Money’s Too Tight (To Mention) made him a star, but his success faltered and he went behind the scenes. He explains why Black Lives Matter helped galvanise him again
In the years that followed Billy Valentine’s first brush with fame – when he and his brother John scored a breakthrough with their Reagan-era protest song Money’s Too Tight (To Mention) – the veteran singer made peace with life away from the spotlight. “There were periods when ‘Billy Valentine’ wasn’t needed,” the 73-year-old humbly reflects today, via video call from his home in Los Angeles. “It just wasn’t my time.”
But that all changed in 2020, as the pandemic took hold and the US was engulfed by chaos. “On television, I saw George Floyd being killed, I saw Black Lives Matter protesters in the streets, I saw President Trump holding a vigil in front of a church,” Valentine remembers, reciting the events like scenes from a fever dream. “Nothing made sense.” He takes a breath. “I felt truly scared.” But this dire confluence was also a “perfect storm” that shaped and guided his remarkable comeback album, Billy Valentine and the Universal Truth, and renewed his sense of purpose. “I finally had something to say,” he says. “I’m a messenger. That’s my calling.”
