Bill started playing the steel guitar at the age of 16 and soon found work in the honky-tonks and amusement venues around his SoCal home. Playing on and off, he worked with many acts, including the Wild Oats and Cowboy Maynard Bands. It was there that he met and worked with Larry Park in the early 1980’s, holding the steel chair in major country venues, such as the ‘Cowboy’ and the ‘Crazy Horse Saloon,’ during the wild and crazy ‘Urban Cowboy’ days.

With musical work harder to find in the ’90’s, Bill took advantage of his natural artistic abilities and went to work for a number of small advertising agencies, finally ending up at metropolitan newspapers such as the San Bernardino Sun and the Los Angeles Times.

Simultaneously, Bill turned back to his first musical instrument, the bass guitar, playing with local jazz bands and touring with bluegrass musician Andy Rau, a fine banjo player and composer of original music.

Pulling his trusty 1977 Emmons pedal steel from its case in the garage, Bill began to revisit some of his earliest musical inspirations: The Byrds, The Flying Burrito Bros, Poco, and all the great Nashville steel guitarists of the 60’s and 70s, as well as exploring its jazz capabilities. After moving to NorCal in 2015, Bill again hooked up with Larry Park and Worked with a variety of local artists before Larry asked him to join the Random Strangers at the end of 2019. It will be a renewed collaboration that should delight the aficionados of live music for many years to come!

Bill Lives in Elk Grove with his wife of 41 years and a couple of cats, Van Gogh and Maurice (because “he speaks of the Pompatus of love”).

With The Random Strangers, Bill plays an Emmons double-10, push-pull model guitar, vintage 1977. Bill also plays dobro, mandolin and bass.