Shor’ty Billups was discovered and recruited to play piano by fellow teenager tand future R&B legend Ruth Brown. Today, Brown and most of her peers from the early days of Soul and R&B are gone, but 90something Billups can still be found on local bandstands several times a month. After barnstorming the chitlin’ circuit as a young man, Billups did a military stint and attended college before returning to the music scene. Switching to drums, he backed the likes of Screaming Jay Hawkins, Bill Doggett, Jackie Wilson, Freddie Scott, Rufus and Carla Thomas, and Wilson Pickett. He also cut a number of highly prized 45’s, both under his own name and as Eddie Billups.