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“There was a guy leaning on the wall outside of the Troubadour… we just got to talking and we just hit off… he was a Hanoi Rocks fan and when he introduced himself, he said “My name is Izzy”, and that was Izzy Stradlin’.”
— Billy Rowe of Jetboy on attending a W.A.S.P. show in Hollywood in 1983
SAN FRANCISCO, California — The latest interview from the Waste Some Time with Jason Green show is rock guitarist Billy Rowe.
Rowe is best known as a co-founder of the Bay Area band Jetboy who made their biggest impact in the mid/late 80’s in both their home turf of San Francisco along with the Sunset Strip in Hollywood.
Rowe talks openly about his early years in the 415 playing in bands and hanging around the Punk scene and the Rock scene, which at some point seems to blend for the guitarist and his band-mates, which evolved into them forming Jetboy in 1983.
Rowe has also been a member of Buckcherry for the last half-dozen years and as of this interview the band were about to hit the U.K. for a few week tour with Michael Monroe.
Rowe covers all kinds of subjects, which we will note some bullet points below.
- Growing up in the 415 (San Francisco)
- Meeting Mickey Finn
- The early years of forming Jetboy with Fernie Rod
- Jetboy playing their first show in Hollywood in 1985 with Madam X
- Becoming part of the Hollywood scene and sharing a bill with Guns N’ Roses, L.A. Guns and Faster Pussycat
- Jetboy signing a major label record deal with Elektra Records in November of 1986
- Switching bass players and the eventual unfortunate death of bassist Todd Crew
- Landing former Hanoi Rocks bassist Sam Yaffa to join Jetboy in 1987
- Getting the band’s major label debut shelved by Elektra Records just prior to its release
- A new (second) label comes knocking, when MCA Records picks up the band to release “Feel The Shake” in late 1988
- Starting his own guitar company Rock N’ Roll Relics in 2004
- Joining Buckcherry after the pandemic in 2000
Listen to the full Billy Rowe interview on the Waste Some Time with Jason Green show as shared below.
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