Born in Durham City, he later moved to Blackpool, Lancashire where other future band members of Jethro Tull also lived including, Ian Anderson, Barriemore Barlow, John Evan and Jeffrey Hammond.
[1] In the 1960s he played guitar with The Executives, a Blackpool based Mod band who recorded a handful of singles with frontman Roy Carr and future Jethro Tull bassist Glenn Cornick.
[4] In 1972 Williams joined Stealers Wheel, which had been formed earlier that year in Paisley, Renfrewshire by former school friends Gerry Rafferty and Joe Egan.
[5] In 1978 he joined Jethro Tull, replacing John Glascock who was unwell, at the request of Ian Anderson.
[6] After being contacted by iTunes and K-tel records in California, and following negotiations which started in 2006, Williams re-formed Stealers Wheel in Blackpool in 2008 with two other former band members, Rod Coombes and Paul Pilnick together with locally based musician and songwriter Tony Mitchell.