Billy Iuso was born January 26, 1969, in Port Chester, New York. In the early 1990s, he formed the funky, psychedelic jam band Brides of Jesus, becoming part of the storied "Wetlands scene" centered around New York's legendary Wetlands Preserve club, sharing stages with acts including Widespread Panic and Dave Matthews Band alongside contemporaries like Warren Haynes, Blues Traveler, and Spin Doctors. Exploring the roots of his musical influences, particularly Little Feat, led Iuso directly to The Meters, and those connections eventually drew him south to New Orleans, where he built a genuine friendship with George Porter Jr. and the Funky Meters.
Iuso worked as a tour and stage manager for the Neville Brothers, The Meters, and Porter's Runnin' Pardners band before striking out with his own project, forming Billy Iuso and the Restless Natives in 2002. He served as the Wild Magnolias' backing band through much of the mid-to-late 2000s and became a frequent collaborator of Anders Osborne, eventually joining the supergroup G.A.B.E. alongside Porter, Osborne, and drummer Eric Bolivar. He is also a member of Dead Feat, a project uniting members of Little Feat and the Grateful Dead, and of the New Orleans band 101 Runners.
Iuso has released more than a dozen albums, including 2013's Naked, praised by OffBeat for departing from his jam-heavy roots toward tighter song structures, and 2022's pandemic-inspired 52 hz. During the 2020 lockdown, he hosted a weekly livestream series that ultimately covered more than 350 different songs. A regular at both French Quarter Festival and Jazz Fest, Iuso continues to perform with the Restless Natives and his ever-expanding web of New Orleans collaborators, carrying the spirit of the Wetlands scene into the heart of the city that adopted him.
