- Billy Lee Riley Trivia: Born on October 5, 1933 in Pocahontas, Arkansas to sharecroppers during the Depression, the part-Cherokee Riley began picking cotton at the age of six, imbibing the blues music first-hand as he worked.
- Billy Lee Riley Trivia: After a four-year Army enlistment, Riley came home and formed a country and gospel band alternately known as the Arkansas Valley Ranch Boys and the KBTM Ranch Boys.
- Billy Lee Riley Trivia: Billy was only associated with Sam Phillips' Sun Records for three years, 1956-59.
- Billy Lee Riley Trivia: His backing band (also the main Sun Studio backing band) was "The Little Green Men". They were Riley, Roland Janes, J.M. Van Eaton, Marvin Pepper, and Jimmy Wilson, later joined by Martin Willis.
- Billy Lee Riley Trivia: Jerry Lee Lewis played on Riley's "Flying Saucer Rock 'n' Roll" and "Pearly Lee" before concentrating full time on his own career.
- Billy Lee Riley Trivia: Alan Freed assured BLR that "Red Hot" would be a top-five record, but Sam Phillips, after Jerry Lee Lewis recorded "Great Balls of Fire", canceled pressing orders for Billy's record in favor of Lewis's.
- Billy Lee Riley Trivia: After he left Sun Records, as a session musician, he played guitar on Herb Alpert's first A&M hit "The Lonely Bull".
- Billy Lee Riley Trivia: He sold the masters of his 1962 instrumental "Shimmy Shimmy Walk" to Chess Records who used them as backing tracks for their Surfin' with Bo Diddley album.
- Billy Lee Riley Trivia: He was inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame in 1996.
- Billy Lee Riley Trivia: Billy Lee Riley died from cancer at age 75 on August 2, 2009 in Jonesboro, Arkansas.
- Billy Lee Riley Trivia: Fan Bob Dylan said: "He was a true original. He did it all: played, sang, & wrote. He would have been a bigger star, but Jerry Lee came along. And you know what happens when someone like that comes along. You just don't stand a chance
