FROM BILL
Hi Gang:
Sorry we’re a couple of days late with our December newsletter, but there was a special announcement made in Nashville at noon today, and I wanted to be able to share the news with you.
The Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum has announced their upcoming exhibits for 2020, and one of them is going to be an exhibit honoring yours truly!
Many of you have been asking me for years if such an exhibit would ever be opened, and I’m thrilled to tell you that it will…and the big day is set for November 20, 2020. I am told that the exhibit will run through September, 2021. Martina McBride and Chris Stapleton will also be honored next year.
It’s too early for me to know just what the exhibit will contain, but I’ve been told that folks from the Museum will be coming soon to invade my closets, my storerooms, my scrapbooks, photo albums, etc., to begin sorting out and putting together an exhibit that will speak to my 60-plus years as both a songwriter and a performer in country music. I’ll share more details as they become available, and only hope that a whole bunch of you will be able to come to Nashville and see my exhibit for yourselves. After all, if it weren’t for you…the fans…there would be no exhibit to celebrate.
When the Museum asked for a comment from me, I told them in essence that I grew up dreaming of my ball glove being on display someday in the Baseball Hall of Fame…but that having my musical instruments and costumes and song lyrics on display in the Country Music Hall of Fame will fulfill an even bigger dream. It’s hard to believe that it’s actually coming true!
Slowing down and changing the subject a bit, I hope each of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and were able to spend it with the special people in your life. My day was a bit unorthodox, but no less wonderful.
My grandson, Gabe, had been in the hospital all week, and was only discharged on Thanksgiving morning. Our family had planned to celebrate at his parents’ house, but when things turned out the way they did, I reserved us a private room at a wonderful Nashville area restaurant, and they fed us a family-styleThanksgiving feast instead. Everyone except Gabe and his mom, Beth, were there, and even Beth joined us later for hot cider by the fire at my daughter, Jenni’s, house. We celebrated not only Thanksgiving but granddaughter, Rae’s birthday, and it was well after dark before we all went home. Gabe is slowly improving, and went back to school for a few hours this week.
I will be going into the hospital myself on Monday Dec. 9th for an out-patient procedure that, hopefully, will be easy. They tell me it’s nothing to worry about, but I’ve learned over the years that “minor surgery” is that which is performed on somebody else! I would appreciate your positive thoughts and whispered prayers.
I plan to spend the Christmas season at home surrounded by family and friends…and I can think of nowhere I’d rather be. I hope your Christmas is merry and bright and, again, that you’ll get to share it with those who mean the most in your life. Enjoy…and we’ll see you back here in 2020. It promises to be quite an exciting New Year.
LATEST NEWS
ASK BILL
1) When I first started learning to play guitar years ago the first song I wanted to learn was, “Cincinnati, Ohio,” due to the fact that I live just north of Cincinnati. I love hearing you sing it as well as Connie Smith’s cover. I wanted to ask what inspired you to write “Cincinnati, Ohio?”
I was between flights at the airport outside Cincinnati when I got the idea to write that song. In those days, back before all the tight airport security that we have today, passengers could wander about as they saw fit, and I walked out in front of the airport and looked up at the big sign on the terminal that read “Greater Cincinnati Airport.” And just like the line in the song, “I got to thinkin’ ’bout some friends I know in Cincinnati, Ohio,” and song just started coming to me. The airport was (and still is) south of Cincinnati in Kentucky, and I thought of how the Ohio river winds “across the Mason and the Dixon lines,” and before I knew it I had the majority of the song written…including the melody even though I didn’t have a guitar with me. I wish every song came to me as easily as that one did. I’m glad you like it.
2) I am a 40-year country radio veteran, and you have been kind enough over the years to grant me a couple of interviews. I know artists get the same questions over and over, but I wonder if there is a question you don’t like to be asked or that you get tired of answering.
The only questions I don’t like to be asked are the ones that the interviewer could have easily looked up before he or she started talking with me. Like, “Where were you born?” or “How did you get started in the music business?” Anybody with a computer or a book about country music could find the answers to those without having to ask me. I’ve been asked a million times how I got the name “Whisperin’ Bill” or which one of my songs is my own personal favorite, but as long as there are people who are interested and don’t know, I’ll gladly tell them. But if you’re going to interview me, do a little bit of homework before we start.
3) Is the Circle Network going to be available in Canada?
Perhaps not at first, but it’s my understanding that after about six months the Circle Network will be available anywhere in the world. It won’t be a traditional broadcast network as such, but folks everywhere will be able to stream it and watch it. I have been told that It is scheduled to launch in the U.S. at 4 a.m. on January 1, 2020. That’s the morning following New Years Eve. I will probably sleep through the first couple of programs!!
4) When you and other country singers have a cruise, do passengers pay extra to go to the shows? I would like to know what a cruise like that is like and would appreciate any information you can provide.
I can only speak for our Country’s Family Reunion cruises, but no, passengers do not have to pay extra to go to our shows. At the same time, they do have to book their cruise through Gabriel Communications and not through the cruise line itself. The tickets might be slightly more expensive, but those passengers receive more for their money as well. They not only get to attend the shows (regular passengers do not), but have access to autograph sessions, late night jam sessions, and all sorts of little extras and perks along the way. A large majority of our passengers are repeat customers, so I assume we must be doing something right or they wouldn’t keep coming back.
I hope we’re doing things right with our newsletters, too, and that you’ll keep coming back month after month with your questions. Send them to me at askbill@billanderson.com and I’ll try to answer as best as I can. See you back here in the New Year!
LATEST PHOTOS
My grandson, Gabe, held Grandparents Day in his hospital room prior to surgery on November 25th. His mom’s parents, Nancy and Gary Henrich, were there along with his Whispering Paw Paw. Note that Gabe and I have on matching hospital bracelets, as we were both having procedures done that day. Below, big brother Blake came by, but couldn’t quite fit his 6’5″ frame onto Gabe’s bed. At the recent Medallion Ceremony at the Country Music Hall of Fame I had a chance to visit with fellow HOF members Charley Pride, Randy Owen, and Jimmy Fortune. And as you can tell from the last picture, it was a windy day when comedian Gary MuleDeer and I caught up with each other at the Grand Ole Opry!!
LATEST JOURNAL
I was extremely saddened by the news of Mac Wiseman’s passing over the weekend. My relationship with him went all the way back into the late fifties when he was an executive with Dot Records and called me at WJJC in Commerce wanting to buy my master recording of “City Lights” for his label. When I told him Ray Price had just covered it for Columbia Records, he laughed and said, “Well, never mind!” I worked with Mac when he ran the Wheeling Jamboree, toured with him on many occasions, and welcomed him several times to the circle on Country’s Family Reunion. He probably knew more songs than anyone in country music, and he loved to share them with his friends. He was truly a gentleman in every sense of the word. We’ll miss you, Mac. Thanks for blessing us with your music…and for allowing me to be a small part of your world.
