Billy Morrison

Infobox musical artist


Caption=Billy Morrison at Hollywood Life Magazine’s 7th Annual Breakthrough Awards
Name = Billy Morrison
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Background = non_vocal_instrumentalist
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Born = February 9
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Origin = United Kingdom
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Voice_type = Rock
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Years_active = 1986-present
Label = Geffen Records (1998-2001)
Koch Records (2007-present)
Associated_acts = Stimulator (1998-2001)
The Cult (2001-2002)
Camp Freddy (2002-present)
Circus Diablo (2005-present)
URL = http://www.billymorrison.net
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Billy Morrison is a guitarist and singer who has played in rock bands Stimulator and The Cult, and is a member of the cover band Camp Freddy and the front man of new band Circus Diablo.

Biography

Morrison was born in the UK and is an only child. He was a member of the Indie rock band, Into a Circle, that featured ex-Southern Death Cult bass player Barry Jepson and ex-Dance Society keyboard player, Bee. His consistent abuse of drugs led to a long period of inactivity until he cleaned up and formed Stimulator in 1998.

Stimulator signed to Geffen Records in Los Angeles and spent a couple of years touring and making an album that was never released. Morrison moved to the US in 2001 and joined rock band The Cult as bassist. The band toured for over a year, and visited the UK and Japan, as well as enjoying an extensive US touring schedule playing arenas with Aerosmith.

During the following period of inactivity for The Cult, Morrison joined forces with Pitchshifter front man J.S. Clayden and formed Doheny. He also joined forces with Dave Navarro, Matt Sorum and Donovan Leitch to form cover band Camp Freddy.

In 2006, he continued to play guitar in Camp Freddy and also started another project, as lead vocalist and guitarist in Circus Diablo, with fellow Cult guitarist Billy Duffy and ex-Fuel frontman Brett Scallions, in bass guitar. The line-up was completed by former The Almighty frontman, Ricky Warwick and Slunt drummer Charles Ruggiero. The band subsequently added former Korn guitarist, Rob Patterson and session player Patrick Cornell to their line up. The album was released in July 2007 and the first single, "Loaded", reached number 29 on the Active Rock Chart. The video for the song was nº1 most viewed music video on YouTube with over 500,000 hits.

Morrison began acting in 2005 and delivered his first on-screen role in the independent movie Tripping Forward as drug dealer Sweaty Steve. Since then, he has made two more independent films Evilution and Basement Jack and has other movies lined up for 2008. He has also hosted a radio show on the Los Angeles station, Indie 103.1 for three years (with Dave Navarro and Donovan Leitch) and continues to write music for television and film.

Footnotes

External links

* [http://www.billymorrison.net/ Official Site]
* [http://www.campfreddy.net/ Camp Freddy Site]
* [http://www.circusdiablo.com/ Circus Diablo Site]
* [http://www.modernguitars.com/archives/000122.html 2004 Interview on "Modern Guitars"]
* [http://www.modernguitars.com/morrison/ Sunset & Vine, Morrison's column on "Modern Guitars"]
*imdb name|id=1835774|name=Billy Morrison
* [http://bandweblogs.com/blog/2007/10/19/billy-morrison-interview/ Interview on "Band Weblogs"]