Byrds Co-Founder Chris Hillman Publishes Autobiography

Newly released is Byrds co-founder Chris Hillman's long-awaited autobiography, Time Between. The memoir, which covers Hillman's nearly-60-year-career, gives the backstory to his childhood — talking in-depth about his father's suicide when he was still a teen, along with the formation of the Byrds, the Flying Burrito Brothers, Manassas with Stephen Stills — up through his last album, the Tom Petty-produced 2017 set, Bidin' My Time.

Country legend Dwight Yoakam explained to us that the importance of Chris Hillman in popular music cannot be overstated: “Without Chris Hillman, there is no country rock as we know it came to be known. Without Chris Hillman, you don't have the bridge between Buck Owens and Linda Ronstadt and the Eagles. Without Buck Owens, there's none of that.”

Chris Hillman told us he remains prideful of the years he led the genre-blurring, groundbreaking Flying Burrito Brothers: “I look back on the Burritos fondly — the first year. I liked writing with (Gram) Parsons the first year and then we got, sort of estranged and split up and that didn't last long. But I did re-build that band and the Burritos were a very, very good live act after Gram left.”

Hillman told us that splitting the Flying Burrito Brothers to co-found Manassas with Stephen Stills remains a high point of his career: “Along comes Stephen with an incredible offer and I jumped at it, 'cause I really love Stills — still do. And that offer of — 'Let's start a group together' — Manassas, it took me about five seconds to figure that out. I enjoyed that very much. That two years with Stills, we had a great time together. We made some good music. That first double album was really, quite an achievement. And he was at the top of his game back in '72, '73.”