Billy was jumped by five kids and robbed of a pizza when he was 9 or 10. His mother smoked a Salem while their blind dog Pandy watched. He says that moment taught him the street smarts that later kept him alive in the music business.
When we moved to the city, I remember I couldn't have been at this point. Maybe we had been there for a little bit. I was maybe 9 or 10 and my mom sent me to pick up a pizza two blocks from our house in a nice neighborhood, I mean pretty nice inner city neighborhood. And I picked up the pizza. Like I said, I'm about 9 or 10. And on the way back, five kids jumped me the two blocks and beat me and kicked me and took the pizza off me. And I just remember really not understanding why a bunch of kids would jump like a. And even then I was like nine, nine years old. I mean, I was fine. I was like skin my knees and. But I was really. It was like, okay, this is a new reality in a sense.
You had to grow up quick.
Well, I think I had to grow a different understanding of the rules. The rules outside of the city were, you know, little league kind of rules. And the rules inside the city were, you have to be aware on a different level.
Street smart.
Yeah. And I didn't. I mean I was. I mean, no nine year old should have street smarts, but I had to, I had to learn and I learned quickly.
What did your mom say when he came home without the pizza?
Well, the punchline of this is my mom, I remember her, she was standing on the stoop and we had a dog, a collie, black and white collie, who's like really old and blind. And my mom was clearly nervous about what to say because we had just moved to the city and we hadn't been there long. And I remember she was smoking a Salem cigarette and she's got Pandy, the dog on a leash. And she said, don't worry, come inside, Pandy will get him. Pandy's like half dead. Pandy could barely walk up four stairs. And I remember her saying that. And I remember at the time just being defeated and deflated. When you sort of circle back to those milestone moments as a kid that anchor you in that, you know, where those therapeutic nerve endings really sit. The hub of them. That was one in particular. It was a very. But I don't look back at it and think, you know, poor. I think look back and think, poor little Billy, me. But I don't look back at it and think anything other than that. I'm glad that it prepared me because not because I think the whole world's out to get you, but more the awareness level that I had from that experience.
Do you see it as an advantage?
Yeah, I think. Listen, I survived the music business I don't know if I would survive the music business and have been so successful, frankly, if I didn't have a sort of baked in awareness that street smarts can give you.
