National Alliance on Mental Illness
During the time that Billy spent homeless on the streets of 5th Ward in Houston, TX after a failed recording contract, he battled and overcame crippling depression and suicidal ideation. While homeless, he witnessed firsthand that many of the people on the streets with him were dealing with either undiagnosed or untreated forms of mental illness.
Once Billy became established in the music industry, he sought to bring visibility to the stigma associated with mental illness, and leveraged his platform for the cause, writing and producing an album, entitled Ending the Silence (named after a program the National Alliance on Mental Illness, or NAMI, implemented in middle and high schools to help students with early onset mental illnesses to learn to navigate them), and touring NAMI locations across the country performing the songs and sharing his journey. He also launched a concert series, entitled Friday Night Lights, bringing artists from across the country together to perform benefit events, with funds going to the local NAMI chapter.
