Jason Schneider, "That Gun in Your Hand: The Strange Saga of Hey Joe' and Popular Music's History of Violence" (Anvil Press, 2025)

Oct 11, 2025

In this engaging discussion, Jason Schneider, an author and music journalist, unravels the fascinating history of the song 'Hey Joe' and its elusive creator, Billy Roberts. He explores the song's connections to 19th-century murder ballads and how it evolved from folk roots to rock classic, notably through Jimi Hendrix's iconic version. Schneider also delves into the racial and cultural implications of the song amid the tumult of the 1960s, providing insights into how 'Hey Joe' has continually shaped, and been reshaped by, American music and society.

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INSIGHT

Song As Cultural Connector

Hey Joe links multiple 20th-century American music strands from folk to electric rock.
The song's journey shows how oral folk practices met commercial music markets.

INSIGHT

Murder Ballads Are A Folk Tradition

Hey Joe fits into a long tradition of American murder ballads like Stagger Lee and Frankie and Johnny.
These songs functioned as early true-crime narratives that shaped popular music's themes.

ANECDOTE

Billy Roberts In Greenwich Village

Billy Roberts moved from South Carolina to Greenwich Village and arrived about a year before Bob Dylan.
He embedded himself in the early folk scene, absorbing Piedmont and blues influences.

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This is the story of a song. Yet, it is a song that binds nearly every strand of 20th-century American popular music. “Hey Joe” was written sometime in the early 1960s by a man named Billy Roberts, an obscure singer and guitarist from South Carolina who moved to New York City, drawn by the burgeoning folk music scene in Greenwich Village. It was a time when new, original material was scarce, leading other singers to quickly adapt songs of quality in the spirit of folk music’s oral traditions. Thus began the long journey of “Hey Joe” from New York coffeehouses to the bars on L.A.’s Sunset Strip to the ears of a young guitarist named Jimi Hendrix who launched his career with his radical, electrified interpretation.

Extensively researched, That Gun in Your Hand: The Strange Saga of ‘Hey Joe’ and Popular Music’s History of Violence (Anvil Press, 2025) also presents previously unpublished information about the life of Billy Roberts, a shadowy figure whose 2017 death went unreported by all news outlets.

With a Foreword by Lenny Kaye.

Jason Schneider has written for Exclaim!, The Globe & Mail, The Toronto Star, Paste, American Songwriter, Relix, Shindig and many other media outlets. He is the co-author of Have Not Been The Same: the CanRock Renaissance 1985-1995, and his other books include Whispering Pines: the Northern Roots of American Music, and the novel 3,000 Miles. He currently lives in Kitchener, Ontario.

Jason Schneider on Bluesky.

Bradley Morgan is a media arts professional in Chicago and author of U2's The Joshua Tree: Planting Roots in Mythic America (Backbeat Books, 2021), Frank Zappa's America (LSU Press, 2025), and U2: Until the End of the World (Gemini Books, 2025). He manages partnerships on behalf of CHIRP Radio 107.1 FM and is the director of its music film festival.

Bradley Morgan on Facebook and Bluesky.

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