Billy Scott was born in 1942 as Peter Pendleton in Huntington, West Virginia.
Before forming The Prophets in 1965, he sang with various groups while in the Army, and after he was discharged in 1964 took the stage name "Billy Scott".
In the 1970s, he and his band recorded a number of songs in the beach music genre, a regional variant of R&B.
Scott was a regular guest on the Jerry Peeler Beach Show on WANS radio in Anderson, South Carolina.
In 2006, Billy Scott released his final album and on Saturday November 17, 2012, he died of pancreatic and liver cancer at his home in Charlotte, North Carolina.