Page 87 - The Westerner Magazine Halloween 2018
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little bit of singing and a little bit of Bill: I went off on a crazy musical
talking. It was a number one country tangent at the end of the 1970s. I made a
record and actually got into the pop few records where I combined country
charts. My producer at the time, Owen and disco. I don’t know whether that
Bradley, came to me as “Momma Sang a was a good influence or bad influence.
Song” was coming back down the charts People either loved or hated it.
and said, “If we took that same formula,
If I had it to do over again, I’d do it. I
where you sing a little bit and talk a
think it showed that I was willing to go
little bit, and made it a love song I think
beyond certain boundaries in music.
we could crack the ceiling.”
Buddy Killen, who was producing my
He wanted me to write something like records at the time, helped come up
that. So I wrote the song and he did a with the idea. I asked, ”Why can’t you
fabulous job producing the song and he put a country music lyric to a disco
was right. It took us to the next level beat.” He asked, “You want to try it?”
and I owe so much of that to Owen
So we did and it worked but we didn’t
Bradley for his foresight and creativity.
ride that horse very long. We got off of
Bruce: How have other people it as quick as we got on, but it was a fun
influenced your careers and in what little detour.
ways were you affected by others?
I’ve done things apart from the music
industry such as hosting game shows or
appearing on soap operas. I haven’t
been a one-trick pony. I’ve been able to
venture off into other areas and that’s
been a fulfilling part of the journey as
well.
Bruce: What’s been your favorite thing
to do outside of music?
Bill: There’s been more than one. I
mentioned the game shows and I’ve
done three years on a soap opera called
“One Life to Live” on ABC. I never
stopped doing the music but these were
