Bill Anderson sure knows how to tug at the heartstrings.
On Thursday, Sept. 19, PEOPLE is exclusively premiering "The Last One I'll Forget," which will be featured on Anderson's upcoming EP Forevermore on Sept. 20.
The nostalgic track tells the story of a man in his final years who's reflecting on life, and most importantly, the love of his life.
"And if I ever lose my vision/I'll stare into the dark and see your face/And if I lose my hearing/I'll always hear your sweet lips call my name," Anderson sings on the guitar-backed track. "I still love you just as much/As I did the day we met/And if ever lose my memory/You'll be the last one I'll forget."
"I wrote the lyric by visualizing myself as a man in his final years making sure he clearly communicated his everlasting and undying love for the woman who had been, 'the best part of my years,'" Anderson, 86, tells PEOPLE exclusively.
He continues, "I didn't feel the melody I had created, however, matched the sentiment of the lyrics. I shared the story with Steve Dorff, and he sat at the keyboard in his studio, and in virtually less time than it takes to tell it, married the perfect melody to the story I was attempting to tell."
After this experience, the Country Music Hall of Famer ended up co-writing five of the six songs on the project with Dorff and says he's "never felt more in-tune" with a collaborator "in my life."
"Steve is a musical genius, and I only hope this is but the first of many collaborations we'll be able to produce together," he says.
The six-track EP follows Anderson's previous collaboration "The Country I Grew Up With," featuring Bobby Bare, Jimmy Fortune, Vince Gill and Willie Nelson.
"This is a collection of positive love songs, and I've never put together a complete set like it before," he says. "Writing and performing these songs hopefully shows where I am in my life right now: blessed, happy, and content."
On April 25, Anderson was honored with the 2024 Dr. David Godbold Lifetime Achievement Award by the South Carolina Entertainment and Music Hall of Fame.
“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 said in a press release on his website. “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."
Forevermore is out Sept. 20.
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