Ask Bill – July 6

1) During your performance in Lubbock, Texas, you mentioned the idea behind many of your songs. That was awesome. Would you please explain the idea in “Five Little Fingers?”

Thank you. I’m glad you enjoyed it. I wrote “Five Little Fingers” in 1964 when my first daughter, Terri, was three years old. Her mother and I were having a disagreement, and I was sitting in the living room by myself. Terri came in and put her little hand on top of mine and began to pat me…as if to say, “Daddy, everything is going to be all right.” I looked at her tiny fingers on top of mine and realized that, by her simply being there, she was telling me “all that I needed to know.”  When I went to turn that thought into a song, I realized how much stronger the emotion would be had there been a death in the family. I let my imagination take it from there.

2) This past weekend I was watching a DVD by Walt Disney and the credits listed the co-producer as Bill Anderson. Are you in fact that Bill Anderson?

No, but evidently there is or was someone in the Disney organization with the same name as mine because I’ve been asked that question before. I also get asked if the Bill Anderson, Jr. listed in the credits of “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” is my son, and he’s not. I guess that’s what happens when you have a very common name…one more reason that I’m thankful for the nickname, “Whisperin’ Bill.” There’s not another one of those!

3) Roger Miller once said that he almost felt guilty taking credit for one or two of his songs because they were so easy. “All I did was write down the words as they came to me,” he said. “Almost like they were inspired by a higher power.” Have you ever experienced this type of song writing? Almost like it had to be written and you were chosen to write it?

I have felt that way many times. One minute I’m sitting there staring at a blank sheet of paper and the next minute there are words filling that page…and I don’t remember putting them there. I’ve heard other writers say virtually the same thing. In my gospel song, “I Can Do Nothing Alone,” I wrote: “I held the pencil but He wrote this song.” I truly feel my songs are a gift from God…and I never cease to be grateful.

Thanks for a great group of questions this month. Sorry I couldn’t get to them all. Send yours to askbill@billanderson.com or to me at P.O. Box 888, Hermitage, TN. 37076, and I’ll to my best to respond. See you next month. Stay curious.

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