All Photos: Alan Mercer
Bill Anderson has been using the philosophy that if you want someone’s attention, whisper...for over fifty years to capture the attention of millions of country music fans around the world, en route to becoming a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame and one of the most popular, most enduring entertainers of our time. He’s known, in fact as “Whispering Bill,” a nickname hung on him years ago as a result of his breathy voice and his warm, soft approach to singing a country song. His credentials, however, shout his prominence: One of the most awarded songwriters in the history of country music, a million-selling recording artist many times over, television game show host, network soap opera star, spokesman for a nationwide restaurant chain, and a consummate onstage performer.
Bill Anderson was born in Columbia, South Carolina, but spent most of his growing-up years around Atlanta, Georgia. He graduated from the University of Georgia with a degree in journalism, having worked his way through college as a disc jockey on nearby radio stations. It was while he was still in school that he began performing and writing songs. At the age of nineteen, he composed the country classic, “City Lights,” and began rapidly carving his place in musical history.
He moved to Nashville, Tennessee, secured a recording contract with Decca Records, and began turning out hit after hit with songs like “Po’Folks,” “Mama Sang A Song,” “The Tips Of My Fingers,” “8X10,” and the unforgettable country and pop smash, “Still.” His compositions were recorded by such diverse musical talents as Ray Price, Porter Wagoner, James Brown, Debbie Reynolds, Ivory Joe Hunter, Kitty Wells, Faron Young, Lawrence Welk, Dean Martin, Jerry Lee Lewis, Aretha Franklin, Walter Brennan and many others.
Bill has been voted Songwriter Of The Year six times, Male Vocalist Of The Year, half of the Duet Of The Year with both Jan Howard and Mary Lou Turner, has hosted and starred in the Country Music Television Series Of The Year, seen his band voted Band Of The Year, and in 1975 was voted membership in the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Ten years later, the State of Georgia honored him by choosing him as only the 7th living performer inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame. In 1993, he was made a member of the Georgia Broadcasters’ Hall of Fame. In 1994, South Carolina inducted him into their Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame. And in 2001, he received the ultimate honor, membership in Nashville’s prestigious Country Music Hall of Fame.
An entertainer in every sense of the word, Bill Anderson was the first country artist to host a network game show, starring on ABC-TV’s, “The Better Sex.” He also appeared for three years on ABC’s Daytime soap opera, “One Life To Live.”
Since 1997, Bill has also hosted the highly-rated television series on RFD-TV, “Country’s Family Reunion,” a show where legendary country stars sit alongside both their peers and newcomers to the industry, singing their songs and swapping their stories.
In the mid-nineties, after a ten-year self-imposed hiatus, Bill returned to his first love, songwriting, and for the second time in his life cut a wide path across the creative landscape. In 2002, Broadcast Music, Inc. named Anderson its first country music songwriting Icon, placing him alongside R&B legends Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, and James Brown as the only recipients of that prestigious award. In 2008, the Academy of Country Music honored him with their inaugural Poets Award.
He has been a member of the since 1961 and performs there regularly. He continues to tour and to record, his latest releases being the self-descriptive, “Songwriter” and the critically acclaimed “Life.” In addition, Bear Family Records has released Bill’s first box set, “Bill Anderson – The First Ten Years,” a 126-song collection of works initially released between 1956 and 1966.
Bill lives on Old Hickory Lake outside Nashville where he spends as much time as possible with his three children and eight grandchildren. He is a boater and sports enthusiast who has been known to adjust his work schedule to fit around a ball game he just “has to see.” He is an avid reader, his bookshelves lined with mysteries, biographies, books on religion, sports, and humor.
Photos and Interview done at The Texas Opry Theater in Weatherford, Texas
Alan Mercer: I’m over the moon to be here with you Bill.
Bill Anderson: You’re very kind. Thank you.
AM: You couldn’t possibly know how many songs you’ve written could you?
BA: (Laughing) I have no idea. I’ve been too busy writing them to stop and count them.
AM: I read in your autobiography that you felt you had accomplished everything you wanted in life and then you got a second wind.
BA: Yes, the second wind has been a lot more fun than the first one.
AM: I bet.
BA: Looking back on it, you can kind of see it from this perspective of “Gee, it all worked out real good, but you know at the time I was going through it, I didn’t know. I went into the early 80’s having written songs for virtually 25 or 30 years and I wrote most of them by myself.
AM: Why did you stop writing in the 80's?
BA: I was thinking maybe the music had changed and I didn’t know how to change with it. During those years from the middle 80’s to the early 90’s I was doing a lot of television.
AM: I remember you on television all the time.
BA: I was hosting a game show and I was in a soap opera. I was doing all kinds of crazy things like working for a restaurant chain.
AM: I remember your restaurants too. What brought you back to songwriting?
BA: In the early 90’s one of my old songs came back and was a hit again. That lit the fire inside me and I thought, “Why don’t I try this co-writing thing? Everybody else is doing it.”
AM: Who did you write with?
BA: Vince Gill was kind enough to give me a shot and we wrote a couple of songs together and he recorded both of them. One became a number one song and it kind of went from there.
AM: It seems to me that you have a lot of good natured humor in your songs, especially your most recent album. Is that something you wanted to do?
BA: (Laughing) Well, I love to laugh and I love to make people laugh.
AM: I laughed out loud several times while listening to it.
BA: I’m glad. I take what I do seriously but I don’t take myself seriously, at least not now. Once I learned that life was a lot more fun when you lightened up, I didn’t take myself seriously anymore. I see humor in everything. It’s all around if you look for it. When you are sitting there writing a song about a relationship gone bad and you say, “Wherever she is, I hope she stays there.” (Laughter) That’s not your typical crying in your beer heartbreak song, but it’s fun.
AM: I think your songs are uplifting.
BA: I think when we can laugh and smile and say, hey if you’re gonna leave me, walk out backwards and I’ll think you’re walking in. We ran out of anything to call it so we called it quits. Those kinds of lyrics are fun to write and the people seem to have fun listening to them, and that’s what counts.
AM: Everyone has recorded your songs through the years. Do you have a favorite or two?
BA: Golly, whatever the latest one is. (Laughter) I’m excited about this new one Brad Paisley has just cut that he and I wrote together called ‘Dying To See Her Again.’ It’s his new record and I do a little talking part on it.
AM: What kind of attitude do you wake up with every day?
BA: I wake up every morning very grateful for the life I’ve had and I look forward to finding out what’s behind door number one and door number two and door number three today!
AM: So you do believe that your attitude makes all the difference in the quality of your life?
BA: I think it does. I think we can look everywhere from the great psychologists of the world to the greatest psychologist, Jesus and the bible. My grandfather was a preacher and I remember him telling me many times when I was a little boy, “Billy, don’t be afraid to laugh. You don’t have to go through life with a long face to be a Christian or a good person. I think the Lord wants us to laugh and appreciate life.”
AM: Absolutely.
BA: I look at life kind of like a one-eyed dog, with my head tilted to the side a little bit. I don’t think I look at the world the way everybody else does.
AM: That’s a great thing. Being unique is wonderful.
BA: It’s just me and it’s what I do.
AM: You’ve been called Whisperin’ Bill Anderson forever. Is that truly just the way you sound?
BA: Yes, that’s authentically me.
AM: You never did it on purpose?
BA: No, I don’t think that would have worked. I’ve either been blessed or cursed with a soft voice all my life. When I started doing songs like, ‘Still’ where I sing a little bit and talk a little bit, it just came out kind of soft.
AM: Did you popularize the talking part in songs? I’ve heard other artists do it too but it seems you are very famous for it.
BA: It goes all the way back way before me. Hank Williams had an alter ego named Luke the Drifter and he did so many of the recitation songs. Before him there was T. Texas Tyler when he did ‘The Deck of Cards’ and Tex Ritter did it. I certainly did not invent or pioneer talking on records.
AM: You did a lot to continue the tradition.
BA: Well, it just became a way to communicate and that’s what I wanted to do. If I could communicate with the listener through singing a line, then I’d sing it and if I felt like maybe I’d communicate it better if I spoke the line, then that’s what I did.
AM: Are you still happy traveling all around and performing your show?
BA: Yes, because I’m doing it at a very manageable pace right now. I’m no longer doing 200 dates a year like I did in the 60’s and 70’s. I’ll let the young kids have their day and do that. I do still enjoy it. I like to work maybe 35 to 40 dates a year. That averages out close to one a week. If we were to work 50 dates that would be alright too. That’s about as much as I would want to work now. I’ve got so many other things going on. I’ve got three children and eight grandchildren that I like to spend time with. I like to do my songwriting and do some television shows. I don’t want to be on the road any more than that. Just enough to still enjoy it. I love to go out and meet the people and I love to go on the stage and have a good time.
AM: You are receiving many blessings.
BA: I sure am. There’s nothing that fills you up like a great audience. You know they appreciate what you’ve tried to do.
AM: Do you have any interest in retiring ever?
BA: (Laughter) I ask myself that question at least once or twice a week. How do you spell retire? I don’t know. I asked Willie Nelson that question recently and he told me the only thing he did was play music and play golf. Which one do you want me to quit?
Learn more about Bill Anderson on his web site http://billanderson.com