Billy Peek

Last updated

Billy Peek (born in St. Louis, Missouri, 1940) is an American rock and roll and blues guitarist, singer, songwriter, composer, producer. [1] Billy Peek has recorded, toured and played as lead guitarist for rock icon Rod Stewart for five years. Billy Peek has recorded, toured and performed with rock legend Chuck Berry and was in the backing band for Chuck Berry's European tour. Peek continuously performs with his own band throughout the U.S.

Contents

Biography

Peek was born in South St. Louis, and as a child growing up in the 1950s he lived for a time in the apartment above his parents' bar known as the Peek-A-Boo Inn. There he began playing the guitar with his father. When he was a bit older he heard the music of other burgeoning St. Louis musicians such as Chuck Berry and Ike Turner and it completely changed his life, leading Peek to focus his energies on blues and rock. [2] [3] [4] At the age of 15, Peek formed his own band and went over to East St. Louis to listen to performers like Ike Turner, Little Mlton and Albert King. At the age of 18 Peek would sit in with Ike Turner's band. Peek learned the language of the blues and tried it out on his guitar from the sounds of B.B. King, Elmore James and Muddy Waters. However, the most important influence on Peek was Chuck Berry. Peek performed on a TV show, Russ Carter's "St. Louis Hop", which led him to opening for Chuck Berry at the first anniversary show at the Casa Loma Ballroom.

In 1963, Peek began performing during the "Gaslight Square" Era on the DeBaliviere Strip, where Chuck Berry strolled in and sat in the audience. Chuck Berry later came up and congratulated Peek on his playing and invited him to perform at Berry's club on Sunday afternoons, where sometimes Berry would sit in with Peek's group and they would play together. This led to a musical and personal association which led to a European tour during which Peek played in Berry's backup band.

In 1973, they performed together on an awards show honoring Berry's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and shortly thereafter in 1975, a television show called "Rock Concert". Rod Stewart happened to see that television show with his soon to be exiting guitarist Ronnie Wood, who was set to join the Rolling Stones. Rod Stewart called and set up an audition for Peek a few months later. Peek laid down a hard driving Chuck Berry-style rhythm during the audition, where he saw Rod Stewart jump in the air and hit his head of the control booth and yell "that's it, that's it" and he knew he had the job. With Peek's guitar helping set the pace, The Rod Stewart Group (RSG) became one of the best-selling musical aggregations in the world over the next 5 years.

Billy Peek's guitar solos on "Better Off Dead", "Blondes Have More Fun", "Ball Trap", "Wild Side Of Life", "Big Bayou", "She Won't Dance With Me", "Born Loose" and "Hot Legs" anchored the band in the traditional rock-and-roll style. Stewart's band dissolved in 1980 and Peek returned to St. Louis where he continued to be a local favorite, which led to Peek's emergence of his first solo blues album "Can A White Boy Play The Blues?", which attracted some attention in the U.S. and England and on blues radio stations.

Recent years

While he mostly performs locally in the St. Louis area, [5] Billy Peek has toured, played with and recorded with many major rock and roll and blues musicians. [6] Under his own name he has recorded three albums. A Billy Peek TV documentary aired by PBS - KETC entitled "Living St. Louis" on November 8, 2007. On January 21, 2013 Peek performed for the Chuck Berry Lifetime Achievement Award Show in St. Louis, MO. On June 6, 2014 Peek reunited with Rod Stewart on stage at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, MO.

Discography

Billy Peek

Rod Stewart

Chuck Berry

Eric Carmen

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chuck Berry</span> American musician (1926–2017)

Charles Edward Anderson Berry was an American singer, guitarist and songwriter who pioneered rock and roll. Nicknamed the "Father of Rock and Roll", he refined and developed rhythm and blues into the major elements that made rock and roll distinctive with songs such as "Maybellene" (1955), "Roll Over Beethoven" (1956), "Rock and Roll Music" (1957), and "Johnny B. Goode" (1958). Writing lyrics that focused on teen life and consumerism, and developing a music style that included guitar solos and showmanship, Berry was a major influence on subsequent rock music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ike Turner</span> American musician (1931–2007)

Izear Luster "Ike" Turner Jr. was an American musician, bandleader, songwriter, record producer, and talent scout. An early pioneer of 1950s rock and roll, he is best known for his work in the 1960s and 1970s with his wife Tina Turner as the leader of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Johnnie Johnson (musician)</span> American musician

Johnnie Clyde Johnson was an American pianist who played jazz, blues, and rock and roll. His work with Chuck Berry led to his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for breaking racial barriers in the military as a Montford Point Marine, where he endured racism and inspired social change while integrating the previously all-white Marine Corps during World War II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louis Jordan</span> American musician, songwriter and bandleader (1908–1975)

Louis Thomas Jordan was an American saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and bandleader who was popular from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Known as "the King of the Jukebox", he earned his highest profile towards the end of the swing era. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as an "early influence" in 1987.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kings of Rhythm</span> Band led by Ike Turner

Kings of Rhythm are an American music group formed in the late 1940s in Clarksdale, Mississippi and led by Ike Turner through to his death in 2007. Turner would retain the name of the band throughout his career, although the group has undergone considerable line-up changes over time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Johnny B. Goode</span> 1958 single by Chuck Berry

"Johnny B. Goode" is a song by American musician Chuck Berry, written and sung by Berry in 1958. Released as a single in 1958, it peaked at number two on the Hot R&B Sides chart and number eight on its pre-Hot 100 chart. The song remains a staple of rock music.

The origins of rock and roll are complex. Rock and roll emerged as a defined musical style in the United States in the early to mid-1950s. It derived most directly from the rhythm and blues music of the 1940s, which itself developed from earlier blues, the beat-heavy jump blues, boogie woogie, up-tempo jazz, and swing music. It was also influenced by gospel, country and western, and traditional folk music. Rock and roll in turn provided the main basis for the music that, since the mid-1960s, has been generally known simply as rock music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Albert King</span> American blues musician (1923–1992)

Albert Nelson, known by his stage name Albert King, was an American guitarist and singer who is often regarded as one of the greatest and most influential blues guitarists of all time. He is perhaps best known for his popular and influential album Born Under a Bad Sign (1967) and its title track. He, B.B. King, and Freddie King, all unrelated, were known as the " The three Kings of the Blues". The left-handed Albert King was known for his "deep, dramatic sound that was widely imitated by both blues and rock guitarists".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hot Legs</span> 1978 single by Rod Stewart

"Hot Legs" is a single by Rod Stewart released in 1978 as the second single from his 1977 album Foot Loose & Fancy Free. The single performed moderately on the Billboard Hot 100, reaching number 28, but performed better on the UK Singles Chart, peaking at number 5. In the UK, "Hot Legs" and "I Was Only Joking" charted together as a double A-side.

Louis David Cennamo is an English bass guitarist, who has recorded and/or toured with a number of important British rock/blues/progressive bands, including The Herd, Renaissance and Colosseum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Rolling Stones American Tour 1969</span> 1969 concert tour by the Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones' 1969 Tour of the United States took place in November 1969. With Ike & Tina Turner, Terry Reid, and B.B. King as the supporting acts, rock critic Robert Christgau called it "history's first mythic rock and roll tour", while rock critic Dave Marsh wrote that the tour was "part of rock and roll legend" and one of the "benchmarks of an era." In 2017, Rolling Stone magazine ranked the tour among The 50 Greatest Concerts of the Last 50 Years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">A Fool in Love</span> 1960 single by Ike & Tina Turner

"A Fool in Love" is the debut single by Ike & Tina Turner. It was released on Sue Records in 1960. The song is Tina Turner's first release with the stage name "Tina Turner" although she had been singing with Ike Turner and his Kings of Rhythm since 1956. It was the first national hit record for bandleader Ike Turner since the number-one R&B hit "Rocket 88" in 1951, for which he did not receive proper credit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gary Grainger</span> Musical artist

Gary Grainger is an English rock, blues, jazz and pop songwriter and guitarist, most known for his work with Rod Stewart.

Carl D. Hogan was an American jazz and rhythm and blues guitarist and bassist. He is known for playing the lead guitar riff on Louis Jordan's "Ain't That Just Like a Woman " which was later imitated by Chuck Berry for his hit "Johnny B. Goode".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raymond Hill (musician)</span> Musical artist

Raymond Earl Hill was an American tenor saxophonist and singer, best known as a member of Ike Turner's Kings of Rhythm in the 1950s. He also recorded as a solo artist for Sun Records and worked as a session musician.

The Blondes 'Ave More Fun Tour was a worldwide concert tour held by British singer-songwriter Rod Stewart to promote his album Blondes Have More Fun. The tour began on 20 November 1978 in Paris and ended on 28 June 1979 in Los Angeles, California.

The ClubManhattan was a nightclub at 1320 East Broadway in East St. Louis, Illinois. The venue was owned by Booker Merritt. The Club Manhattan has a prominent place in Greater St. Louis music history. It is best known for being the nightclub where singer Tina Turner met her future husband, bandleader Ike Turner.

The Club Imperial was a nightclub at 6306-28 West Florissant Ave in St. Louis, Missouri. During the club's heyday in the 1950s through the 1960s, acts such as Ike & Tina Turner, Chuck Berry, and Bob Kuban and the In-Men performed at the Club Imperial.

Willie Kizart was an American electric blues guitarist best known for being a member of Ike Turner's Kings of Rhythm in the 1950s. Kizart played guitar on "Rocket 88" in 1951, which is considered by some accounts to be the first rock and roll record. The record is noted for featuring one of the first examples of distortion ever recorded; played by Kizart.

Erskine Oglesby was an American tenor saxophonist and blues singer. He was a native of St. Louis and as a teenager he played in a local band with Chuck Berry. He later played with Little Milton, Albert King, and Ike Turner's Kings of Rhythm. Oglesby also recorded as a solo artist and released a few albums on Black & Tan Records.

References

  1. ↑ "Billy Peek at All About Jazz". Archived from the original on 2010-09-01. Retrieved 2011-01-24.
  2. ↑ Mowers, Jaime (July 27, 2011). "Chuck Berry: A Living Legend". West End Word. Retrieved July 27, 2011.
  3. ↑ "Living St. Louis".
  4. ↑ "The Grateful Blog: NYE with Billy Peek". Archived from the original on 2011-07-17. Retrieved 2011-01-24.
  5. ↑ "Eventful: See Calendar of Events & Shows | Audacy".
  6. ↑ "RCS Search Results".
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.