Billy Rush Masters (September 15, 1950 – July 2, 1981) was an American composer, and

rock guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselv ...

. He is best known as a songwriter and founding member of the pioneering Jesus music and

contemporary Christian music Contemporary Christian music, also known as CCM, Christian pop, and occasionally inspirational music is a genre of modern popular music, and an aspect of Christian media, which is lyrically focused on matters related to the Christian faith and s ...

band, the Archers between 1970 and 1977. His hits included “God’s Love,” “Thank You Lord Jesus,” “Music (He Brings A New Song),” “Brand New Day,” and “Fresh Surrender,” which was nominated for a GMA Dove Award in 1977. He was born William Rush Masters at St. Francis Hospital in Wichita, Kansas to Allan Rush Masters an aerospace engineer and Marjorie Suzanne Schuelke. He has one sibling, Pamela Masters Guzman. He grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area community of Mountain View, California during the 1960s. He graduated from Los Altos High School and attended Foothill College in Los Altos, California. Masters showed an early aptitude for music. He began playing guitar at age five and by high school he was teaching and had already formed a couple of rock bands. He was an early member of San Francisco’s

Hippie A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to different countries around ...

movement and began to study Eastern religions. In 1969, after a move to

Palmdale, California Palmdale is a city in northern Los Angeles County in the U.S. state of California. The city lies in the Antelope Valley region of Southern California. The San Gabriel Mountains separate Palmdale from the Los Angeles Basin to the south. On Aug ...

he became a born-again Christian. There he met the singers Tim and

Steve Archer Steve Archer (born January 5, 1953) is an American singer-songwriter and producer. He is a pioneer of the genre of Jesus music, later to become known as contemporary Christian music. He is the former lead singer of the Archers, a contemporary ...

who were forming the Jesus and contemporary Christian music band, The Archers. He began playing bass and later switched to lead. By 1972, The Archers recorded their first album, ''Any Day Now''. Within six months they landed a record deal with

Impact Records Impact Records was an American record label founded in 1989 by Carl Sturken and Evan Rogers. It was once a subsidiary of MCA Records. Today, its back catalog remains part of Universal Music Group. Acts on the label are and/or have included: Sas ...

Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...

who re-released the album as '' The Archers''. Masters toured with the group throughout the United States, Canada and South Africa for six years before leaving the band in 1976. He married Judy Baxter, a law student and engineer at NBC who worked on various shows including the daytime drama,

Days of Our Lives ''Days of Our Lives'' (also stylized as ''Days of our Lives''; simply referred to as ''Days'' or ''DOOL'') is an American television soap opera that streams on the streaming service Peacock. The soap, which aired on the American television net ...

, Sanford & Son, ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' doing the boom, working as an audio assistant, or operating the teleprompter. During his years with the Archers he contributed songs to four albums: ''The Archers'', ''

Keep Singing That Love Song ''Keep Singin' That Love Song'' was The Archers first major label album. Impact Records re-released their independent recording, ''The Archers'', a year earlier and sent master producer Bob MacKenzie to the West Coast for the new project. The albu ...

'', ''

Things We Deeply Feel ''Things We Deeply Feel'' the fourth album release for The Archers and their first release for the West Coast’s powerful CCM franchise, ''Light Records''. The record company went all out for the project, bringing in some of Hollywood’s top stu ...

'' and '' Fresh Surrender'', writing an average of four songs per album. He suffered from an autoimmune illness from early childhood, and was later diagnosed with a related form of hepatitis. In 1979, he began to hemorrhage and was rushed to the hospital losing nearly all of his

blood volume Blood volume (volemia) is the volume of blood (blood cells and plasma) in the circulatory system of any individual. Humans A typical adult has a blood volume of approximately 5 liters, with females and males having approximately the same blood per ...

. Although he initially recovered, he relapsed and was admitted to UCLA Medical Center. He died on July 2, 1981. He left behind his wife and one infant daughter, Lauren who went on to study musical theatre at USC and currently lives and works in NYC. Judy Spees, Billy's wife and her husband Frank Spees are trust attorneys. www.spees.comthearchers.us The Archers.US Masters Bio

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Masters, Billy Rush Songwriters from Kansas American performers of Christian music American rock guitarists American male guitarists 1950 births 1981 deaths Musicians from Wichita, Kansas Foothill College alumni Writers from Wichita, Kansas 20th-century American guitarists Guitarists from Kansas 20th-century American male musicians American male songwriters