“He Was the Heartbeat”: Remembering NYC Nightlife Pioneer Billy Jones

Last weekend, we lost one of the linchpins of New York’s music and nightlife community, Billy Jones. Jones had an extensive career as a booking agent and artist manager and was the founder of numerous venues that shaped the city’s nightlife, including newer fixtures like Funny Bar and Nightclub 101 and the gem that opened in 2013, Baby’s All Right—a space that birthed the careers of so many prolific artists. Beyond that, he managed and mentored a number of musical talents and even opened up his own record store in East Williamsburg two years ago. But Jones was far more than just a tastemaker. He was a beacon of warmth, a facilitator of community, and a lifeline for so many musicians. To celebrate his life, we asked a number of his friends and collaborators to reflect on his legacy.

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RACHEL BROWN

I met Billy Jones on his 40th birthday. It was the official opening night of The Dance. Surf Curse headlined. We were the opening act. Billy came up to me after the show and sat down next to me. He raved to me about how much he loved our set. He hadn’t heard about us until then but I had known about him for years. His name was synonymous with Baby’s All Right. Back then, playing at Baby’s felt like getting called up to the major leagues. I felt lucky getting to sit next to Billy as he told me his long, winding journey of dreaming up The Dance to seeing it become reality that night on his birthday. I felt lucky every time we spoke. He came up to me once at one of our shows and told me he had been sick in bed with shingles all week but managed to get himself out of bed and all the way to our show just to see us play again.

It didn’t occur to me then how significant everything was, when I was 18 and brand new to New York. I went to Baby’s for the first time and got turned away at the door with my fake ID trying to get into a Porches show. Back then, I would’ve never imagined that I would be friends with Billy, celebrating his birthday for a second time, this time in a touring band signed to a real record label. Had I known then what I know now, I would’ve made sure to thank him for everything he had done, for myself and for everyone he came in contact with. Billy Jones will be remembered as someone who really, truly, deeply, and genuinely believed in the people around him, before they even believed in themselves. He was the life of every room he walked into. He was a living legend. He changed people’s lives and trajectories without even realizing it. I think he just loved music and he loved people, and he was in return loved just as much.

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JACKSON WALKER LEWIS

Billy was one of the most special people I’ve ever met. Our lives were inextricably linked the moment I moved to New York when I took a job as the talent buyer at Piano’s, the same position he had gloriously held years prior. I remember calling my mom and telling her, “I got a job—it’s the job Billy Jones used to have!” as if to show her the potential through the trail he paved. That was the level of his almost mythical stature in New York. Soon we’d meet, become friendly, and he’d book not only the first, but the first three Fcukers shows. Billy will be remembered for his many towering accomplishments, which cement his legacy as the true architect of modern nightlife in New York. But what I will cherish the most about Billy was his almost preternatural ability to make everyone around him feel special. He saw the potential in everyone, could find the strands that connected us, and brought us all together in a way that we all sorely need in this day and age. He instilled belief in people. He inspired people. He made you feel as though with him, anything was possible. He made you feel warm. I hate to use a sports metaphor here, but when Billy was on the court, everyone played better. His mark on my life and New York is simply indelible, and I’m forever indebted to him, as so many of us are.

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DAN ENGLISH

Billy championed and supported my music long before anybody had any business doing so. He introduced me to so many of my favorite songs and bands which in turn shaped who I am as an artist; effortlessly understanding what excited me about art and life with no ounce of judgement— just love and pure excitement about music and people. I honestly can’t say I ever saw him without a beaming grin slathered across his angel face. I’ll do everything I can to carry his love with me and spread it for the rest of my life. I love you so much, BJ.

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KAREEM RAHMA

Billy was magic. He was that rare kind of New Yorker who could make this big city feel like a small town. When I mentioned I’d started a band and had never performed live, he offered up Baby’s like it was no big deal. When I told him I was having a kid, he gave me a record called Disney’s Children’s Favorites on the house because he wanted to be the first to give her the gift of music. God only knows why he even had that record in the shop. He made everyone in his orbit feel important and loved. I only had the privilege of knowing him for three short years, but his impact on me was profound, and I’ll remember him forever.

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QUINN MORELAND

I most likely met Billy at Baby’s All Right, but the first memory I have of him is at Elvis Guesthouse, sometime around 2015/2016, smiling and welcoming, as always. He’d soon take one of my dear friends under his wing and we’d see each other often, sometimes in the daytime, which always felt extra special. I was so impressed that Billy could be the life of the party while sober, which couldn’t have always been easy, but he made it look like it was no big deal (very inspiring). Together, we booked a handful of Pitchfork parties at Baby’s and The Dance (my favorite Billy Jones endeavor) and he was always game to turn a dream into reality. I think at one point he had a grand plan to get Sade to perform at one of the venues. If anyone could have pulled that off, it would have been Billy. Post-pandemic, Billy was instrumental in supporting the Save Our Stages Act, which supplied struggling venues with grants (there are some great photos of him, Chuck Schumer, and James Murphy). After I interviewed him in 2021, before Baby’s reopened, I remember hanging up the phone and thinking about how nice it would be to see Billy in person again—he always gave the best hugs. I feel so lucky to have received so many of them over the years.

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FROST CHILDREN

One of the first Frost shows at Baby’s ever, where Billy let us “headline” after a show got cancelled. From that point on, he was always down to collab on any schemes or ideas we had in the space. He was able to link people across multiple scenes and make a space that truly felt like home for so many people. – Angel Prost

Billy helped Frost Children in our first couple years and continuously even up to the present, he not only gave us a proper stage but also time and time again treated us with the most kindness and love and respect, more than anyone in New York. – Lulu Prost

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JEREMY LARSON

In his record store, Billy had a credo: No reissues. Original pressings or bust. OK, maybe he’d have a few ’70s reissues of mid-century Blue Note records or some grail of a repress in the bins. But he was pretty steadfast about this. I don’t think he was a pretentious audiophile who cared deeply about matrix runnouts or noise floors or sound stages—the surprisingly good horn speakers in the store, he said, were found on the side of the road. Billy just wanted the definite article, the essence, the source, because that’s where the heart of it was. That’s where the person was. You could feel that in the store, like a cold spring coming up through the concrete.

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NATALIE MIANO

Billy profoundly changed the course of my life. His pure love and gratitude for music and commitment to fostering community are values I’ll continue to carry with me forever.

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TYLER BAINBRIDGE

Billy welcomed me into the scene with open arms. Without his encouragement and “we can make it happen” attitude, I don’t think Perfectly Imperfect would have thrown any shows at all. Billy and I threw early shows for Snow Strippers, Fcukers, Frost Children, 2Hollis, Bassvictim, Blaketheman1000, Isabella Lovestory, The Hellp, and countless others. As well as three back-to-back Baby’s x Perfectly Imperfect NYC Beat showcases at SXSW, with one dedicated to raising money for the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund. No matter how stressful, chaotic, or complicated these shows got, he gave you the sense that it was going to work out just fine. He was also a hell of a bowler and played on the Perfectly Imperfect team during a tournament thrown by Nolita Dirtbag. He had everyone laughing the entire night and wore perfect blue jeans. In the following years we became good friends and often got together to scheme up some big ideas. A true mentor figure for me. I heard that he had cancer last Summer and saw him a bit less often after that. The last time I saw him was at our SXSW event in March and it was the first time I’d seen him in months. He came right up to me and gave me a big hug. One that felt different than usual. The kind of hug that sticks with you forever.

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JAKE LAZOVICK

Billy was the most alive person I’ve ever met. A man who had too many good ideas in one day. He would hang out in the green room with you when your band played at his venues. He treated entire shifts at the record shop like a 7-hour long DJ set and he would say: “Don’t you just wish you could listen to every song at the same time?” Billy had the rare gift of feeling comfortable walking into any room and not changing who he was. He spent his life walking into rooms we all might have been intimidated by and then leaving the door open behind him. It seemed like every business he started boils down to: What’s the best way to hang out? What’s the best way to hang out at a bar? What’s the best way to hang out at a music venue? What’s the best way to hang out at a record store?

Billy’s Record Salon had been a dream of his for a long time. He started collecting records in 2018 with the idea of opening a shop. In early 2023 he was on his way to lunch at Baby Blues Luncheonette and saw the empty storefront at 133 Manhattan Ave. A couple months later the shop was open. He taught me to lead with passion over practicality and just figure it out once you need to. He lead with chaos and in some mad way everything always worked out. I showed up on the second day the shop was open. After an hour of digging through cardboard boxes full of records and feeling the buzz of all the people in the store, I decided I never wanted to leave. I told Billy I’d be back next weekend to begin working at the shop. Billy said he’d pay me in records, probably assuming the whole thing was a joke. I showed up the next weekend right at 9am. I don’t think Billy thought I would stick around until closing time, or for the next two years. At the end of my shift Billy handed me MC5’s “Kick Out The Jams” and a Wah-Wah guitar pedal. This was my pay for the day. Over the following weeks & months the shop took shape. Records got filed into genres, we got a computer, set up a living room in the center of the shop with a chess set & horoscope books. How he sourced so many good records is one thing, but how he would play you some dollar bin vibraphone record from the 1980s & make you feel like it was worth a million bucks was his magic. After Billy got sick I tried my best to keep his dream afloat, but he was the heartbeat of the store. I said to him at the hospital the last time I saw him, “I didn’t want to work at a record store, I wanted to work for Billy Jones.” Rest easy my friend, I will keep your spirit in everything I do.

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NEW YORK

Billy was our music manager for two-and-a-half years. He gave us our first few shows in NYC at Baby’s and took us under his wings from the first time we met. He really helped shape the way we see our music and always had ideas on how to do things unconventionally, and with surprise. He helped facilitate some of our best ideas and performances without hesitation on how to make things happen, sometimes in a day. He was a mentor and a guide to New York City music history, helping us map the scenes, parties and genres that emerged here. We called Billy “a real New York guy” to all our friends in London. This is to mean he knew everybody, and was friends with everybody. Billy had such a big heart, and brought everyone in to make them feel part of something. We’ve never met anyone so dedicated to music, and with such breadth of knowledge and generosity that with every conversation, you would learn something. The last time we saw Billy we went out for pastrami sandwiches, matzo ball soup and filter coffee. The most New York thing ever. Billy was so kind and full of play, its inspiring. We love him and thank him.

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