From the Cult to Billy Idol to his new star-studded solo album and Knaggs signature axe, Billy Morrison’s rise to become a rhythm guitar star shows the power of a good right hand — and a whole lotta personality.
BY JOE BOSSO
BRITISH GUITARIST BILLYMorrison estimates that he wasted a good 15 years of his life shooting drugs. I loved the Sex Pistols and Johnny Thunders, and I went down that route,” he says. But most people get the music career first and then blow their money on drugs. I did it backward.
By the mid ’90s, Morrison was facing the end. He weighed 120 pounds and was homeless. He’d been stabbed and no one seemed to care. Even his friends had abandoned him. One night, he found himself crouching behind a garbage can in London, trying to shoot heroin into collapsed veins. That’s when I finally saw the light, he says. I said, ‘I’m done with this. I’m going to get clean and have the career I always wanted in music.’
He had played a bit of guitar in bands as a teenager, but at the age of 29 he decided to get serious. Becoming a virtuoso shredder was the last thing on his mind, but he loved rhythm guitar and set out to make his right hand one of the best around. Listen to AC/DC and tell me Malcolm Young didn’t drive that band,” he says. “Same with the Sex Pistols. It’s all about Steve Jones’ rhythm playing. Those guys are tone merchants. That’s the club I wanted to be in.
Things turned around quickly — until they didn’t. Morrison formed a band called Stimulator and signed a deal with Geffen, but label restructuring put the group’s career on ice. It was a blessing in disguise, he says. If I had success back then, I’d be playing some craphole in the Valley right now for 10 people. His longtime pal Billy Duffy threw him a lifeline with an invitation to play bass for a year-long Cult tour, after which Morrison relocated to Los Angeles.
Naturally gregarious, Morrison had people skills that went a long way. Superstar musicians were drawn to the personable, egoless Brit. He rounded up a group of his new friends — Dave Navarro, drummer Matt Sorum, singer Donovan Leitch and bassist Scott Ford — and formed a rock and roll Rat Pack called Camp Freddy. The general idea was to play covers at low-key gigs and have fun. Soon enough, everybody in town wanted in, and the gigs became anything but discreet.
Among the players who turned up to Camp Freddy jams was Steve Stevens. The two guitarists hit it off, and when Stevens resumed his partnership wi
