After success in both the country and pop fields, and hits that stretch from the 60's to the 90's, its obvious that Billy Joe Royal is doing something right.

More than 25 years since "Down In The Boondocks" put Billy Joe Royal on the map, his distinctive tenor voice is still thrilling radio listeners and concert-goers; his tours still display the timelessness of high-powered showmanship, and his staying power remains a testimony to what happens when hard work and resilience are combined with natural talent.

In the face of stylistic evolutions that have changed both pop and country music several times, Billy Joe Royal has remained true to the style that first excited both him and his fans--a combination of influences ranging from hometown country shows and black gospel, to Motown and the rest of the 60's pop explosion--delivered with flair and sincerity. It was that rich musical heritage he carried from the clubs to the stages of Las Vegas, to fairs and festivals, to concert venues all over the country and it's what he still serves up like the master showman he as.

It's a sound that's been in the making all his life. Billy Joe Royal was appearing on his uncle's radio show in his native Valdosta, Georgia at the age of eleven. By fourteen, he was a regular on the Georgia Jubilee with the likes of Ray Stevens, Jerry Reed, Joe South. Freddy Weller and regular guest stars from the Grand Ole Opry. Then came the period he still credits with giving him much of his vocal mastery and his stage flair-club work in Savannah with some of R&B's hottest artists.

'When you're young and your voice is just developing." he says,"if you sing five hours & night. six nights a week, you're going to improve. We'd book in these big names like the Isley Brothers and Sam Cooke, and I got the chance to know these people and watch them. When somebody did something I thought was really cool, I had all this time on stage to work on it. You know, if they had a spin or a vocal inflection. I'd just practice it until I got it right. I'd take whatever I liked, whatever worked, and I just stored everything.

Billy Joe and Joe South were roonmates then, cutting demo singles which they mailed to Motown in the hopes of landing a record deal. Then came "Boondocks" which South had written, and which made Billy Joe Royal a hot national commodity. He joined "Dick Clark's cavalcade of Stars" & grueling three-month string of one-nighters featuring 18 acts, including occasional likes of Tom Jones. Neil Diamond and the Shirelles,all backed by the same band.

"It was a death march," he says with a laugh. "In fact, there were only about tour or five of us who made it the whole way. There was one bus and if there were 35 seats, there ware 35 people on it. Plus, the money wasn't that good. Of course, we were young then, and we could take it."

With this national exposure. a succession of hit records like, "I Knew You When", "Hush", "I've Got To Be Somebody' and 'Cherry Hill Park", followed. For most of the next decade. Billy Joe appeared in the major showrooms around the country including those in Las Vegas and Reno.

Billy Joe went to Nashville in his pickup truck and searched until be found "Burned Like A Rocket", which he released on Lowery's Southern Tracks label. It had only modest regional success, but it landed Billy Joe another record deal. A re-released "Rocket" hit the Top Ten. Billy Joe knocked them dead at the 1986 Country Radio Seminar's New Faces Show, and a new audience discovered a great artist.

The hits followed with "I Miss You Already","Old Bridges Burn Slow". "Out of Sight And On My Mind",(which became the most requested video in CMT's history),"T'il I Can't Take It Anymore" ,"Love Has No Right", and a classic."TelI It Like It Is."

Through them all, the drawing card has been a voice that is instantly recognizable but still fresh because of the maturity the years have brought to it. Billy Joe Royal can bring just the tight touch of pain to songs about love gone wrong, and of believable passion to those about love gone right, with a style that reflects a natural's feel for widely divergent genres.

"I know exactly what George Jones feels," he says. "But I know exactly what Ray Charles feels, too."

A man whose musical background covers a wide territory. Billy Joe Royal remains a master at bringing the best of it together into an unbeatable package.