William Beau Burnette III aka 'Billy' was born in Memphis, Tennessee on May 8, 1953, the son of Alberta and Dorsey (a fifties Rockabilly star who had a band those days with Billy's uncle Johnny). Billy spent the first years of his life in the music mecca that is Memphis. By the end of the fifties, the Burnette family moved to Los Angeles, where his dad and uncle worked with Rick Nelson. Rick had a few hits with Burnette-penned tunes-- Dorsey and Johnny's "It's Late" and "Believe What You Say."

Billy's record debut came at age seven as "Billy Beau" on a Christmas single for Dot Records, “Hey Daddy (I’m gonna tell Santa on you)” , recorded with James Burton and Ricky Nelson's band. He was signed to A&M Records four years later. Then, a few years after that, he and Rocky Burnette (Johnny's son) started playing Rockabilly with their dads in the local clubs.

He began touring at age 11 - 12, as part of Brenda Lee's road show. Immediately after graduating from high school in 1969, his father took him to Memphis to meet famed record producer Chips Moman, who had just finished the sessions for Elvis's "Suspicious Minds" and "In The Ghetto".

Billy; "When you went to work with Chips, you were a writer, you were a session musician, and you learned about the studio."

Billy followed Moman to Atlanta before coming to Nashville in 1971. Collaborating with Larry Henley whose credits include "Wind Beneath My Wings," Billy says, "That's when I really started concentrating on songwriting." In addition to songwriting, Billy spent three years on the road as Roger Miller's rhythm guitarist.

Both born into musical families, Billy first met Bekka Bramlett when their fathers got together for a visit in 1971. They didn't know it then, but many years later their roads would cross one another again -- as members of our favorite band, Fleetwood Mac.

Then he signed a contract with Entrance Records and recorded his first self-titled solo album in 1972.

In 1976, Billy became the father of a son which they named Dorsey IV, but he remained a single father.

Billy Burnette signed with Polydor in 1979, and recorded a second self-titled album. "What's a Little Love Between Friends" achieved modest chart success that year. "Between Friends" was released in 1980, and after Burnette signed with Columbia, he issued his third eponymous album. "Gimme You" followed in 1981, which made a total of four albums in barely three years.

Burnette met Mick Fleetwood during the shooting of a Dick Clark Anniversary Special. A few months later, Fleetwood invited Billy to join his pet project, The Zoo, which released an album on RCA in 1983. Billy soon fell in with the entire Fleetwood Mac circle.

When Christine McVie was working on her solo album in 1984, Billy co-wrote the song "So Excited" with her. While Stevie Nicks was recording her "Rock A Little" album, she also recorded a song with Billy called "Are You Mine", but for some mysterious reason the song never made it to her album. Billy also backed Lindsey Buckingham during his performance on Saturday Night Live (this was supposed to be the debut of what later became The Zoo.)

Over the years, Burnette's songs have been covered by such diverse artists like Ray Charles, Jerry Lee Lewis, The Everly Brothers, Conway Twitty, Gregg Allman, Loretta Lynn, and Ringo Starr.

In 1985, Eddy Raven and Ray Charles both charted with Billy Burnette songs, and Billy himself charted with "Ain't It Just Like Love" and "Try Me" -- both singles taken from his "Try Me" album (an album on which Mick Fleetwood and Christine McVie made guest appearances in return for Billy's work on their albums). About a year later, "Soldier Of Love" was released by MCA. In 1987 he wrote “(All I can do is) Dream you)”. for Roy Orbison, who recorded it for his next album. Billy played rhythm on that track while Rick Vito played lead guitar.

Even though Billy had known the members of Fleetwood Mac for 5 or 6 years, it still came as a surprise when he was asked to sign on full-time to the band when Lindsey Buckingham left the band in 1987. Billy Burnette and Rick Vito were both hired for 'the big gig' with Fleetwood. Billy was hired for the lead vocals and guitar and Rick for vocals and lead guitar.

Billy; "When I got the call from Mick Fleetwood, things couldn't be going better for me. I had just been nominated for the ACM Award. MCA/Curb, my label at the time, was behind me, and they didn't want to let me go. I was in the studio, working with Roy Orbison on his last album, "Mystery Girl". I thought about it for a while. But I was faced with the prospect of a world tour with Fleetwood Mac, as opposed to going back into the trenches with club work on my solo career. Of course, I wasn't going to turn down the Fleetwood Mac tour. It was huge. Tango In The Night was out. After I went out on the road with them, I think they sold another eight million records."

Billy's job was to do most of the lead vocals that Lindsey used to sing, as well on the songs Lindsey wrote himself as well as on the other, older songs like "Oh Well".

In 1988, Fleetwood Mac released the "Greatest Hits" album, followed by a huge promotion campaign. They also had a hit with "As Long As You Follow". For the "Behind The Mask" album, Billy co-wrote several songs, including "In The Back Of My Mind" which they later would be used as the new opening song for their concerts. He wrote "Do You Know", a song with beautiful harmonies, together with Christine McVie, and "When The Sun Goes Down" with Rick. Also "Hard Feelings" and "When It Comes To Love" were written by Billy as well.

The Behind The Mask tour took the band all over the world for about nine months. It was a huge success. One of the most well-received songs played live was Billy's "Tear It Up", which was written by Billy's father Dorsey in the late fifties.

When Rick and Stevie left the band at the end of 1991 and Christine decided to take a break from touring, Billy continued to be committed to working with Fleetwood Mac when and if they decided to call again.

Billy worked for a few years as a producer and guitarist, and made a guest appearance together with Rick Vito on Troy Newman's album "Gypsy Moon" in 1991. Billy returned to country music in 1992 with a contract for Warner Bros. and a hit single "Nothin' to Do (And All Night to Do It)." He moved to Capricorn later that year, and released his album "Coming Home". In the mean time he helped John McVie with his first solo album, John McVie's Gotta Band with Lola Thomas.

Two new Fleetwood Mac band members were already starting to be recruited. Bekka Bramlett who Billy met 20 years before and had stayed in contact, and Dave Mason. They all started to work together on some new songs for a new Mac album. Billy wrote "Talkin' To My Heart" and "I Got It In For You" with Deborah Allen. Together with Bekka he wrote one of the masterpieces on the "Time" album, "Dreamin' The Dream".

At the end of 1994 the band went on tour in Europe and the States. This was right before the release of the "Time" album. This early tour proved to be a disastrous marketing decision and severely affected album and ticket sales. So in 1995 when Fleetwood Mac went on hiatus, Billy and Bekka decided to venture out on their own as a country duo. "Had it not been for Fleetwood Mac, this duo never would have happened," Billy says. They knew from the first day they sang together in Fleetwood Mac that the two of them would do a record.

When Bekka moved together with Billy to Nashville, they got the attention of Garth Fundis, a famous country music producer. Soon Garth had decided that he wanted to make a record with the newborn country duo, Bekka & Billy.They signed a contract with Almo Sounds and in April 1997 their debut album, "Bekka & Billy" was released.


Billy; "Garth has let us make the record we wanted to make. We're really lucky in that aspect."


Bekka & Billy's powerful vocal harmonies are placed against an aural backdrop provided by some of Nashville's finest musicians. The album contains 12 songs, from which they both wrote all of them except one. From the cool country grooves of "Patient Heart" and "Deal with It" to the romantic optimism of "True Blue Love" (co-penned and sung by Billy and "Rhinestone Cowboy" writer "Larry Weiss), Bekka & Billy is a truly diverse collection, which includes special guest Vince Gill contributing signature guitar licks to the triumphant "Better Days" and the deeply emotional "Through The Walls."

In early 1998, the duo decided to go their separate ways -- the exact reason for their parting remains unknown.

Besides his musical pusuits, Billy has also switched gears and tested his acting chops -- having appeared in flicks like “Casper meets Wendy”, “Carnosaur 3: Primal Species”, “Richie Rich: A Christmas Story”, “Not Like Us” and, the “Addams Family Reunion”. movies. He also appeared in the sexy flick "Saturday Night Special" (aka “Deadly desire”, aka “The Abduction of Crystal Blue”) and performed several songs for the soundtrack.

In recent years -- on the musical side, Burnette has toured with Bob Dylan and has appeared on some tribute albums such as “Steel Cowboys: Biker’s Choice Vol. 1” where he covered Steve Earle’s “Copperhead Road” and “Dressed in black: A tribute to Johnny Cash” (on which he appeared on “Ring of fire”).

He is currently promoting his latest album "Memphis In Manhattan"and touring the country performing live with artists like John Fogerty. His recent touring with Fogerty gave him the opportunity to appear on the charity recording "From The Big Apple To The Big Easy: The Concert For New Orleans" DVD.

If there's one thing we know about Billy -- he'll keep on rockin' and promoting Rockabilly music -- in fact it's rumored that he's working on a film on the subject!

Important Billy Links:
Billy's Rockabilly Hall of Fame Page
Rockabilly Hall of Fame

Research by: Michele, Jan Freedland & John Fitzgerald
Written by Michele, Jan Freedland & John Fitzgerald

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