August 3, 2026
Hi Gang:
Remember an old TV show called “This Is The Week That Was?” I’m here to tell you that July was truly “The Month That Was!” in Whisperville. I’ve never crammed so much activity into 31-days in my life!
It started on the first weekend of the month when we all celebrated the 250th birthday of our nation on the 4th and continued with music and revelry on the 5th. The great singing group, The Isaacs, entertained and inspired us with their songs of patriotism and faith at our outdoor Church By The Lake service on Sunday. It was hot, but we found some shade and sang right along. Thanks, Sonja, Becky, Lily, and Ben….you are the greatest!
Fast forward to the night of July 14th when an Opry House full of fans turned out to celebrate my friend, Jamey Johnson’s, 51st birthday. I got to sing our co-written (with Buddy Canon) hit song, “Give It Away,” with him and then lead the crowd in singing “Happy Birthday,” to close out the evening. It was special.
Two days later, the folks at BMI (Broadcast Music, Inc.) and Sony Music Publishing teamed up to host a Music Row breakfast and awards presentation in the Sony lobby. The food was great, and the awards were special. They were given to songwriters who had written songs performed publicly over a million times each. I was lucky in that they gave me 12 of the citations…for songs ranging everywhere from City Lights in 1958 to Give It Away (over 3-million performances) in 2006. The awards are now framed and hanging on my office walls. BMI and Sony are THE best!
And suddenly it was July 18th and time for us to celebrate my 65th Anniversary of being a member of the Grand Ole Opry! Thanks to all of you who came to celebrate with us and to those of you who followed the activities via WSM and Sirius/XM satellite radio. I can’t begin to describe the feeling of receiving a standing ovation when I walked onstage and another when I left after closing my portion of the show with my song, “Thankful.” I truly am thankful to each of you. It has been an incredible journey.
If you haven’t already discovered them, there are all kinds of great pictures, videos, and comments from our “wild weekend” scattered across our website, our Facebook pages, and later on in this newsletter. I invite you to check them out, and I thank my wonderful webmaster, Stephanie, and her husband, Wes, for all their hard work in saving them and putting them all together. And to all my Opry friends and fellow artists who offered video messages, your words are treasures beyond measure.
Prior to the live Opry broadcast on Saturday and the re-broadcast on Sunday, Sirius/XM ran a 4-hour Bill Anderson special taken from the archives of Country’s Family Reunion. It was the show Vince Gill hosted on my 50th Opry Anniversary, and it brought back so many memories with songs and comments from stars no longer with us…including Jean Shepard, Jan Howard, George Hamilton IV, B.J. Thomas, Charlie Louvin and many more. It was both happy and a little bit sad to listen and hear these voices speak and sing again. Thanks to Dallas Wayne, Joey Black, Lee Willard, and Larry Black’s sons, Adam, Jared, and Ian, for making it happen. I hope if you heard it that you were as touched as I was.
I cannot begin to tell you how many cards, letters, e-mails, text messages and the like that I’ve received congratulating me on my 65th anniversary. Usually I pride myself on answering virtually all of my mail, but this time I’m afraid there’s no way I can get to them all. Please know, though, that I read every single one and appreciated them more than you know. If one of the messages was from you, I just hope that for now this “group thank you note” will suffice.
I’m planning to let the dust settle a bit in August and I won’t be doing any Opry shows this month. I’ll be trying to write a few new songs, though, and on August 19th I will proudly and gratefully accept the 2026 Icon Award from the Academy Of Country Music. I’m not sure if that event, known as the Honors Awards, will be broadcast or steamed, but if I learn that it will be I’ll let you know.
Right now I’m going to answer some of the questions you’ve sent to me this month, pick out a few special photos for you, and then try to grab a nap. Guess it goes without saying that I could use one of those! Thanks for everything, and we’ll see you back here again in September.

