Legendary country music artist and Opry member Bill Anderson dishes on his past, touring, and his new EP, Forevermore.
The Grand Ole Opry is celebrating its centennial throughout 2025, so we thought it would only fitting to begin our own year-long tribute to the beloved country music institution by interviewing the longest serving member in the show: Singer-songwriter extraordinaire Bill Anderson.
Affectionately known as “Whispering Bill,” Anderson has been an Opry mainstay since his induction in 1961. And he doesn’t appear to be slowing down. He continues to grace the Opry stage on a regular basis, and in 2022 received a Grammy nomination in the Best American Roots Performance category for his collaboration with Dolly Parton on the bluegrass version of “Someday It’ll All Make Sense. ” More recently, he released a new EP, Forevermore. The highlight: “The Last One I’ll Forget,” a lovely ballad that ranks alongside “Still,” “World of Make Believe,” “My Life (Throw It Away If You Want To,” and other memorable singles in his catalogue.
Here are some highlights from our conversation in Nashville with Bill Anderson.
C&I: Do you feel like, right now, you’re in a sort of contemplative mood in your music, and your life? In “The Last One I’ll Forget,” the lovely song on your new EP, you sing, “Life is like a mountain, and I’m on the downhill side.”
Bill Anderson: Well, let me take you a bit further in the song: “He looked out toward the sunset and smiled, said, ‘It’s been quite a ride.’” I wanted to put that “and smiled” in there because I wanted to convey the fact that he was not sad, he was not bemoaning where he was in his life. At that time, he looked back on all of this and he smiled. And yeah, if I’m in a contemplative mood, I’m smiling too, because I’ve got a lot to smile about.
Bill Anderson performs at the Grand Ole Opry in 2022. Photo: ruthdaniel3444.
C&I: Do you ever look around and think, “Not only have I made the career last this long, people still want to see me perform, and download and buy my music”? I mean — wow.
Bill: Well, like I told the folks at [Universal Music Group Nashville]: “I know people my age aren’t running up and down Music Row with new records under their arm, especially on a major label.” So, I just feel very fortunate and very blessed to be where I am right now.
C&I: Do you still get on the road much?
Bill: I really don’t tour right now. I went back to my little adopted hometown down in Georgia last week — Commerce, Georgia — and did a fundraiser for them down there, to endow a scholarship for graduating seniors at Commerce High School who want to go to college and study music. My career basically started in Commerce when I was a disc jockey on the radio there, and I wrote “City Lights” there, which was the jumping-off point for my writing career. But the only other performing that I’m really doing right now is three or four nights at the Grand Ole Opry every month. And that’s about it. I enjoy the Opry. It’s been a big part of my life. I’ve been there longer than anybody in history. They haven’t run me off yet, so I keep showing up.
A publicity image of Anderson from his time at Decca Records. Photo: Public domain.
C&I: You were a very young man when you scored your first success as a songwriter with “City Lights,” right?
Bill: 19, actually.
C&I: Did you think at the time, “Oh, man, this is easy”?
Bill: No, I knew better than that. I knew it wasn’t easy. I knew I was very fortunate the way things happened that early in my career. The way they fell into place when Ray Price recorded it and it was the No. 1 record for, I don’t know, 13 weeks or something like that. But I never did think it was easy. I just thought how lucky I was that I could come to Nashville after “City Lights” happened.
C&I: Who were your early supporters in Nashville?
Bill: The biggest one was a guy that I met in Atlanta. He was in the Army, and he was stationed in Atlanta, and I was in Commerce, about 50 miles away. And every time they’d bring a country show to Atlanta or somewhere nearby, he and I would be backstage hanging out. And he would tell me how much he wanted to come to Nashville and be in the music business and wanted to write songs. We became really good friends, and we made a deal with each other that whichever one of us got to Nashville first would help the other one. He got there first, and he made good on his promise. His name was Roger Miller.
C&I: The Grand Ole Opry will be celebrating its centennial in 2025. Is it still a thrill to stand in that circle on the stage?
Bill: It never grows old. I came to the Grand Ole Opry the first time when I was 14 years old. My mom and dad brought me in. We sat out in the seats at the Ryman, and I just couldn’t believe it. I’d listened to it on the radio all my life, but I couldn't believe I was really there. And I still get that kind of feeling. I love the circle, I love the friendships, I love the relationships, I love just the whole thing about the Opry.
ILLUSTRATION: Raul Arias.
Order Bill Anderson’s new EP and hear some music at billanderson.com.
From our February/March 2025 issue.
HEADER: Cover art for Bill Anderson's new EP, Forevermore.
