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In its long and celebrated history, the University of Massachusetts Amherst has produced many passionate and successful individuals. One of the alumni not only chased his dream of rock'n'roll music but also discovered another passion in the form of writing: the class of 1989’s own Bill Janovitz. Bill’s band, Buffalo Tom, formed during his time at UMass, and he went on to a successful career, highlighted by Billboard hits and even performing with Pearl Jam at Fenway Park, which remains a dream for many UMass students today. 

But before the band, Bill was just an incoming freshman from Medfield who was interested in majoring in communication with a minor in comparative literature. He was drawn to UMass because he loved “going up to UMass as a senior in high school and seeing like shows and things, you know, like Elvis Costello solo or Violent Femmes, all these bands that I grew up listening to that were really important to me, and I just loved the big university culture, you know, I wanted to get out of the small town thing.” Once he made that leap from small town to big school, he entered a new world with people who loved music as much as he did. 

Bill immersed himself in the local music world of Western Massachusetts. He formed Buffalo Tom with two fellow Minutemen, Chris Colburn and Tom McGuinness, for whom the band is partially named. The new band found some minor success performing at UMass house parties or at smaller venues in the area. Bill says that at the time Buffalo Tom “didn't want to be paid. We just wanted to be on the bills,” a true statement to their dedication to music. But they would not be so small for long, dropping their first album before Bill even graduated. 

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Once Bill’s coursework was underway, he found UMass “offered me a sort of a broad, great humanities base, and the people I met there, and just all the resources were there if you needed them.” This broad humanities base included music classes from accomplished jazz musicians, a survey of avant-garde movies, and a creative writing class taught by poet James Tate, who would go on to win the Pulitzer Prize for his work. Overall, this holistic education in the arts made Bill a much stronger writer, and he would use this skill to find another calling. As a lifelong fan of music, he used his writing talent honed at UMass to publish biographies about his favorite bands and artists, like the Rolling Stones, Leon Russell, and the Cars. His Leon Russell book was even named a New York Times Best Seller. 

Earlier this year, Bill returned to UMass for the first time in years to answer questions about his latest book on the Cars, along with playing a few songs. It was not only a showcase of his impressive skills, but it also gave him the chance to reminisce on the campus that served as both a comfortable home and the launchpad for his lofty dreams. He admitted, “When I got to UMass, I didn't really want to leave UMass. I would have gone on to probably apply for graduate programs, because I finally, once I got to UMass, I did really well with grades and GPA and all that. And I just was, I had a couple of minors and a major, like, kind of like you're doing, and I probably would have applied for the MFA program … but then the band started going. So I just pursued that, of course.”