 Billy Don Burns was born in the community of 56 in Stone County, Arkansas. Family friend, songwriter Jimmie Driftwood ("Battle of New Orleans," "Tennessee Stud") was Billy Don's mother's schoolteacher, and inspired the naturally-talented youngster to pursue a singing career. While serving in the US Army, Billy Don won a talent competition (his trophy was presented to him by fellow serviceman--My Three Sons TV star--Don Grady). Billy Don left the Army in 1970 and moved to California, where he bought a new guitar and began performing in clubs. In 1972, Wanda Jackson's steel guitar player, Lynn Owsley, endorsed Billy Don so that he could move into a musician's boarding house in Nashville. By 1973, he was portraying Hank Williams at the Opryland USA theme park, and soon had his songs cut by the likes of country legends Connie Smith and Mel Tillis. In 1975, he formed the Travis Brothers with Jimmy Getzen, and recorded a gospel album. He was also performing around various Nashville clubs, opening for acts such as Boots Randolph and Ronnie Prophet. Billy Don toured North America throughout the early part of the decade & then-Arkansas governor Bill Clinton proclaimed March 27th, 1983,Billy Don Burns Day. In the early 1980s, he was engaged for a time to singer
Lorrie Morgan. In 1984, the pair recorded a great duet entitled,
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 "New Commitments," which they performed on The Nashville Network. By 1990 things were becoming decidedly darker for Billy Don, both professionally and personally. Still, Billy Don continued recording, touring and working with other artists on various projects. In 1987, he produced a gospel album for Johnny Paycheck and later recorded a live album for the
"Take This Job and Shove It" singer, who was an inmate at
the Chillicothe Correctional Institution in Ohio. Due to legal entanglements, both albums remain unreleased to this day. By the mid-'90s, conditions were improving for Billy Don as artists including Willie Nelson and Sammy Kershaw began recording his songs. In 1995, his debut album Long Lost Highway was a critical, if not commercial, success. And in 1996, Billy Don and his frequent co-writer Hank Cochran topped the Americana music chart with the brilliant Desperate Men, which unseated Johnny Cash's Unchained from the No. 1 spot in 1997. Although at the time (to the chagrin of promoters and fellow musicians alike), Billy Don tried--unsuccessfully--to prevent his own album from overtaking that of his hero's. The Man in Black graciously faxed him a handwritten note to congratulate him on the achievement. In 2002, Billy Don Burns released the critically-acclaimed Train Called Lonesome, featuring musical support from the Reno Brothers (Don & Dale) & longtime musical associate Jeff Williams, plus backing vocals by John Carter Cash. The lead-off track on the 2005 project Heroes, Friends and Other Troubled Souls is the revved-up rocker "Mississippi," co-written by Billy Don with Hank Cochran and featuring guest vocalist Tanya Tucker. Though his heroes and friends are ever-present with him on record, it is perhaps the other troubled souls to whom his songs will always mean the most; those whose lives are lived out of the spotlight and in the shadow of some dark, desperate secret. In those shadows, Billy Don's music is a shining light. Illuminating reality, while ultimately offering hope.....a voice....and a way out of the darkness.
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