- Born
- Died
- Billy Lee Riley was born on October 5, 1933 in Pocahontas, Arkansas, USA. He was an actor, known for Ford v Ferrari (2019), Paul (2011) and Walk the Line (2005). He was married to Joyce. He died on August 2, 2009 in Jonesboro, Arkansas, USA.
- SpouseJoyce(? - August 2, 2009) (his death)
- His band, which for a time included a then-unknown Jerry Lee Lewis on piano, provided backup for Johnny Cash and Roy Orbison while both were at Sun Records. When Sam Phillips chose to promote Lewis's "Great Balls of Fire" instead of Riley's "Red Hot," a drunken Riley broke into the studio one night, kicked a hole in a string bass, and poured wine over the tape machines. Despite this, Riley and Phillips patched things up, and Riley stayed at Sun until 1960.
- He toured in Europe in the 1970s and '80s.
- In the early 1960s, he went to California, where he was a studio musician for The Beach Boys and Dean Martin.
- He grew up in a sharecropping family in Arkansas.
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