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Billy Ray Reynolds was born in 1943 in Saratoga, Mississippi. When he was 10 years old he found his love of music after his parents drove 50 miles to see a traveling Grand Ole Opry Show. The show consisted of such country superstars as Roy Acuff, Minnie Pearl, and Hank Williams Sr. Later, after his uncle gave him a Martin guitar, Billy Ray realized that he was born to write music. It took years before he was able to sell his first song, but he spent the time living life while learning what country music was all about—life experiences. He was to spend several years on his father's farm before he left to travel south. After he left his father's farm, he worked as a heavy equipment operator. During his time as a heavy equipment operator, he worked on writing songs, and storing up memories he was to later write about. It was after that time period, that he started playing in Honky Tonks. The first band that he joined was The Yankee Dollar. The Yankee Dollar was a folk rock band that only cut one album. After the album he left the band and went on to join other bands. In 1968, he joined up with Waylon Jennings and went on to play live events. He not only played at live events, he also played with Waylon on some of his albums such as Honky Tonk Heroes and Ladies Love Outlaws. During this time, he was also writing songs for other famous artists such as Johnny Cash and Tanya Tucker. In the mid-seventies, he had a couple of hits but still did not receive a record deal. Not letting his lack of a record deal phase him, he kept working on his songs, but then he also added acting. He started getting some small parts in television shows and some movies. In these shows he usually played the bad guy. It was not until 2002 that Billy Ray Reynolds received his first record deal. The independent record label company Compadre signed him to a contract for his songs about the War Between the States. Then, at the age of 59 and not long after his folk album, he released the album Whole Lot of Memories. Although he was never really famous, because he had played so long with Waylon Jennings, even Kris Kristofferson was known to call him "The Forgotten Outlaw."
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