Billy Roberts

Who is Billy Roberts?

William Moses "Billy" Roberts Jr. is an American songwriter and musician credited with composing the 1960s rock music standard "Hey Joe".

Roberts attended The Military College of South Carolina but left school for the life of an itinerant musician. He learned to play the 12-string guitar and blues harmonica, on which he claimed to have been tutored by Sonny Terry. In the early 1960s he went to New York's Greenwich Village where he 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. Signed by David Allen, manager of the hungry i, the group did several month-long stints at the i, opening for the likes of Bill Cosby, Carmen McRae, Godfrey Cambridge, and Joan Rivers.