“The river was flooding – the water was flowing so fast it created a whirlpool. I was sitting in an innertube, floating in a circle and that walkdown came to me”: Riff inspiration can strike in the strangest places – just ask William “Billy” KingReynolds

A shot of the Austin, TX, band Billy King and the Bad Bad onstage at the Sagebrush.

Inspiration can strike a songwriter at the damnedest of times. That’s certainly been true for William “Billy” King Reynolds, guitarist-vocalist for Austin rockers the Bad Bad Bad.

Take the fluid and groovy, Southern-rock walkdown he crafted for his band’s Alright (Believe in What You Say), which he thought up and quickly sang into his phone amid an especially slippery situation – while running the rapids on an inflatable donut.