William Hammond Talbot (born October 23, 1943) is an American singer-songwriter and musician, best known as the bassist of

Crazy Horse Crazy Horse ( , ; – September 5, 1877) was a Lakota people, Lakota war leader of the Oglala band. He took up arms against the United States federal government to fight against encroachment by White Americans, White American settlers on Nativ ...

Music career

Born in New York City, Talbot started his musical career singing on street corners at the age of 14. He moved to

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

with his family the next year, and by 17 he had moved to

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. There, he befriended fellow expatriate New Yorkers Ralph Molina,

Danny Whitten Danny Ray Whitten (May 8, 1943 – November 18, 1972) was an American guitarist and songwriter, best known for his work with Neil Young's backing band Crazy Horse (band), Crazy Horse, and for the song "I Don't Want to Talk About It", a hit for Ro ...

and Benjamin Rocco. Together they formed a

doo-wop Doo-wop (also spelled doowop and doo wop) is a subgenre of rhythm and blues music that originated in African-American communities during the 1940s, mainly in the large cities of the United States, including New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, ...

group called Danny and the Memories. After moving the group to San Francisco, they morphed into The Psyrcle, which eventually grew to encompass Leon and George Whitsell along with Bobby Notkoff. At this point, Talbot and his bandmates renamed the group The Rockets. In 1967, the group met

Neil Young Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian and American singer-songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, forming the folk rock group Buffalo Springfield. Since the begi ...

, who at the time was a member of

Buffalo Springfield Buffalo Springfield was a Canadian-American Rock music, rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1966 by Canadians Neil Young, Bruce Palmer and Dewey Martin (musician), Dewey Martin and Americans Stephen Stills and Richie Furay. The group, widely know ...

. This meeting saw Molina, Whitten, and Talbot join forces with Young to create

. Talbot began performing solo in 1999 at small venues. In October 2004, Talbot struck out on his own with The Billy Talbot Band, releasing the album ''Alive in the Spirit World'' on

Sanctuary Records Sanctuary Records Group Limited was a record label based in the United Kingdom and is, as of 2013, a subsidiary of BMG Rights Management solely for reissues. Until June 2007, it was the largest independent record label in the UK and the largest ...

. In 2013, the band released their second album ''On the Road to Spearfish'' on Vapor Records. In 2013 Talbot joined forces with Ralph Molina, George Whitsell and Ryan James Holzer to form the band Wolves. They released their first album ''Wolves EP'' on February 16, 2014. In June 2014, Talbot suffered a minor

stroke Stroke is a medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to a part of the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemor ...

and was forced to sit out Crazy Horse's imminent European tour. He has since recovered and rejoined the band.

Discography

The Billy Talbot Band

Albums * ''Alive in the Spirit World'' (2004) * ''On the Road to Spearfish'' (2013) Contributions * "Rain", "Cherish", and "The Hunter" (2023) for ''All Roads Lead Home''

with Wolves

EP * ''Wolves'' (2014)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Talbot, Billy 1943 births Living people American rock bass guitarists American male bass guitarists American male singer-songwriters American rock songwriters American rock singers Singers from New York City Crazy Horse (band) members Guitarists from New York City American male guitarists 20th-century American guitarists Singer-songwriters from New York (state)