Billy: Neither of my parents were musicians nor were they in the music business or show business in general. However, both had a love of music and could carry a tune (on rare occasion they would sing a song [just for fun] and I could hear that they were in pitch). On my fathers’ side, his sister, Martha, sang in her church choir (as a mature woman). There was a paternal male relative in Germany (where the Hinsche family originates) who was involved in the music publishing end of the business, though I never knew him.

My father got me and my sister, Annie, interested in music at a very early age. We were both taught piano by a private instructor at our home in Manila, in the Philippines. I was 3 and Annie was 5 when we started these piano lessons. My dad was way ahead of his time --- he recorded us too! I have both reel-to-reel audiotapes and 78 rpm records of us singing and playing piano, individually. Mostly nursery rhymes. Annie and I subsequently continued private piano instruction at our home in Beverly Hills by a series of tutors, and when I became infatuated with the violin I took lessons at school (Beverly Hills Catholic/Good Shepherd) being instructed by one of the nuns (Sisters of the Holy Cross).

Calsaga: I know you play both keyboards and guitar. Are there any other instruments you play? What instrument do you prefer to play?

Billy: Learned violin at age 7 (purely my own decision and desire), ukulele at age 9 (during a family vacation in Honolulu, Hawaii, I took private lessons from a beautiful young Hawaiian girl. No doubt, this gave me the basic understanding [of strumming and the formation of simple chords] I needed when I decided to learn how to play the guitar), harmonica at age 12 (self-taught). Picking between piano and guitar is like a “Sophie’s Choice” situation. Though piano is my first instrument, I love them both equally; however, I favor the guitar “onstage”, ‘cause I am not anchored to anything like I am playing the piano. In my case, since the acoustic piano was the basis for my understanding of all keyboards, naturally I can also play electric piano, organ, synthesizer, etc. In short, I can play anything with a keyboard; this would also include xylophone/vibraphone (technically considered percussion instruments), since they are merely a truncated (shorter scale), enlarged keyboard-like palette that is struck with mallets/hammers as opposed to fingers. It's basically the same concept. I have always wanted to master the drums, but I just don't have the wherewithal or stamina to sustain a steady, prolonged beat.

Billy: I taught my best friend, Dino Martin, how to play a few guitar chords in the mid-sixties, when being in a rock ‘n’ roll band is what every kid dreamed about. We did simple two-part harmony songs like the ones Chad & Jeremy and Peter & Gordon used to do. Did some Beatles songs also. This was all just for fun, really.

Desi and his sister, Lucie Arnaz, enrolled in our grammar school. Lucie was our classmate; Desi was a few years younger. Dino and I heard Desi play drums during a classroom presentation and decided to ask him to join our duo, making us a trio. It’s as simple as that. Once again, just for fun.

We first began rehearsing at Desi’s mother’s (Lucille Ball) house in the playroom, which was separate from the main house. Then, we moved our rehearsals to Dino’s family den which was also the poolroom / projection room. It was a larger space [than at Desi’s] and had a small built-in “riser,” giving us more of a feeling that we were onstage.

Billy: Met the Beach Boys (except for Brian, who played the show with the group the next night) on the day of soundcheck at the Hollywood Bowl, on July 2, 1965. Since Dino, Desi & Billy had a current, huge hit single climbing the local and national charts (“I’m a Fool”), we were hired to perform this show, along with many other local (and not so local [Kinks]) acts like Sonny & Cher, the Righteous Brothers, the Byrds, and the Sir Douglas Quintet. Based on our successful reception [by the audience] at this “Summer Spectacular” the Beach Boys immediately included us in three more shows which took us “on the road” for the first time --- Bakersfield, Fresno, and Honolulu, Hawaii (Oahu). We shared the “bill” with opening act, Barbara “Baby, I’m Yours” Lewis. DD&B would always join the BBs onstage for the encore number of “Johnny B. Goode.”

I “sat in” with the Beach Boys on a regular “special guest” basis as early as 1966 or thereabouts. I would travel with Carl on the road, just to hang out and have some fun. Since I was already there, I was invited to play along on a few songs, which eventually grew to incorporate me on a more permanent basis. One of my earliest recollections of one such situation was somewhere in the Midwest with the Spiral Staircase as the opening act; another early memory was with the Buffalo Springfield as the openers, and yet another tour with the Box Tops. My role expanded greatly when Daryl Dragon left the group along with his then-girfriend, Toni Tenille. In essence, I replaced Toni and Daryl, covering the majority of the keyboard (piano / organ) parts. I also inherited Bruce’s falsetto parts, since he was long gone by this time.

The very first (and still the most precious to me) gold record I ever received for work done on a musical project was for the Beach Boys’ [1973] “In Concert” recording. I was offered a “full membership” in the group (to replace Bruce) in 1969, but had to decline much to my dismay, because my folks wanted me to finish my higher education. I “officially” joined the Beach Boys and was put on retainer in 1974, after I graduated from UCLA’s Motion Picture / Television Division.

Billy: Re: My ”First Impressions” ---

Calsaga: This year you and Jeff Foskett also performed in Germany and the UK. What were these performances like; a mixture of your songs and Jeff's, Beach Boys songs, were these acoustic performances, etc?

Billy: Unlike the NZ shows (we played eleven different venues while we were there), Jeff and I did an unplugged, acoustic show. It wasn’t “unplugged” in the literal sense, since Jeff played an electric guitar (that had to be “plugged in” to an amp) and I played an electric piano along with an acoustic guitar (both having to be plugged in “directly” into the sound system to be heard).

In Germany, the show began with both of us onstage doing a song which we both could sing and that was familiar to the audience. We chose “Kokomo.” Jeff on guitar, me on piano. Unlike what we are both accustomed to, we were both sitting down in chairs for this segment. After this introductory song, I did about five original compositions written over many, many years, telling our good German audience a little bit about each song before I began. The response from the crowd after each song was absolutely unbelievable. They would not stop clapping! I don’t think I have ever performed for such an enthusiastic audience in my life!

The same held true during Jeff’s abbreviated set that began with “Guess I’m Dumb” which, of course, was written by Brian Wilson and recorded by Glen Campbell. Jeff thought it would be cool to start his segment with a rarity. He fielded requests from the uninhibited crowd and after each song was played he was rewarded with thunderous and sincere applause.

Then I joined Jeff onstage for more Beach Boy related song requests, many of which were quite obscure and seldom played by anyone. We asked the audience to try and “stump the band” which doesn’t translate very well into a German way of thinking since, we were told prior to the show, that Germans are far too polite to do something as rude as this!

The UK show in Chingford, East London, was our very last appearance of our four-week tour and brought to an end what Jeff and I had been calling our “Abundance Tour.” It wasn’t that we made a lot of money, ‘cause we didn’t; but we had more than enough of everything along the way --- good weather, good food, good hotels, good crowds, good humor, and most of all, a really good time.

This show differed slightly from the Germany show insofar as it began with the playing (on loudspeakers) of a brand new song that I had written and recorded with Desi called “Under a Beach Boy Moon.” After the song’s conclusion, we walked to the front of the hall and began by my saying how flattered and fortunate we both felt that so many people had come to see us perform. Jeff sat onstage while I was at ground level playing a very nice baby grand piano that was a permanent resident of the hall. After banging out a few originals (“Lady Love,” “Let’s Build a World,” “This Old Town,” and “Under a Beach Boy Moon,”) I turned the show over to Jeff who proceeded to regale the crowd with a few originals of his own as well as playing some of the requests being hurled at him from some of the attendees. I was now onstage with him and accompanied him (on a small keyboard) during some of the songs I was familiar with such as “Know One Knows But You,” one of my personal favorites of his.

We had promised (in the pre-show ads) that we would conduct a music symposium of sorts and teach everyone the proper vocal and piano parts to some popular Beach Boys songs. We invited those who cared to, to come onstage with us to sing and play. There was a bit of a mad dash to the stage on the part of those willing to participate in this segment of the show. After Jeff dissected and explained the individual vocal parts we all sang “Surfer Girl,” “Don’t Worry Baby,” “Sail On Sailor,” and a few more. There were a few gents who strapped on acoustic guitars and strummed along too. This portion of the show proved to be a smashing big hit with everyone. Then we took a thirty-minute intermission so that everyone (especially me!) could use the washroom, etc., prior to the second half of our show.

We began the next half of the show with a brief question and answer session before I did a reading of one of the chapters from my upcoming book, “I Got Around” (Volume 1). I knew that the story contained some volatile material so I cautioned the audience that there would be “adult content” in the reading and that they should now consider themselves fairly forewarned --- not a single person left the auditorium. I also asked for a degree of confidentiality regarding this reading and I pointed out that by revealing the details and "twist ending" of the story to those people or friends not in the audience, it would be akin to giving away the plot to a movie that your friend had yet to see; further adding that it would lose a lot in the verbal translation and it just wouldn't be the same or capture exactly what I had written or intended. This request was met with applause, which I interpreted to mean that everyone respected my gentle admonition. The reading went a lot longer than I had anticipated and lasted an entire hour, probably because I took my time and articulated every word so that the meaning of each sentence, paragraph, and story in general was not lost.

The chapter title was “From Maharishi to Manson” and it’s about some of the experiences I had with both of them (within a 24 hour period of time) as seen through the eyes of a slightly insecure and awkward seventeen year old kid (me) who was just trying to fit into the very adult world I encountered, with particular emphasis on my relationship with Denny.

Jeff had brought along some very rare items which he offered to auction for the benefit of the Carl Wilson Foundation: an autographed (by Brian) itinerary from his recent tour of Japan with a laminated pass included, an autographed (by Brian) handwritten music chart of “California Feeling,” and a few other items. Jeff surprised me by producing a plain, yellow, paper restaurant napkin on which I had drawn a “blueprint” of Brian’s Laurel Way house, which is where “Pet Sounds” was created and in which his sandbox was located as well as his tent. I had drawn it for him while we were bored and waiting for our waitress to bring us the food we had ordered while dining at an Indian restaurant in a small town just outside of Auckland, NZ. To my amazement, British researcher and author, Kingsley Abbott, bought it for about 45 English pounds, or the equivalent of roughly $70 US dollars! One of the Beach Boys Britain administrators, Andrew G. Doe, literally passed his big, black hat around for a spontaneous collection of money. The Brits were very generous and raised almost a thousand dollars for the CWF during this jolly good auction.

Calsaga: You are also in "Al Jardine's Good Vibrations Beach Band." I guess the biggest question would have to be, "Will we see more touring in the near future?" Also, are there any plans for a studio album?

Billy: The group is now officially called “Al Jardine’s All Star Beach Band” and will be doing a number of shows this summer, debuting on Saturday, June 22, at a private party in Sebastopol, CA, and a public show at the New York State Fair in Syracuse, on Saturday, August 24; this configuration will also incorporate band members (and songs) from both the Surfaris and the Ripchords. There aren’t any plans for a studio album that I am aware of.

Calsaga: I've heard you have been involved with some recent recording with Al Jardine. Can you tell us about these projects?

Calsaga: You are also a member of David Marks' Beach Party! band. How did this group come about?

Billy: A few years ago, I got a call from David completely “out of the blue.” Simply put, he asked me if I would be interested in playing in a band with him along with some of the other guys that had worked with the Beach Boys over the years. Though I had briefly met David a few times over the years when he "sat in" with the Beach Boys, I really didn't know him. In spite of this I accepted his offer and was quite flattered and honored that he thought enough of me to include me in his group. Since then, we have done a bunch of shows all over the country and I now consider David to be a good friend.

14. You are very involved with the Carl Wilson Foundation. Can you share any details about this year's events?

Billy: This year’s event is going to be incredible, with a few new elements thrown into the usual mix. For instance, the Walk and Beach Party will be incorporated into Saturday’s schedule (October 5) and will be held at the same location as last year; i.e. at the Santa Monica Palisades and Santa Monica Beach, respectively. We’re trying to decide whether or not to secure a covered “safe space” such as Rusty’s Surf Ranch in the event of rain, which is always a possibility and concern for us.

Calsaga: In conclusion, is there anything you would like to discuss?

Billy: I recorded my very first solo CD on the day that I arrived in New Zealand. It is a live, “unplugged” recording of songs I have written over many years, including tunes that have been recorded by Dino, Desi & Billy, Nelson Riddle, Dean Martin, and Carl Wilson. I also included a song, "Patria," that was recently submitted for possible nomination for a television Emmy Award. I explain the circumstances surrounding the writing of each song in an anecdotal way.