KEY POINTS:
Music was instilled into Australian rock icon William Billy Thorpe as a nappy-wearing toddler, when he first heard hit tunes on the radio.
"From that moment I couldn't get enough of music ... any music. I loved it and it was in 1956 in a tiny church hall on the fringes of Brisbane, Australia, that my own music career got its start," he said.
At age 10, Thorpe played his first gig and within six months was belting out tunes on local television, as well as doing his own gigs.
Prominent Brisbane variety booking agent Gwen Iliffe discovered Thorpe as he bellowed out a Hank Williams' tune behind his parents' store on Fegan Drive in Moorooka, Brisbane.
Thorpe auditioned for a children's TV show, was signed and was quickly dubbed "Little Rock Allen - Australia's youngest rock'n' roller".
Over time Thorpe developed his rock style. In the early years he often dabbled in country music, yodelling Slim Whitman on TV programmes and jamming backstage with country music stars Reg Lindsay and Slim Dusty.
In mid 1957 he formed his first band, the Planets, which performed with Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard.
Thorpe was just 12.
Following this Thorpe formed his legendary band the Aztecs when he was 16.
Eight months after inception Billy Thorpe and The Aztecs had the number one record in Australia, featuring a cover of Lieber and Stoller's Poison Ivy, and played their first major concert to 60,000 people in Melbourne.
Following national tours and the reshuffling of the Aztecs line-up, Thorpe packed his bags and ventured to the United States in 1977.
In 1979 he released the epic rock song Children Of The Sun.
Early in 1983 he undertook one more Australian tour before retiring from the music business in 1984.
He continued to record and found a lucrative sideline in advertising composition - including the Friday Night Football television promotion for the Nine Network.
He also authored two autobiographical books - Sex and Thugs and Rock'n'Roll, which sold more than 150,000 copies, and Most People I Know (Think That I'm Crazy), which was released in October 1998 and became the number-one-selling book in Australia.
- AAP
