Connors was born in Los Angeles, California, in 1949 and began to play the guitar at the age of 14. After three years of extensive self-study of the rock and blues influences that were his first inspiration, he began to play gigs around the Los Angeles area with a heavy blues/rock group called Middle Earth. He found his way to jazz, the music that would lead to a lifelong commitment.\n', '

"I\'d been playing for about four years", he explained at the time of his RTF tenure, "and suddenly had an overnight change. I didn\'t want to be a blues guitarist anymore. I began listening to people like Bill Evans, Jim Hall, Wes Montgomery, [bassist] Scott LaFaro, Miles Davis, [John] Coltrane—anyone who had a \'jazz\' label. Django Reinhardt really got to me. The first time I heard one of his records, I thought that was just what I wanted to be. He had all the fire, creativity, and energy that rock players have today. And the amazing purity of his melodies—you just knew they came from a totally instinctive place."\n', '

He and Django differed however over the matter of electronics with Bill preferring the sound of the electric instrument. "I always wanted to use the electric guitar in a sophisticated context, like with Chick [Corea]. I like to play jazz with that electric-rock sound. For me it\'s a lot closer to a horn than the traditional guitar, and that\'s what I love about it; I can sustain notes, get into different kinds of phrasing—do things other instruments do naturally, only the guitar does it with the aid of technology."\n', '

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