When Bill Anderson released his debut album, Still, in 1963, he likely never envisioned that, 57 years later, he would still be making music, but at 82 years old, he has no plans of slowing down. The Country Music Hall of Fame member just released his 73rd album, The Hits Re-Imagined, featuring ten of his biggest hits as a songwriter, including “Bright Lights and Country Music,” “Whiskey Lullaby,” “City Lights” and more, along with instrumental versions of each song as well.
“It all started when I was recording my audio book back a few years ago, and the engineer who was producing the audio book suggested maybe playing a few little guitar riffs, little signature licks behind the songs that I was talking about,” Bill recalled to Everything Nash. “I was talking about the various songs that I had written kind of in the second phase, the second half of my songwriting career. And so that’s how the songs got chosen. They were the songs I was talking about for the audio book. He started playing these little guitar vignettes. I liked it so much, I said, ‘We ought to go full instrumental on some of these things.’ And it just kind grew from there.
“We did the instrumentals,” he continued. “When we were doing the instrumentals, I said, ‘Let’s record them in the same key that I would sing them in. And I might want to come back, put my vocals on them, which is exactly what we did. So this was a recording project that was about as backwards as any I’ve ever done. You usually start with the vocals and the songs, and then add the music. We started with the music and went backwards and added the vocals.”
Bill has done what no other songwriter in country music has accomplished: have a song chart in seven decades, an accomplishment he humbly defers.
“First to do that, you have to live a long time,” he said with a laugh. “I’ve been very blessed. I’ve been very lucky. I’d love to make it eight. You know, I’ve written a lot during the quarantine. I’ve done some Zoom writing with a few other people and I’ve written quite a few things by myself. So it doesn’t matter. Maybe I’ll get lucky and have one more somewhere along the way.”
Bill will perform at the Grand Ole Opry on October 17, as the Opry allows up to 500 guests in person in the historic venue, to celebrate its 95th anniversary.
“We will also celebrate 60 years as an Opry member next year, if I can make it that far,” he quipped. “Next year will be 60 years. It’s just been such a part of my life. And I’m so glad that we’re going to be able to go back, even with the limited audience at all, to get back on that stage again will be a milestone. And I’m really looking forward to it. It’s just been such a part of my life for so long, I can’t imagine my life without the Opry in it. I’m really excited about going back.”