I'm a happy man. Music is what you make of it. You have to be good, very good to catch not only the ear of someone, but to make them remember you also. Believe me, it is always a challenge, and a BIG CHALLENGE at that! I do not profess to be the best at all, but that is my goal. But I try to be good at it in my own right because I have worked on it all my life. All of the Great Singers out there that I admire so much, if it weren't for them I would have never been able to learn what I know now. Music is the only life I've ever know as well as I do. I thank God for it, and all the Fans that I have and all my Friends and Loved Ones who believe in me and have stood by me. If it were not for them, I would have never gotten to this place that I am today. That place is HAPPY!!! Let me tell you, it is a wonderful place to be. I appreciate you taking the time to read my life story and I want to "Thank You" so much for your kindness and your support. BILLY PAYNE
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