Page 89 - The Westerner Magazine Halloween 2018

Bruce: So we can look forward to new
material this year?

Bill: Oh, yeah. My new record is simply

going to be called “Anderson.” I think
Bobby thinks I’m copying him because
his latest album is called “Bare.” [We

share another great laugh!]

Bruce: It sounds like a good title. It

describes it perfectly.

Bill: I hope so.
Bill: The writing process is still the
Bruce: How much has your writing
same. I never try to write a song for
changed since your first great hits and
anyone. I sit down to write the best song
today?
I can write and then let it find its place.

Bill: I don’t know. I’m not sure whether I’ve had songs recorded by James
Brown and Aretha Franklin.
I’m capable of judging that. It might
take an outsider to point out what’s
I think I still kind of do it the same way.
different. I’ve always written Bill
Anderson music in a wide variety of Bruce: Have you ever written a song for

styles; both lyrically and musically. someone else’s voice?

Bruce: When you sit down to write a Bill: No. I write the song and the song

song today is the writing process finds the voice.
different from when you wrote your
Bruce: Tell me about your experience on
first great hits in the 1960s?
television. How did that happen?

Bill: My whole life has been a soap
opera. It just happened. I didn’t set out
to do game show or soap operas. I had a

manager in the early 1970s, from New
York, named Bobby Brenner. He was
well connected with TV people in both