Malchicks

Billy Rancher (February 28, 1957 – December 2, 1986) was an American rock vocalist and songwriter, front man of The Malchicks, Billy Rancher and the Unreal Gods, and Flesh and Blood (all based in Portland, Oregon). One of the most prominent performers in the Pacific Northwest music scene in the first half of the 1980s, he died of cancer before reaching the age of 30. The Unreal Gods were one of the original (2007) inductees of the Oregon Music Hall of Fame.

Rancher was the child of Swedish immigrant Astrid Rancher (née Svensson) and New Jersey-born Lithuanian-American Joe Rancher, who met in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, married, and moved to Los Angeles. Three months after Billy, their oldest, was born, they moved to Alaska, where they lived 12 years before moving to Portland. Billy had two younger siblings: Ellen (b. March 6, 1960) and Lenny (b. April 17, 1961). His father died in 1978. In 1980, sister Ellen married Steve Pearson of Seattle band The Heats (later The Heaters), though Billy and Pearson never hit it off well.

He was an all-city shortstop playing baseball at Portland's Madison High School, and won an athletic scholarship to Mount Hood Community College, but dropped out to focus on music. His first professional band, the Malchicks, scored some local success and gained attention by quickly throwing together permits for a public tribute performance the day after John Lennon was shot, but broke up over musical differences and over lead guitarist Lenny Rancher, Billy's younger brother, being too heavy a drinker at the time even by the standards of a hard-drinking crowd. While in the Malchicks, Rancher met Karen Sage, who would remain his girlfriend for the rest of his life.

Based mainly on Rancher's reputation from the Malchicks, his new band Billy Rancher and the Unreal Gods scored a favorable mention from John Wendeborn, music critic of Portland's leading daily newspaper, The Oregonian before they'd even gigged. They opened to a packed house at a Southeast Portland bar, Tippers, on June 14, 1981. Bill Reader describes their sound as "melodic pop… rock/ska/new wave/rockabilly"; Rancher himself called it "Boom Chuck Rock" after one of his own songs, "Boom Chuck Rock Now". By the end of the summer they were playing several nights a week, at various venues, and had established themselves as the city's best band, making a major dent in the Seattle scene as well.

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