Willy DeVille, born William Paul Borsey Jr., was an American singer/songwriter and actor. During his thirty-five-year career, first with his band Mink DeVille (1974–1986) and later on his own, Deville created original songs rooted in traditional American musical styles.

A fourteen year old kid has just settled in on the roof of a building on MacDougal Street. We’re in the early sixties, New York. The West Village. Sounds of the raucous and throaty voice of Fred Neil, of Bob Dylan's unbridled folk hymns and of the electroshock guitar of Jimi Hendrix waft out of the clubs on the street. And the kid living on the roof, he takes it all in. Willy DeVille's introduction to music contains within it the true and complete character of an urban tale.