I thought I was writing songs…
Turns out...
I was writing my life.
Every song was leaving clues...
to a story I wouldn't understand until many years later.
That probably sounds like an odd thing for a songwriter to say.
After all...
I wrote them.
I recorded them.
I performed them.
Some climbed the charts.
Others quietly found homes in people's lives.
If you had asked me then what I was doing...
I would have told you I was making music.
I would have been wrong.
It wasn't until I retired from touring that I began opening boxes I hadn't touched in decades.
Boxes full of spiral notebooks.
Yellow legal pads.
Old photographs.
Letters.
Ticket stubs.
Newspaper clippings.
The kind of things we all tell ourselves we'll organize someday.
I started reading.
Not because I was writing a book.
Not because I was looking for another song.
Mostly because I was curious.
Somewhere between those old notebooks...
and memories I hadn't visited in years...
something unexpected happened.
I stopped remembering the songs.
I started remembering the people.
My dad.
My mom.
My brother.
The friends who taught me things they never realized they were teaching.
The teachers who believed in me before I believed in myself.
A creek that became an entire world.
The first girl I ever loved...
who never could have imagined she'd still be finding
her way into my songs more than fifty years later.
I hadn't gone looking for any of them.
They were simply waiting...
patiently...
inside the music.
That's when it finally occurred to me.
The songs were never the destination.
They were simply the breadcrumbs...
leading me back home.
Every lyric pointed toward a person.
Every melody led back to a place.
Every album quietly carried another chapter
of a story I hadn't yet learned how to tell.
This website is where I finally get to tell that story.
Not because I think my life was extraordinary.
Because I think it was wonderfully ordinary.
And I've come to believe ordinary lives are where the best stories live.
Together...
we'll meet people who changed me.
Some knew they were doing it.
Most didn't.
We'll visit Willow Creek.
Sit on front porches.
Ride in old cars.
Stand beside hospital beds.
Celebrate victories.
Live through heartbreak.
Laugh more than you probably expect.
And if we're both lucky...
you may find yourself remembering places...
people...
and moments...
that shaped your own life.
Because that's what stories do.
They remind us we're all a little more alike than we ever imagined.
So...
pull up a chair.
Stay as long as you'd like.
We've got some stories to tell.
And who knows...
before we're finished...
maybe you'll remember a few of your own.
I'm glad you stopped by.
Come on...
Let's go see where the songs began.
— Bill
Where the Songs Began — Chapter Guide
Read straight through, or choose the part of the journey calling you back.
Prelude: Before We Begin
A songwriter opens old boxes and realizes the songs were breadcrumbs leading him back home.
Chapter 1: The Phone Call
One phone call—and one question—starts the journey back to Willow Creek.
Chapter 2: The First Day of School
Illness, recovery, and a first day of school begin changing how a young boy sees the world.
Chapter 3: The Living Room
A family living room becomes a place where imagination, music, and possibility take root.
Chapter 4: The First Steps Back
Returning to ordinary life after illness teaches patience, observation, and resilience.
Chapter 5: Wonderfully Ordinary
The work, wonder, and people of an ordinary childhood reveal why ordinary lives hold the best stories.
Chapter 6: Finding My Voice
Early music and first chords help Bill discover a voice that belongs to him.
Chapter 7: The Notebook Years
Old notebooks preserve the questions, ideas, and memories that would later become songs.
Chapter 8: Maybe... Maybe Not
Young love, uncertainty, and a life-changing relationship leave echoes that last for decades.
Chapter 9: Quietly Perfect Times
Simple moments become the quietly perfect memories whose meaning grows with time.
Chapter 10: Too Big for My Britches
Confidence, ambition, mistakes, and consequences deliver lessons that could not be learned gently.
Chapter 11: Stage Lights, Algebra, and Bad Decisions
Stage lights, algebra, and youthful certainty collide with some memorably bad decisions.
Chapter 12: The Porch
A porch becomes the setting for love, regret, responsibility, and a goodbye that still matters.
Chapter 13: The Best Kept Secret
Questions, mysteries, and a carefully guarded secret complicate the story behind the songs.
Chapter 14: Every Song Has a Beginning
The notebooks open, revealing how real moments slowly found their way into lyrics and melodies.
Chapter 15: Making It Up As I Went Along
College and changing plans teach Bill how to build a life without having all the answers.
Chapter 16: The Helper
Night shifts, real jobs, and family expectations shape Little Ab into a man finding his own way.
Chapter 17: The Spreadsheet, the Suit, and the Stories
Spreadsheets and suits lead to international leadership while the songwriter quietly remains.
Epilogue: The Life That Became the Songs
Family, love, loss, music, and an unfinished life come together in the story’s closing reflection.