Title: Founder/Director
Company: Chains of Love Sober Living /The Medallions (Lead Singer)
Location: Los Angeles, California, United States
Billy Foster, musician and founder-director of Chains of Love Sober Living, has been recognized by Marquis Who’s Who Top Business Owners for dedication, achievements, and leadership in songwriting and drug and alcohol recovery support.
Mr. Foster began his career in the 1950s as the lead singer of the classic doo-wop group The Medallions. Responsible for hit songs like “Behind the Door” and “The Letter,” The Medallions were one of the first R&B groups signed to the famous Dootone label and frequently performed with other major stars of the time including Fats Domino, The Coasters, and The Drifters. He continued to sing with The Medallions through the 1960s when the group broke up, and has reunited to perform with them as The Original Medallions numerous times through the early 2000s.
A talented songwriter as well as an accomplished performer, Mr. Foster is perhaps most famous as one of the writers of soul standard “I’d Rather Go Blind,” made famous by Etta James in 1967, making it into the top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The song has been covered hundreds of times and is considered one of the most iconic records of the era. Mr. Foster has continued to write songs and record music as a solo artist throughout his life and is currently working on two new songs that he hopes to release in the future.
Outside his career in music, Mr. Foster has made a name for himself as an advocate for recovery from drug and alcohol use. Since 1992, he has been the owner and director of Chains of Love Sober Living, a sober living house for women in Los Angeles, and is the past vice president of the Los Angeles County Sober Living Coalition. He celebrates 42 years of sobriety on September 1, 2021. Mr. Foster has been honored with numerous awards and accolades for his work both in the music industry and in the recovery field, including a 2018 Accommodation Award from Maxine Waters and a nomination for the Los Angeles Sentinel’s 2021 Martin Luther King Man of the Year. Mr. Foster is the author of an autobiography and memoir, “High Road, Low Road,” that he looks forward to publishing in the coming years.
For more information, please see:
“I’d Rather Go Blind” (Etta James Version)
Chains of Love Sober Living for Women
Contact Mr. Foster:
