Rising Stars: Meet Tony Alan Bates

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tony Alan Bates.

Hi Tony, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I was born with stubs for fingers. My feet and legs were turned in the opposite direction of my upper body. The doctors said I’d never walk and I’d be confined to a wheelchair. Shortly after I was dedicated to Christ the doctors called and wanted to break my legs and turn them around. They realigned my nerves and tendons and placed me in casts up to my hips. I learned to walk in those casts and after I mastered walking in them they moved me to a pair of shoes with a bar between my feet. I became interested in sports and played baseball all throughout my youth, now I play golf.

My musical journey began in the Summer of 1985. I was 13 and my twin brother Tim and I started a gospel trio called Altar Of Prayer (later it became known as The Bates Family). At the time I played drums and my brother played the bass guitar and we had a lead guitar player and a piano player, our cousin Dayna sang with me and my brother to round out the group. After a year or so, the band and our cousin unexpectedly decided to quit, which left 2 singers, a bass player, and a drummer…what a combination. We still filled our dates and we would invite the local church musicians to play with us since we were singing songs that everyone knew, God always provided a piano player or guitarist. We would sing and share our miraculous stories and people were drawn to the goodness of God.

At the age of 14 I asked God to give me the gift to play the piano, the following Sunday morning the piano player didn’t show up and God spoke to my heart and said: “you asked, now you shall receive!” I walked past my drum set and set down behind the piano. Our song leader turned about 5 shades of white because he knew I couldn’t play, and so did I, but I told him to sing, if it sounded good I’d hit and if it didn’t sound good I’d hit it! That began my love affair with the piano and started me on my No Fingers, No Problem journey.

Now our group had a bass player and a piano man to go with our stories and songs! It wasn’t long after that we began writing our own material and the rest as they say is history.

Fast forward to today and I’m still in love with the piano and songwriting and I’m still sharing my miraculous stories and songs at every opportunity!

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It has not been an easy journey at times.

I started so young that it was almost a novelty at first and no one took me seriously (other than my momma and brother) or thought I’d ever make this my lifelong mission. Life happens, victories, defeats, gains, and losses, and through it, all this passion to share my stories and songs has continued to burn deep within me.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I’m most known for being the guy with No Fingers who can play the piano at a very high level. I specialize as a singer-songwriter and what sets me apart from others is my No Fingers, No Fingers problem story.

I’m most proud of the fact that I’m comfortable in my own skin. I have fully embraced my country music overtones vocally and I love how my gifts complement each other. I also love speaking and telling folks about the goodness and love of God!