by Danny Colman originally published on Rock On! This Week’s Sound Bites…5/22/25
“We’ve played there before; we’ve sold it out eight times in a row and it’s in my hometown of Tuckerton where I grew up as a kid,” began guitarist and New Jersey staple Billy Walton as he eagerly discussed his new single, “Knife In My Back” and his upcoming May 24 appearance at The Lizzie Rose Music Room. “What’s great about the venue is that we get to play what we do on tour in Europe; all original, all our own stuff, we go back and take stuff from our old catalog and some new songs and it’s a chance for people to see what we do overseas when we tour.”
A long time fixture not only along the Jersey coast but all over The Garden State, basically, anywhere a live music venue has or can be found, Walton has entertained audiences with his mix of cover tunes and originals which he has created and honed over his years in the music business but like so many others; some of his greatest successes have not come here in the U.S. but in Europe.
“Years ago, I toured over there with many bands, my own band, Southside Johnny, I toured with a band called Baciagaloop,“ he said with a laugh. “What I found over there is that the culture is a little different. They are still buying tickets, coming out to see new music and they are up for it. It’s part of their culture, the art is still there. They will go and see a band and they’ll say, “Let me see where these guys are from. Oh yeah, let’s go on Saturday” and it doesn’t have to be a tribute band; most rock venues around the world are bombarded with a million tribute bands now and these people still come out and see new music and I like that, I dig that. They are still invested in hearing something new, they want to drink new milk instead of the old milk; you know? (Laughs)”
Ah yes, tribute bands; today’s versions of yesterday’s music. From the 1950s onward, many musicians had aspirations to write their own music, build bands or solo projects that would showcase their art but in the current climate it seems many of the younger generation have lost interest or gone in a different direction especially with the lack of interest from venues in allowing and promoting original music.
So, given he has the new single, does he find it difficult to get his music out to the masses?
“Luckily we do well with it, for me, the old generation of free thinker music lovers can see through it and be like, OK, this was fun but this is the real thing, this is what I like, new music. Whereas, the next generation, I hope that they can see through that and if they’re bombarded with the same old stuff and getting anything new; that’s a problem for me. What if The Rolling Stones decided to be a tribute band back then? Where would music be? If it’s stopping the evolution of new bands and new music; rock ‘n’ roll really isn’t that old. You go back to the ’50s and think about how it has evolved from the ’50s to the ’60s, to the ’70s and to the ’90s; you know what I mean? There was the evolution of recording, with gear, with sound systems and stepping outside of the box; take “Axis: Bold As Love” by Jimi Hendrix, we’re still trying to catch up to that recording. Like I said, it was evolution and anything that kind of stops the evolution of music kind of bugs me. I understand making money, once a year, even I do a Rolling Stones night and it’s on Black Friday. I’ve done it for the last four years, we call it, “Paint It Black Friday” and we don’t dress like The Stones, we just do a Stones night and I did that but dressing up like Freddie Mercury and acting like him is not my thing. There are great venues like The Saint in Asbury Park that have closed down, for me, losing that club was horrible. Here was like a 150 seater where a band playing original music could go in and not have to worry about selling 400 tickets like at a bigger club but could develop and play original music while still having a good crowd and work their way up. Again, evolution; like a garage band who has put together 15 songs and they want to play them somewhere, that was the perfect venue for that and then they can move up with the more tickets you sell.”
When it comes to recording his music, Walton seems stricken with wanderlust as he has visited many studios over the years with the most recent being Sonic Boom in Raritan, NJ but it’s how this new single came together that is anything but scattered.
“Knife In My Back” I wrote when we were going to record another song on our way to Anthony Krizan’s (Sonic Boom) studio. I started writing it on the drive up there and we got there and I was like, hey guys, check this out. We started jammin’ it and put it together and started recording, it just kind of came out of the air and it just developed from that. Then we had some rhythm tracks and put some guitar on it and vocals and I’m very excited about it. Every record, I’ve recorded somewhere different. We usedCambridge Studio in Philly for “Dark Hour,” there was a place in Maui, we did “Soul Of A Man” there; all over the place but I always wanted to work with Anthony, we’ve been friends for a long time. We started writing songs together and I just started recording there. We have a friendship and it’s a good vibe. I’ve never stuck with one place, I’m always looking for different people to work with and Anthony is top-notch.”
Never one to take much time off, Walton always has a packed gig schedule, one that literally takes him around the globe. So, it’s no surprise that after the May 24 show in Tuckerton that his rock ‘n’ roll train keeps chugging along.
“The Lizzie Rose is May 24, we have Daryl’s House on May 31, we’re at The Point in Somers Point starting May 22 and every Thursday after that, May 30 we’re at Bird and Betty’s on Long Beach Island, we’re everywhere (Laughs) and at the Lizzie Rose, we’ll be doing a tribute to Neil Sedaka that night; nah, just kidding (Laughs). We’re gonna do the new single, the last tour I pulled some older songs from our catalog, from the early records and it’s gonna be pretty much a mix of every record that we’ve done. We have seven records and it’s gonna be a killer show and I’m really looking forward to it. We’ll have William Paris on bass guitar and lately we’ve been working with Toni Teschner, she has her own band but she sang on the single. She has been joining the band with us for that girl vocal and acoustic guitar and it has been awesome. She played Asbury with us and she’s done a bunch of shows now so she is fitting right in well and doing awesome.”
To discover more about Billy Walton and The Billy Walton Band, please visit https://billywaltonband.com/