He is a bass player who grew up in Minnesota. His father was a jazz pianist who
played in several bands and other members of his family include the
keyboard player and singer Ricky Peterson and the guitarist and bass player
Paul Peterson. He grew up in a
musical family and by the time he was 9 he was singing national commercial spots.He was taught the drums with
tuition from Elliot Fine of the Minnesota Symphony Orchestra and he also
studied the keyboard with Ernie Garvin, who worked for CBS radio. After his father had bought a bass
guitar in the hope that one of his children would want to learn it, Billy
decided it was the instrument he wanted to concentrate on, but when he was
14 he found an upright bass his father had left at home which he decided he
wanted to learn and that same year his mother taught him how to re-harmonise
songs.When he was 16 he
toured with The Righteous Brothers and during the school terms he would
play for local orchestras and bands.He also toured with the Lawrence Welk Show All Stars and once he'd
finished school he began performing with the pianist Billy Wallace, who he
stayed with until 1973.He
founded the band Natural Life who recorded three albums and toured the
United States on several occasions with them.He met up with the guitarist Leo Kottke and worked as
bassist on three of his albums and he was also the bassist on the
multi-platinum Blood on the Tracks by Bob Dylan.He joined the Gibson staff in 1976
and with them he conducted clinics and managed to perform music with artists
such as B.B. King and Les Paul.He was introduced to the keyboard player Ben Sidran and they went
into a collaboration that has remained until present day.In 1981 he released the solo album Threshold
of Surrender and toured and recorded throughout the 1980s with various
artists.He also performed as
a soloist and with a symphony orchestra in the same time-frame that he was
recording radio and television commercials.Steve Miller approached him in 1986 and asked him to
become a member of The Steve Miller Band.With them he recorded Born to be Blue, The Steve
Miller Band Box Set and Wide River, and toured from 1987 to 2000.He was approached by Prince to make
string arrangement for Rosie Gaines of the New Power Generation and he re-harmonised
Bryan Adam's "Everything I Do, I Do It For You".Many of his
original compositions can be heard on various recordings by different
record labels.Through the
course of his career he has performed with a myriad of artists ranging from
Neil Young to Carlos Santana to Pete Seager to Mose Allison.In 1996 he co-founded the Artists's
Quarter jazz club in Minnesota where he performs when he's not touring.
