Bill was born on Boxing Day, 70 years ago now, in Chicago, Illinois, in the United States of America, the first child of a couple who then gave him two younger sisters.  As the children grew, the family moved several times to embrace the more suburban lifestyle. Indeed, Bill’s only biological son, christened William, still lives in Skokie with his family, not much more than a few kilometres from where Bill spent a significant part of his childhood. Bill’s father was an automobile salesman and his mother was a registered nurse who suspended her career to raise her three young children but returned to work when they were old enough to no longer require her constant presence, something not so typical at the time. Bill learnt First Aid from his mother and credits her with a lot of his learning and interest in the fields of science and medicine. His parents having a dual income meant Bill could sometimes score expensive presents, especially if his birthday and Christmas presents were rolled into one.  Bill recalls with great fondness receiving a cassette recorder in 1969, which cost the princely sum of $80 dollars but allowed him to record both music and the human voice and was the perfect gift for a boy who was fascinated by music, singing and the radio. Musical skills and interest definitely do not run in Bill’s family. Neither of his parents was particularly drawn to music, though one of his sisters learnt piano. Much of the love of music in the family was Bill’s alone, and to this day, he appreciates more genres of music than the average person could easily name, with a great familiarity with modern styles and artists as well as the classics of rock and pop music.  Asking Bill for his favourite artist is like asking a parent their favourite child, however Bill conceded that currently he has to admire Taylor Swift for her punchy lyrics and her business-savvy approach to engaging her fan base. His all-time favourite may well be Todd Rundgren, an American musician who Bill most admires for his multiple talents in the field, his ability to be his own “one-man band”.

Creativity is one of Bill’s strengths, along with patience and individualism.  His favourite quote is seemingly an oxymoron, attributed to multiple people yet most recently used by street artist Banksy: “Art should afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted.”  Bill also lays claim to being “selectively motivated”.  At school, Bill’s teachers commented on his potential, yet he scraped by, self-confessedly lackadaisical about his studies until, in his junior year, he realised he needed to get serious if he was to gain university admission. This was probably the first time Bill understood his own capabilities, should he choose to focus. Bill went on to graduate with a Bachelor’s degree in English literature from Loyola University in Chicago.

Bill arrived in Hua Hin in January 2018, seemingly on a whim.  Recently divorced from his wife Claudia, mother of his son and stepson, and so without ties, Bill was looking for a change of scenery, both literally and figuratively.  He entertained the options of buying himself a tiny home or even a mobile home, before deciding to come to Hua Hin because he had a friend living here. Since he had not travelled to Asia other than a month-long jaunt with people from the local Community College, in his mind Bill committed only to a year’s trial. Six years later, his commitment to, and interest in, living in Hua Hin remain strong.  For a boy from the harsh winters of Chicago, there is a lot to love about the continually warm and relatively calm and predictable weather in this sheltered part of Thailand, so much so that Bill has divested himself of almost all of his cold weather apparel, foreseeing only very infrequent visits to his homeland.

Bill’s single status ended when he was introduced to his current girlfriend Kannika five years ago by a mutual friend.  The pair don’t cohabit, and generally meet at the weekend as she is still working full-time in a government office in Pranburi. Bill is a closet romantic and on Valentine’s Day endeared himself to her work colleagues by turning up at the office with beautiful flowers for his beloved, and fresh-squeezed orange juice and pastries for them all.  Way to go, Bill! Bill’s relationship with Kannika is now tightly exclusive and is another thing Bill savours about the local life.

Hua Hin also has a strong, diverse live music landscape which suits Bill nicely. During his working life, Bill had long-term involvement in both his local and national music scenes, and is himself a talented singer and guitarist and player of harmonica and drums. Indeed, in the event of a fire, he would grab as many of his guitars as he could carry, before he would think to snatch up his laptop, which is a vital tool, necessary for his radio work and generally keeping in touch with others. On his daily drive-time radio stints Bill sometimes mentions his book, “Everything I Know I Learned from Rock Stars”, which is soon to have another print run. The book has 13 memoir chapters outlining insights gained from working as a professional writer and editor in the music industry, as well as almost 50 profiles of the music artists he had the pleasure of meeting and interviewing.

Bill’s significant experience as a writer began fresh out of university, when he was able to pick up freelance work for Billboard Magazine, as its #2 music writer and correspondent due to his friendship with Billboard’s leadership.  As a major city, Chicago hosted many of the big music acts of the time, as well as having its own lively local music scene and Bill was able to cover those for Billboard, the Chicago Sun-times and many local and regional entertainment publications and so add a number of internationally recognised names to his business credentials.  Other names he was eventually able to drop into conversation include United Press International (UPI) and Playboy Magazine (he was the Public Relations Manager, not the photographer!), names which will likely be familiar to many. Bill’s expertise extended to media campaigns, marketing and PR as well as writing.  In addition, Bill added job titles such as radio broadcaster and educator to his resumé with a two-year-long engagement with Sunradio.com in Austin, Texas, and work with his local Community College that was his final job before retirement. This experience led to Bill being offered his current radio gig with Surf Radio, the local English-speaking station. Bill has a longstanding friendship and music collaboration of 8 years with a teenager with autism who uses a nom de plume, Josephmooon. Their work together has resulted in the recording of a series of tracks. Bill meets with and mentors him via regular, weekly Zoom sessions, a follow-on from his previous involvement with special needs children.

It was a mini “mid-life crisis” that led Bill to change tack with his career in his 40s.  Beginning to worry that “nobody cares what a 40-year-old man thinks about rock/pop music anymore” Bill took a sideways shift to find new relevance in his work-life.  Looking back now, he wonders if his concern was actually unfounded. Either way, although what Bill did might sound impressive, powerful and prestigious, Bill never made a real fortune from it.  However, he derived genuine enjoyment and a sense of purpose from his work with special needs children and young adults, where he could engage his natural patience, and was stimulated by his work with the Community College where he loved the energy of working with people from 80 or so nationalities and ethnic backgrounds, people highly motivated to learn and embrace skills which would gain them greater access to opportunity in the US.

Although Bill claims not to have a bucket list, he still has a hankering to go to Africa himself, but not as a tourist.  He would like to go with a purpose, but hasn’t found it yet. Another concern for Bill is the issue of waste, locally and globally as well.  He is not fond of fast fashion and still proudly possesses a black cotton T-shirt with a parental advisory print he was given 20 years ago by a friend. Bill also professes admiration for woman like Greta Thunberg and Malala Yousafzai who refuse to be silenced, and wonders just how long it will take until the whole world acknowledges the climate crisis which is not only upon us, but is swiftly approaching a tipping point. For Bill, all these factors bring him to the conclusion that the world is a worse place than it was when he was young.  Luckily, he holds hope in the fact that human kindness is enduring. An internet meme circled amongst Bill’s friends many years ago saw him labelled as “Mr Up-To-No-Good”. Mischievous he will wear, but unkind or uncaring Bill is not. Bill brings happiness into the world by truly seeing and recognising people, then helping them out by being considerate and striving to be less selfish. The sound of children playing will bring a smile to his face, however needless complaining will have the opposite effect.  Bill is not at all fond of what he labels “abject griping”.

While Bill is a man of many strengths and talents, he readily admits to being intolerant and short-tempered.  Not a man to suffer fools gladly, Bill is not fond of time-wasters and will be curt with people he finds toxic. Even his boss at Playboy, an admirer of Bill, warned his wife on first meeting her. “You’ve got a great guy there – if you can stand him.”, a rather back-handed compliment.

Bill is fun-loving and still very much young-at-heart.  He enjoys shared experiences, live music in particular, whether he is performing or in the audience, though now he shuns very large crowds.  Bill’s favourite place to be, in the whole world, is on stage, caught up in the moment, as it allows him to enter a centred state of being, not too different from meditation.  Bill is still acquiring new learning, and is a keen participant in Quiz nights, where his team are regular winners.  Bill’s particular fields of expertise in quizzing are in food, science and technology, though he states he is weaker in geography and history.  Bill has already been dabbling with Chat GPT and has had artificial intelligence synthesise his voice, even though he acknowledges that in the near future it will become increasingly more difficult to separate the real from the construct, a great danger, particularly for the young.

One on-going aim for Bill is to become a better teacher.  He has reached the point in life when sharing his knowledge and skills has become a priority, those more recently acquired like his ear for decoding unfamiliar pieces of music, as well as those long established. Bill has no guilty pleasures.  Raised a Roman Catholic, Bill was an active member of his church’s musical group for 15 years and recalls one Easter cajoling the music master to allow a piece from the musical Jesus Christ Superstar to feature in the mass, electric guitar and all. Yet Bill has long since abandoned the need for feeling guilt about anything he chooses to do. He embraces the use of cannabis for both medical and recreational use and has felt quite liberated by its legal acceptance in Thailand over the last few years.

Bill’s approach to his current lifestyle here in Hua Hin is perhaps best described as philosophical.  He is grateful for his relatively good health and enjoys simple pleasures such as a good pepperoni pizza with fresh tomatoes, describing pizza as Chicago’s national dish, much to the chagrin of any Italian readers. Bill also keeps a close watch out for the arrival of beer o’clock. He learnt a lot about how to respond to difficult situations from the Lamaze method of childbirth preparation taught to impending parents. This learning about coping mechanisms in times of stress and pain has been of invaluable assistance to Bill’s ongoing mental and physical well-being.

Bill’s life has had its own very personal and particular soundtrack, and the one thing he couldn’t live without is music.  Depriving him of sound wouldn’t work either as he has music eternally playing in his head.  One of the most memorable musical experiences of Bill’s lifetime happened to him right here in Hua Hin.  It had long been his ambition to perform in a Beatles tribute band, and Bill’s guitar and vocals were at the forefront of Magical Mystery, a quartet of two Thai and two Western men which performed regularly for a time in the local area. This was just one of the performing opportunities Bill has found, and is likely to continue unearthing in what seems to have become his forever home, Hua Hin.

Published 12th May 2024