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Butterfly Kisses' tells of a dad's true love Butterfly kisses after bedtime prayer/ Stickin' little white flowers all up in her hair/"Walk beside the pony daddy, it's my first ride"/"I know the cake looks funny, daddy, but I sure tried."/ Oh, with all that I've done wrong, I must have done something right/To deserve a hug every morning/And butterfly kisses at night. T he song chronicles a daughter's relationships with her father, beginning as in childhood, flying through the teenage years and ending on her wedding day. "Butterfly Kisses," the top song played on adult contemporary radio stations for seven weeks last year, brought tears to America's eyes. It earned Bob Carlisle a Grammy Award for Best Country Song. "Butterfly Kisses is a song that allows us to be imperfect," says Carlisle, during a recent telephone interview. He'll perform the song he wrote for his daughter's 16th birthday during a concert in Medford on Father's Day. "It's not a song about fatherhood; it's about gratitude," Carlisle says. "`I'm not a perfect dad, not a perfect husband, but despite myself, look what God gave me." Carlisle says he can't fully explain why "Butterfly Kisses" touched America the way it did. The song stayed tucked away in his daughter's room until Carlisle reluctantly played it for a producer. It later became such a hit that 223,000 albums sold the first week of its release in 1997. It was the first song by a Christian artist ever to reach Billboard Magazine's "Top 200 Adult Contemporary" chart. "I think people are starving for some content about things that are good and right, at least every once in awhile. I understand that sensationalism sells and I think a steady diet of `Butterfly Kisses' would nauseate even me. But I think people are hungry for confirmation that we love our kids and that we're doing things right," he said. Carlisle's daughter, Brooke, is now 20 and a sophomore at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. He and his wife of 23 years, Jacque, also have a 12-year-old son, Evan, who got a song written by dad on "Stories From The Heart," the album that followed "Butterfly Kisses." Carlisle spent 20 years as a session guitar player and backup singer for Barry Manilow, REO Speedwagon, Juice Newton and others. In the 1970s, he sang and played with Randy Thomas in The Sweet Comfort Band and The Allies, recording six albums from 1985 to 1991. When "Butterfly Kisses" reached double-platinum success by selling more than 2 million albums, Carlisle paid off his mortgage and limited gigs to 100 concerts a year. Carlisle has a reputation as an expert on fatherhood. Books spun off the song's success, including "Butterfly Kisses & Bittersweet Tears" (Word), which consists of stories told to Carlisle about how the song impacted listeners. He published a children's picture book and read it along with his daughter for an audiobook. "It's funny, the very thing I sing about -- my family -- is the very thing that can keep me from them," Carlisle says. He made up his mind years ago that being a parent and husband would take higher priority than being a musician. "I have to meet with the music folks and tell them I don't want to tour as heavily," says Carlisle. "It's a conscious decision I make," Carlisle says. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA