Photo by Lee Willard
We love to see press releases like this one we received from Adkins Entertainment. Congrats to a living legend!
Country Music Hall of Fame member, Songwriters Hall of Fame member and ACM and CMA-award-winning entertainment titan, Bill Anderson, was honored with the 2024 Dr. David Godbold Lifetime Achievement Award by the South Carolina Entertainment and Music Hall of Fame on Thursday, April 25. Anderson was inducted by the organization in 1994, and is the first Lifetime Achievement Award honoree. Anderson was born in Columbia, South Carolina and lived there for the first 8 years of his life until moving to Georgia.
“What a thrill it was to go back to the state where I was born and receive the first Lifetime Achievement Award ever given to a member of the South Carolina Entertainment and Music Hall of Fame,” Bill Anderson shared. He continued, “I appreciate so much the efforts of Dr. David Godbold, founder and CEO of the Hall of Fame, and his staff for keeping alive the music and accomplishments of entertainers and musicians with roots in South Carolina. I told the audience in my acceptance speech that Bill Anderson has never ceased to be proud that he’s from South Carolina and that it’s nice to know South Carolina hasn’t forgotten Bill Anderson as well.”
The Dr. David Godbold Lifetime Achievement award carries the name of the founder of the South Carolina Entertainment and Music Hall of Fame and was created to recognize an artist who has previously been inducted and has achieved significant national success in the field of music and/or entertainment. The award is nominated and voted on by the board of directors to celebrate an individual or group who has achieved national prominence through their creative contributions of outstanding artistic significance that shines a positive light on the State of South Carolina.
In 2023, Anderson enlisted four fellow Hall of Famers – Bobby Bare, Jimmy Fortune, Vince Gill and Willie Nelson – for their collaboration, “The Country I Grew Up With,” released on Nov. 17, 2023 via MCA Nashville/UMe. Anderson also presented the award for Song of the Year with ACM award-winning hitmaker, Sara Evans, during the 57th Annual CMA Awards and was celebrated last year for his indelible 62 years as the longest-serving member in Grand Ole Opry history.