BILL BLOG
Monday, June 8, 2026
Here comes another Monday. 82 with some rain, and maybe a thunderstorm today in Music City.
THE WEEKEND
Friday morning, I headed for the airport. A Lyft picked fellow songwriter Bill DiLuigi and me up to take us to BNA in Nashville. The driver arrived in a brand new self-driving Tesla. And he never put his hands on the wheel all the way to our airport. Amazing. This was my second ride in one, and now I’m convinced I could see myself in one.
Early Friday afternoon, I landed in Raleigh-Durham for our Freedom Sings USA retreat, held at the VA Center in Durham.
I’ve been in a few VA’s writing with soldiers. The VA Center here is beautiful, well-maintained, and the staff we worked with were terrific. Including Manaca Gilmore, who headed up our event. She lost her eyesight in battle in Iraq and is one of the most uplifting, positive folks you could ever meet. And a heck of a singer herself!
There were three other songwriters on this trip besides me. Steve Dean, Bobby Tomberlin, and Bill DiLuigi. We gathered with the staff and the 4 veterans we would be writing with. Mine was Larry Gaines.
We had a little lunch, got to know each other, played a couple of songs for them, then went to the hotel for the rest of Friday evening.
All of the songwriters went to different rooms at the VA here, as I did with my chosen veteran Larry Gaines.
Larry had two eventful years in the Army. Drafted, he went for training to be a mortarman in Louisiana, ready to ship off to the jungles of Vietnam. But he caught pneumonia during training, and by the time he was well, the unit he had trained with had been shipped off, and he went to Germany instead. And it was there he encountered rampant use of drugs. Somehow, he managed to avoid drugs, but got hooked on alcohol as a coping mechanism that he has battled the rest of his life. Despite that, he has a certificate from Duke and other Universities, has worked many big jobs, but kept his alcoholism to himself.
He told me that traveling with his wife to over 130 countries and music therapy at the VA Center here in Durham have helped him deal with the problem.
He had trouble sleeping from some of the incidents he observed in Germany. A young soldier leaped from his window, high on drugs, and took his own life. Larry had checked on him earlier, thinking he was okay, only to find out that after he was gone, the young man jumped. He carries that image with him.
Larry and I certainly hit it off. And I admire him. His song is titled, “Grace”
Grace keeps blessing me, grace keeps helping me
Grace has been a guiding light
I have battled demons
I still battle demons when I try to sleep at night
If you’re asking me, how I’m still here today
This is what I’d have to say
Grace, grace, God’s grace
SATURDAY NIGHT
I performed Larry’s song Saturday night in the VA Chapel along with all the other songwriters.
Every song was great, every veteran? Even greater. 4 great soldiers were honored in the chapel.
AND THEN…
This morning, I received this e-mail from my veteran, Larry Gaines:
Hello Bill,
What a pleasure to meet you and work with you!
Everyone that I shared the song “Grace” with just absolutely loves it! They are
adding it to their Country playlist, using it in men’s and women’s Bible
studies, playing it in church, sharing with other veterans, etc. One person
asked me if it was ok to have it played on Sunday morning Christian radio.
I hope “Grace” continues to be with you, guide and bless you!
With deepest gratitude!
The kind of stuff that makes a songwriter feel pretty great.
SONG OF THE DAY
Today it’s “Luke Bryan” from Cledus T. Judd. It’s a parody of the Alan Thicke pop hit, “Blurred Lines.” There’s a reason why this is the “Song of the Day”, and that will be explained later in the Blog.
Cledus called and asked me to help him write this song several years ago, and I had forgotten all about it. Then one night after Luke Bryan won the CMA Award for Entertainer of the Year, I got a text from Cledus telling me our song was being released the next day. I had to ask, “What song?!” Turns out he had already recorded it, with the help of Colt Ford, who does a “rap” part in the song, and I never knew.
A nice surprise.
HEALTH NOTES
The CDC is warning that the Ebola outbreak could rival the worst on record unless the world acts.
Scientists seem to agree that there are many health benefits that come with laughter, one calling it a “mental workout.”
Elon Musk is about to launch the world’s first commercial brain chips. The chips could improve the lives of more than 3 billion people with neurological conditions, especially those related to movement and speech.
HERE’S YOUR SIGN
I’m betting that’s true.
CMA FEST
It’s over. By now, a ton of country music fans have left the building and are back home after several days of partying and cheering on their favorite country stars. And of course, some of them did this.
I always tell folks that Nashville has NO law that requires you to ride a pedal tavern. But, I don't think they listen.
Pretty much every country star, or wanna be country star, played the Fest, some of them multiple times.
Luke Byran sent everyone back home, closing it out at the stadium last night.
And THAT explains why the song “Luke Bryan” was the “Song of the Day” today.
HERE’S A FIRST
A guy robs a yoga place in San Francisco and makes his getaway in a Waymo, one of those self-driving taxis. And as of now, police have not caught the guy. The first self-driving getaway of it’s kind.
I’m guessing the police may not want to spend a lot of time looking for some dude who stole Yoga pants.
WEDDING DAY
The word is out, and now “Swifties” know that Taylor Swift will be marrying her football star fiancée, Travis Kelce, at Madison Square Garden in NYC—just your little intimate wedding venue. Renting Madison Square Garden costs about 2.5 million, and experts predict the wedding will cost in the neighborhood of 20 MILLION.
So far, I have not received my wedding invite. Guess I’ll have to “Shake it Off.”
FIREWORKS
Yesterday in East Tennessee, a truck carrying fireworks went off.
And it wasn’t the 4th of July. But some folks nearby got a free show.
Nobody was hurt, and as of now, there is no word on what set them off.
Some fireworks tent somewhere is going to be short a few bottle rockets this year.
FUNNY
MORE AI STUFF
Soon, we will be ordering our Big Mac cheeseburgers and fries through an AI Chatbox they will call “Archy.” No human involved.
If they were really clever, they would license the voice of “Archie Bunker” to use, to take our orders. “Ahh…welcome to McDonald’s, there meathead. Now what do you want there eh?"
QUOTE OF THE DAY
From Unknown:
“Every family has that one weird relative. If you don’t know who it is, it’s probably you.”
TODAY
I’ve got today off to reset and get ready before a very full week of songwriter, followed by a baseball trip this coming weekend to see my Reds play.
Have a great Monday!
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