Bill Anderson - Whisperin Bill Anderson: An Unprecedented Life in Country Music

WHISPERIN BILL ANDERSON

MUSIC OF THE AMERICAN SOUTH

AN UNPRECEDENTED LIFE IN

COUNTRY MUSIC

Bill Anderson

With Peter Cooper

This publication was made possible in part through a gift from Gus Arrendale and Springer Mountain Farms

Permission to print lyrics courtesy of Sony/ATV Music Publishing

Published by the University of Georgia Press

Athens, Georgia 30602

www.ugapress.org

2016 by Bill Anderson

All rights reserved

Designed by Erin Kirk New

Set in Minion Pro

Printed and bound by Thomson-Shore, Inc.

The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.

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16 17 18 19 2 C 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Anderson, Bill, 1937- author. | Cooper, Peter Michael. Title: Whisperin Bill Anderson : an unprecedented life in country music / Bill Anderson ; with Peter Cooper.

Description: Athens : The University of Georgia Press, 2016 | Includes index. Identifiers: LCCN 2015047528 | ISBN 9780820349664 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780820349657 (e-book)

Subjects: LCSH: Anderson, Bill, 1937- | Country musiciansUnited StatesBiography.

Classification: LCC ML420.a598 A3 2016 | DDC 782.421642092dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015047528

To my children,

Terri, Jenni, and Jamey,

and my grandchildren,

Rachel, Caroline, Nick, Greta, Blake,

Gabe, Hallie, and Sophie

With all my love,

Dad/PawPaw

Ive always felt that the acknowledgment section of a book should begin with an apology. There will be one sooner or later anyhow.

So Ill start by apologizing to all the people whom I should acknowledge here but unintentionally overlooked or forgot. Nothing was on purpose, and I love you and appreciate you just as much or more than I would have had I remembered to type your name.

Now, on to everyone else.

This book would have never happened without the encouragement and persistence of my former publicist and longtime friend Betty Hofer. It was her idea to involve Peter Cooper, and it was Peters ability to see my life and my career from a different perspective than I might have seen it myself that has proven to be invaluable. He is a great writer with great vision and an uncanny knowledge of the country music business, both yesterday and today. Peter, thanks for choosing just the right pieces of my life to highlight and for all the time and energy you devoted to this project. It would have never been what it is without you.

Even though I graduated from the University of Georgia, it was through Lisa Bayer, a friend of Peters, that led to the University of Georgia Press publishing this book. Who would have ever thought back in the days when people were laughing at me for wearing a red cowboy suit and white buck shoes in the freshman talent show that the esteemed university press would someday involve themselves with a book on the skinny kid from Avondale? I cant possibly recite the name of each press staff person whose hands touched this project, but I thank each and every one. Special thanks to acquisitions editor Patrick Allen, who never seemed to tire of answering my endless questions; Courtney Denney, whose copyediting skills amazed both me and Peter; Rebecca Norton, who helped shepherd the book into production; Amanda Sharp, who juggled promotion and marketing, and to Chantel Dunham, the builder of more and better bridges between Athens and Nashville.

There are so many people who help keep my world turning on a daily basis. My thanks to Lee Willard, my tireless young manager; to Judy Price, my administrative assistant for all things Whisperworld; and to the members of my Po Folks Band.

Unending appreciation to Troy Tomlinson, Terry Wakefield, and the staff at Sony/ATV Music Publishing, the best music publishers and song guardians in Nashville. To their New York counterparts, Caroline Bienstock, Bob Golden, and the staff at Carlin-America Publishing in the Big Apple. To my friends at BMI and CMA and ACM and ROPE and NSAI and RFD and WSM and all the other alphabet entities that I cant remember or spell; to Kirt Webster and Amanda Clark from Webster Public Relations for making sure this book was not a well-kept secret; and above all, to the fans.

Ive never claimed to have had the largest number of fans in country music, but I have been blessed with some of the best and most loyal of them all. There are people reading these pages who have been following my career for almost as long as there has been one, people who dont need captions for any of the pictures.

To Larry Black, who gave me the opportunity back in 1997 to host for almost twenty years a television show called Countrys Family Reunion. Modern-day country radio may have decided they dont need us old dinosaurs on their airwaves anymore, but Larry and CFR have helped prove that all our fans didnt disappear the day Garth Brooks moved to town.

To Colin Reed, Steve Buchanan, and Pete Fisher, along with Gina Keltner and Sandy Judge, who strive daily to maintain the legacy of the Grand Ole Opry while moving it forward toward its next ninety years. Thanks for continuing to allow me to take up space on that most hallowed of all stages.

To Stephanie Orr and Wes Buttrey, who created and maintain my website; to Gus Arrendale of Springer Mountain Farms chicken, one of the most generous people on the planet; to Mike Milom, the best music business attorney of all and the man charged with making sure all the is got dotted and the ts got crossed; and to my booking agent and baseball-lovin cohort, Nick Meinema, who works hard to make sure I dont ever get bored by spending too much time at home.

To the memory of Bob Tanner, who opened the first door for me, and to the legacies of industry icons Buddy Killen, Owen Bradley, Hubert Long, Jim Fogelsong, and others who molded me. To absent friends like Roger Miller, Jimmy Dean, Conway Twitty, George Hamilton IV, Jim Ed Brown, and more whose music and stand-up character will remain with me forever. And to Bobby Brenner, Mark Goodson, and Jacquelyn Smith, who believed when many did not.

And to Vickie... for simply being you.

By 1990, Bill Anderson was ten years past finished. Ten years past something to say.

He accepted this with a kind of agitated thankfulness. His life had been defined by what hed had to say, and since the age of twenty, the things hed had to say had been voiced in melody by some of the greatest singers ever to commandeer a microphone.