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BillsJournal-BNR1

May 1, 2020

Hi Gang:

What a crazy time it is for us all.

I am trying to stay in, stay safe, and stay sane in the midst of everything, and I feel like I’m doing pretty good with the first two. I’m just not to sure about the “sane” part! Are you like me and having trouble remembering what day of the week it is?

I have managed to do a few enjoyable things, though, in particular writing a song with Brad Paisley a few days ago via Zoom. He was at his house and I was at mine, but we could see each other on our computer screens and it was a hoot. We talked about everything from A to Z, and somehow in the midst of it all we managed to write a pretty good song. I’ve also written a couple of new songs recently by myself.

I haven’t been back to the Opry since our first “empty auditorium” show on March 14th, and I’ve sure missed it. I’m awfully proud of Dan Rogers and Gina Keltner and our Opry leaders, though, who have remained determined to keep the streak of consecutive Saturday night broadcasts alive, and of the artists who have participated in the shows while maintaining their social distances. Hopefully, we’ll all get to go back “home” again soon.

Most of you have probably heard by now about my song, “Happiness,” being revived and repurposed in the United Kingdom these days. It’s been very fulfilling to know that a song I wrote over 50-years ago is being used to inspire and to thank and pay tribute to health care workers on the other side of the globe in the midst of this pandemic. To all who contributed, please accept my heartfelt appreciation.

My manager, Lee, and I have continued to work on the design package for our upcoming CD, “The Hits – Reimagined,” and it’s almost ready to go to the manufacturer. The problem there is that manufacturing has been at a standstill. I don’t know how backed up the plants will be when they re-open or just when the record will be available, but hopefully soon.

What are you missing the most right now? I’m missing being with my friends and my loved ones, of course, but I’m really missing baseball. It seems strange on a beautiful weekend afternoon to not be able to turn on a televised game or to go out and see one in person somewhere. After our already having so much of the season cancelled, I’ve vowed to never complain about a rain delay again!

I have been especially grateful that my family members have been close by during all of this. I haven’t seen much of them face-to-face, but it’s comforting to know that they are not scattered all across the country right now. Grandkids Blake, Gabe, Hallie, and Greta have been continuing school with online classes every day as has grandson, Nick, who is in his freshman year of college. Sophie’s school has closed down, but she has been active in a reading and math program at home.

Gabe will be moving into a new cancer treatment program in a few days, and we’re hopeful that this will be a step in the right direction. After nine years, he will be taken off chemo. It’s a big step, so please keep him and Jamey and Beth and all the family in your prayers. Thank you.

I wish for you and your loved ones a good month of May, and I hope as our country begins to slowly open up and get back to normal that you’ll continue to exercise caution in all that you do. Hopefully in our June newsletter we can talk about upcoming shows and live music and good times again. Meantime, stay “hunkered down” and safe.

My thanks and best wishes to you all.

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From Bill (1)

February 1, 2021

Hi Gang:

It’s hard to believe that it was one year ago this month that I played my last show on the road…in Wittenburg, Wisconsin, February 9, 2020. The night before we had performed in Wisconsin Dells, and we stayed over after the show because Wittenburg was not that far away. We didn’t count on the fact that eight inches of snow was going to fall while we slept.

We plowed through it on our tour bus the next morning, arrived in time to set up and do a sound check, but I told everybody we’d be playing to a bunch of empty seats. “Nobody is going to come out in this weather,” I said. Imagine my surprise when every seat in the theater was full. I’ve said it for years – country fans are the best fans in the world! And I miss every one of you!

We haven’t been back out on tour, but quite a few things have been going on just the same. The Grand Ole Opry has decided that they will celebrate my 60th anniversary as an Opry member on Saturday night July 17th, and here’s hoping things will be such that a whole bunch of you can come celebrate with us. Dan Rogers, the Opry manager, told me he did some research and the typical 60th anniversary gift is the diamond. I told him he could give me the diamond at Yankee Stadium!

The Country Music Hall of Fame has also confirmed with us that the Bill Anderson Exhibit, which was originally scheduled to open in 2020, is still on the books for a November 19th opening in 2021. Again, hopefully by then we’ll all feel freer to travel about, and I’ll look forward to seeing many of you at what promises to be one of the true highlights of my life and my career. The exhibit is scheduled to run until March, 2023.

With thoughts toward putting the pandemic in my rear view mirror, I had my first COVID vaccine shot January 12th, and I’m scheduled for my second February 9th. The biggest problem I ran into was all the other 75 and 80-year old drivers out getting their vaccinations on the same day. Most of them probably hadn’t driven in at least a year, and the parking lot resembled bumper cars at the county fair. Nobody could park straight, and a few could barely see over their steering wheels. I told someone I might survive the virus, but I wasn’t too sure I’d survive the ride home!

Many of you continue to reach out and ask what you can do to help get Country’s Family Reunion back on the air at RFD-TV, and my answer is nothing. Unless something unforeseen happens, I don’t think those shows will ever be on broadcast television again. The good news is that you can still stream the episodes on Country Roads TV and, of course, many of you have the DVD’s you have collected over the years. Just enjoy those…for the good times.

Thank you so much for all the wonderful responses my family and I have received in regard to the news I shared last month about my grandson, Gabe, and his upcoming bone marrow transplant. Many of you tell me you have ordered and are wearing the Team Gabe shirts, and we appreciate your support more than you know. Since we last visited, the timetable for Gabe’s procedure has been moved forward into May in order to allow time for him to have a series of radiation treatments that the doctors feel will greatly enhance his chances of never having his cancer return. Those treatments will begin Feb. 8th and could last for up to eight weeks. I’ll keep you posted. Thanks so much for your prayers and your concern.

Elsewhere in my personal world, my son, Jamey, has been called back to work at Delta Air Lines where he will begin training to pilot the 737 airplane in April. My grandson, Blake’s, high school basketball team currently has a season record of 16-3, and will soon be headed into tournament play. Last I checked, Blake is the leading rebounder on the team and #2 in scoring. Due to COVID restrictions, I’ve had to watch most of his games via streaming. I’m just sad that this is his final season.

I hope each of you will continue to stay safe, stay well, and stay in touch. And remember it’s always a good day to have a good day!!

Thanks for everything….

From Bill (1)

January 4, 2021

Hi Gang:

You don’t know how glad I am to finally be able to say, “Happy New Year!”

I’m like many of you….I didn’t stay up on New Years Eve to welcome in the new year as much as I did to make sure the old one was gone! 2020 was not exactly the best of times for any of us. Hopefully with the turning of the page, the light at the end of the tunnel will soon begin shining on us all.

I hope Christmas was a merry one at your house and that Santa didn’t have any trouble fitting inside your chimney. In keeping with the craziness that was 2020, Christmas Day in Music City was not exactly the day of peace and love that we had all hoped to celebrate what with the senseless bombing downtown. The day that began with a few stray snowflakes and the promise of a white Christmas soon faded into something far less serene. Many of you messaged me with words of concern for me and my family, and I appreciated that very much. Fortunately, all of us live on the outskirts and a good distance away from where the explosion took place.

I tried to stay safe over the holidays, seeing very little of my family and friends and staying outdoors with my mask on when I did. My holiday highlight came when six of my eight grandchildren came over to bring me the picture you’ll see in our photo section. It had been eight years since there had been a picture of all of them together, and kids change a lot in that amount of time. We gathered on my front porch with a bunch of happy smiles behind our masks and elbow bumps instead of the hugs we were dying to give. As George Jones sang in an old song, “Maybe Next Christmas.”

I thank you for all the beautiful Christmas cards, text messages, and greetings of the season that you sent my way. I read and appreciated every single one. Quoting country music again, my friend Mac Wiseman said it best when he sang, “Tis Sweet To Be Remembered.”

What’s happening on the musical front in Whisperville? Not a lot other than the release of our new lyric video for “It’s A Good Day To Have A Good Day” coming soon. We will have two videos on that song then, and I hope you will check them out at www.billanderson.com and/or on YouTube and share them with your friends. When the new one is released, hopefully later this month, you can watch your screen and sing the words right along with us. Maybe it will put some warm smiles on some chilly faces during these cold winter days.

People are asking me when we are going back on tour and when we will be performing again at the Opry, and my answer to both questions is simple and the same: I don’t know. I plan to get the COVID vaccine as soon as possible, listen to the experts, and decide from there.

I hope to get back into the recording studio sometime soon because I have several new songs I’m anxious to put down. I’d love to release a new album in 2021. I have some additional songs I’ve written (or helped to write) waiting to be cut by some of my friends, and hopefully I can share some news on those before too long as well.

From the personal corner of my world, my oldest granddaughter, Rae, and her fiance, Zach, have set their wedding day. They will be getting married on Saturday August 28th here in Nashville. I’m sure I’ll have many more details to share as the time approaches.

And speaking of family, I’d like to ask you to check out the latest Bill’s Journal on our website. The new edition is a letter from my daughter-in-law, Beth, with information regarding my grandson, Gabe, and a major decision that has been made in treating the cancer he has been fighting for ten years. So many of you have prayerfully been in this fight alongside us, and we wanted you to know the latest. The next few months are going to be very intense for our family, and we’re going to need your prayers and your support and understanding more than ever. Please check out Bill’s Journal and share it with your family and friends. 

Meantime, stay well and stay safe. The page on the calendar may say it’s a new year, but we’re not out of the woods yet. This virus is a mean ol’ animal with a lot of life left in it. Please continue to respect it.

Thanks a BILLion for your many kindnesses to me, and I’ll look forward to seeing you back here again next month. 

From Bill (1)

December 1, 2020

Hi Gang:

It’s A Good Day To Have A Good Day….and I hope that’s exactly what you are having. Thanks for joining us for our final newsletter of this crazy year.

I hope by now you’ve heard our new song, “It’s A Good Day To Have A Good Day,” and if you haven’t seen the video, it will be coming to a screen near you within hours. It is set to debut on The Boot.com Dec. 2nd. The few who have seen it tell me they want to watch it over and over again because it “makes me feel good,” as one person told me. And if there ever was a time that we could all use a little “feel good” it’s right now.

The band and I really enjoyed recording the song and filming the video back in January, and I hope it shows. To all my band members, to our record producer and guitar player, Thomm Jutz, to Jamie Jean and his crew who filmed the recording session and added in all the good-time video clips….thanks for a great job.

A lyric video is on the way the first day of 2021. The words to the song will appear on the screen so you can have a good day singing along. I’m teasing and telling folks that I’m going to change the title then, though, and call it, “It’s A Good Year To Have A Good Year.” After 2020, we all need one!

Don’t forget to check out our “It’s A Good Day To Have A Good Day” merchandise on our website. We have everything from shirts and hoodies to cell phone covers, coffee cups, and socks. I hope you’ll order yours soon and encourage your friends to “have a good day” by displaying it.

I had some good days and nights going back to the Grand Ole Opry in October and November, but it looks as though those will be my last trips out there for awhile. For safety’s sake, the Opry has had to cut back on the number of people they allow backstage, and none of us will be permitted to bring our band members to the show for awhile. It wasn’t an easy decision for the Opry management, but it’s for the best with the COVID numbers continuing to rise in Tennessee and elsewhere. Hopefully things will reverse themselves soon and we can all go safely back to our Opry Home again. Meantime, I’ll sit by the fire and listen to the show just like you.

I also just learned that Country’s Family Reunion will discontinue airing on RFD-TV at the end of December. We had a great run there for 23-years (very few shows have ever lasted that long), and I appreciate more than you know your watching the programs and letting me know how much you enjoyed them. The shows will continue to air on Country Road TV and possibly in other places, so they won’t be disappearing completely. But they will no longer be on RFD.

Along with many of you, I was extremely saddened by the news of Opry member Hal Ketchum’s passing on Nov. 23rd. Hal and I wrote some songs together, including one of my favorites called, “The Paper,” which I recorded and released in my “Fine Wine” album some years back. Hal had one of the most uniquely creative minds that I’ve ever been around. I send my condolences to his wife and family.

Also, my former sound engineer, songwriting buddy, and friend to many of our members, Bobby Tomberlin, lost his mother last week. Our condolences to Bobby and his dad as well.

I hope each of you had a great Thanksgiving in spite of the restrictions imposed on us all by the coronavirus. I spent a quiet day at home, reading with appreciation your many kind messages, and stuffing my face with turkey, dressing, and all the trimmings. I missed our traditional big family gathering, but we’re already making plans for all of us to be together next year. How’s that for positive thinking?

Speaking of family, my grandson, Blake, began his senior year of high school basketball last month, and in his team’s first game he scored 21 points and pulled down 17 rebounds. I know he won’t do that in every game, and right now because of COVID they might not even play many more, but what a way to start the season! Granddaughter Hallie, who is twelve, has begun trying her hand at writing songs, and her early efforts are better than mine were when I was her age. And Granddaughter Caroline is preparing to go to work in the box office selling tickets to the Christmas events at the Opryland Hotel. I love having all my kids and grandkids so close now. I just hope they all stick around.

In closing, I wish for each of you a very Merry Christmas, and above all a safe and healthy one. May Santa’s sleigh be loaded down with vaccines that will help us put this dreaded virus in our rear view mirrors. And may 2021 truly be a Happy New Year for us all.

Thanks a BILLion for everything, and God bless.

2 Comments

  1. Doreen Mase
    May 1, 2020 @ 11:34 pm

    Sending prayers for your family and glad to hear you’re doing well.

  2. geordiey
    May 1, 2020 @ 1:34 pm

    glad your well mr anderson,this virus is realy bad now, are you doing any dvds,and if you hace done any can we still get them,please,i know theres plenty of your cd s,but i do like seeing the artists singing as we dont see you or many artists here in the uk,thank you

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