Moses Lakes own music man

MOSES LAKE — Music man.

Song writer.

Harmonical king.

Opening the door to his Moses Lake home on a sunny August afternoon in dress pants, a white button down shirt, sequin neck tie and cowboy hat, eighty-two-year-old Billy Joe Bishop is ready for his next performance.

A member in a regional fiddlers association for 25 years and a professional chef in San Francisco during his working days, Bishop is taking his talent on this particular day to patients in the Alzheimer's unit at Sunbridge Special Care in Moses Lake.

His reason for offering his services is two fold: To make people happy and in doing so hopefully improve his own health so he can rid himself of the terminal lung cancer he was diagnosed with two months ago.

"As long as I can make you happy then I'm happy," Bishop said. I know I've done my job and that's what counts; making people happy no matter where I go."

In between treatments of chemotherapy, Bishop, with the assistance of wife Gladys and two other musical companions, performs at retirement, senior center and care facilities in and around Moses Lake. He also performs for funerals and parties.

Already, doctors have told Bishop his cancer has shrunk significantly.

Exercise of his vocal chords by singing and playing the harmonica are helping to keep his lungs healthier than they would be otherwise.

"Music is his life," said Gladys, Bishop's wife of five years. "Without that I think he'd just feel like he didn't have much to live for if it wasn't for his music."

Three to four times a month Bishop goes to various venues to perform.

The sounds of old classics like "Old Man River," "Wagon Wheel" and "Only Make Believe" can be heard in the hallways of care facilities where patients clap their hands and tap their feet to Bishop's music.

Bishop has even been known to put five small harmonicas in his mouth and, without the use of his hands, play country western, swing or jazz.

Bishop first started playing the harmonica at the age of nine while growing up in New York. He is a self-taught musician.

Some who listen to his music dance, others sing and for a few just a smile is a sign the music has touched them and made their day brighter.

"It puts a little light into the body and it gives them a little bit of hope," Bishop said.

The cancer has taken its toll and Bishop admits his performances are good, but not as sharp as they could be.

His sense of humor is evident as he jokes about his competition.

"They take care of their people so good that I've got competition," Bishop said of the facilities he sings at. "I've got to make them happy."

Gladys does not shy away from getting up and dancing with audience members as she taught dance with her previous husband of 63 years.

One particular incident at a care facility where Bishop performed brings back fond memories for the couple.

A woman had been tapping her hand on a table to the music, Bishop explained, and the woman next to her was holding a teddy bear and she took the bear and hit the other woman on the head with it and said "'You're disturbing me, I can't hear him.'"

For a man who has had more than 30 operations on his body Bishop is not stranger to overcoming life threatening obstacles.

One operation on his stomach years ago forced him to close some restaurants he had opened in San Francisco due to failing health that put him out of business.

Bishop's fragile health has been one reason Gladys has questioned if her husband should be going out as much as he does.

Stopping the performances, however, is not an option in Bishop's mind.

Stopping means "you give up and I don't want to give up," he said. "It's making a better person out of me when I'm doing this."