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Bill is a highly successful Nashville songwriter, co-writing country hits for artists like Martina McBride, Trisha Yearwood, and Robert Ellis Orral as well as his late ’80s duo Foster and Lloyd. His country collaborations go back to the late ’70s, and he has a long connection to Rusty Young’s latter-day iterations of Poco.
But his true love has been power pop, starting with the early ’80s duo with David Surface Sgt. Arms (our intro song is “Caught in Traffic,” a 1982 single), and his solo career has always been based around this style, through around ten solo albums.
We discuss the title track from Don’t Kill the Messenger (2020), “What Time Won’t Heal” (co-written with Graham Gouldman) from Working the Long Game (2018), and “Off and Running” a track from the newly expanded version of his first solo album Feeling the Elephant (1987). End song: “Rough Edges” by Cimarron 615 (a 2022 single of a song that he co-wrote with Rusty Young and Radney Foster, originally recorded for Poco’s Legacy 1989 album). More at billlloydmusic.net.
Listen to “Lisa Anne,” the big single from his first solo album. Watch a video for “Don’t Kill the Messenger.” Another single from that recent album is “The Girls of Sylvan Park.” Probably my favorite song of his is “The Best Record Ever Made” from 2012. Watch a 2015 live band performance.
Watch the TV appearance for Sgt. Arms’ “Caught in Traffic.” Here’s that live 1986 performance by Bill Lloyd and the December Boys. Here’s a Foster & Lloyd single, and here they are live. Here’s Bill recently live doing an acoustic Beatles cover.
Here’s a song he wrote for Sky Kings, his band with Rusty Young and John Cowan. Listen to the Poco version of “Rough Edges.”
Here’s the song “Goin’ to Work” that he wrote for Martina McBride, “Trying to Love You” for Trisha Yearwood, his hit written with Robert Ellis Orral, and “World of Hurt” written with and for his long-time collaborator Beth Nielsen Chapman. Here’s a tune from his duet album with Jamie Hoover.
Listen to my previous interview with Bill’s one-time partner Radney Foster. They put out a reunion album in 2010.
Interview editing by Tyler Hislop of Pixel Box Media.
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