Some of my favorites include Ray Charles, Chuck Berry, Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan and the Beatles. There are many artists who have delighted and inspired me. The words and melodies were soothing and transporting. My earliest favorites included "All I Have To Do Is Dream" and "Bird Dog" by the Everly Brothers, "Yakety Yak" by the Coasters and "Poor Little Fool" by Ricky Nelson. In 1958, at the age of eight, I began collecting records. Q: Please discuss any of your personal musical influences and who molded and inspired the amazing songwriter you have become.īilly: Since I was a child, I have absolutely loved songs. I also saw that songwriting could be lucrative. Around this time, I started to realize that, perhaps, I was a better writer than I was a singer/performer. Linda Ronstadt had a Top 10 hit with "How Do I Make You." Pat Benatar cut "I'm Gonna Follow You" and "Precious Time." I wrote these songs by myself, words and music. That record was never released but three of the songs were cut by other artists. We were signed by Richard Perry to his label, Planet Records. Billy Thermal began performing at clubs in Los Angeles, like Madame Wong's, Bla Bla Cafe, Cafe 88 and the Troubador. I was attracted to the sounds of bands like Blondie, The Talking Heads, Elvis Costello and Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers. Thermal was the name of the small town where our vineyard operations were based. In the late 1970s, I formed a rock band called Billy Thermal. After college, I went to work in my father's table grape vineyard in the Coachella Valley in Southern California. It never occurred to me to write songs for other singers. My earliest songs were folk songs, influenced by Bob Dylan, Donovan and Paul Simon. I used it to put poems that I had been writing to music. My grandmother had given me a Gibson acoustic guitar. I started writing songs when I was a freshman at Bard College in upstate New York. We covered songs by the Animals, the Kinks, the Byrds and the Rolling Stones. Q: Did you always want to be a songwriter or did you originally want to be the rock star yourself? When and how did you start your career as a songwriting lyricist?īilly: In the mid-1960s, I was the lead singer in two high school rock bands. You will find out which of those hits they helped author and how those songs came to be as we get on to some selections from my interview with Billy Steinberg. Their songs have also been recorded by REO Speedwagon, Tina Turner, Belinda Carlisle, Pat Benatar, Cheap Trick, Phil Collins, Bette Midler, Rod Stewart and The Pretenders among others. These include some of the biggest hits for Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, Heart, Whitney Houston and The Bangles. Steinberg is half of the songwriting duo along with Tom Kelly who wrote an impressive five #1 singles for five different artists during the '80s. You might not recognize his name, but you should certainly recognize some of his incredible work. This time that awesomeness is Billy Steinberg. Again, lucky for me (and hopefully you), I do get to share a little more awesomeness with you. When the opportunity presents itself to ask a few questions to someone who contributed to the awesomeness of the '80s, I will continue to share those answers with you right here. Please keep in mind the original date because some content could be specific to the time of the interview, though the majority should be timeless and totally rad.) These are more than just interviews in a way they are more like '80s timelines or oral histories on their respective subject matters. It is one installment in an incredible series of interviews we are republishing on Rediscover the '80s for posterity and your enjoyment. (This interview was originally published March 10, 2012 on the now-retired Kickin' it Old School blog.
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