William P. Homans III, known professionally as Watermelon Slim, is an American blues guitarist and harmonica player. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, and raised in North Carolina, he began playing music in 1958 on a set of bongo drums and acquired a harmonica in 1959. He later attended Middlebury College in Vermont before enlisting in the Vietnam War. In July 1980, while living on a truck farm in Pushmataha County, Oklahoma, Homans adopted the moniker “Watermelon Slim.” He formed his supporting band, The Workers, and released albums including Up Close & Personal (2004) and Big Shoes to Fill (2003). At the Blues Music Awards ceremony in 2008, the band won the award for Best Blues Band of 2007, and the album The Wheel Man (2007) was awarded Best Blues CD of 2007. Homans also won the Maple Blues Award for B.B. King International Entertainer. His subsequent releases include No Paid Holidays (2008) and Church of the Blues (2019), which reached number 7 on the Billboard Blues Albums chart.
