- Birth name: Billy Ashbaugh
- Born: February 25, 1964 Fredrick, MA USA
- Genres: Pop, rock
- Occupation: Musician
- Instruments: Drums
- Labels: Artista
- Associated Acts: *NSYNCH, Britney Spears, Jordan Knight, Samantha Mumba, Aaron Carter.
- Influences: Rod Morgenstein, Terry Bozzio, Dave Weckl, Dennis Chambers.
- On the Web: Facebook
Billy stated playing drums at the age of 5 and was playing professionally by the age of 18. At age 23, he moved to Ft. Lauderdale, FL. After taking lessons from Ronnie Ciago, Billy became an instructor himself. During this time, his reputation grew with local bands, in particular, the group House Gigs.
In 1992, he was hired to play drums for Arista recording artist Snap. In addition to touring for the next two and a half years, Billy also recorded two solo funk-rock albums for Turbo B (lead singer/rapper for Snap).
In 1997 former Snap manager, Johnny Wright, asked Billy to play drums for a new group he was managing called NSYNC. In the summer of 1999, he met Neil Giraldo, guitarist / producer / songwriter for Pat Benatar. In February of 2000 he recorded 8 tracks for her new album.
Later that year, Bob Gatzen and Billy came up with a new concept for Gatzen’s next video in his Inspiring Drummers series and the was released by Warner Bros. along with an In Session play along CD for drums, featuring music from NSYNC’s HBO Live Concert Special.
In addition to promoting his video and play-along CD, Billy is also involved with a Drum-Loop CD project, as well as recording more tracks for Pat Benatar, and continuing to tour with *NSYNC.
In addition, Billy has backed artists such as Britney Spears, Jordan Knight, Samantha Mumba, and recorded tracks for Jive Record’s new artist, Aaron Carter, brother of Nick Carter from the Backstreet Boys.
Tiger Bill’s Personal Recollections:
I first met Billy backstage when he was performing at Modern Drummer Festival 2002. Billy’s wife, Jenie, was there too and when I found out she was a drummer too, I decided to interview the both of them together. It was was a fun interview and anyone could see how serious they both were about their drumming. Click here to read a text of that interview.
