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Willie Nelson: Willie Nelson Is A Country Singer-Songwriter Known For Hit Songs Like "Crazy" and "On The Road Again."
Willie Nelson: Willie Nelson Is A Country Singer-Songwriter Known For Hit Songs Like "Crazy" and "On The Road Again."
Early Life
Nelson was born on April 29, 1933, in Abbott, Texas. The son of Myrle and Ira D. Nelson,
Willie and his older sister, Bobbie, were raised by their paternal grandparents during the
Great Depression.
With their grandparents, Willie and Bobbie attended their town’s small Methodist church,
where they received their earliest exposure to music. Their loving grandparents had a
musical background and Nelson has described them as “dedicated musical teachers.” They
encouraged Willie and his sister to play and learn, going so far as to order musical books
from Chicago.
Nelson got his first guitar at the age of six — mere months prior to the death of his beloved
grandfather — and he began writing his own poetry and early musical compositions shortly
thereafter. His famous gospel song “Family Bible” draws from his early exposure to
religious music. He sold the song to his friend Paul Buskirk, a guitar teacher, for $50 in
1959.
Though family and faith were and remain top priorities for Nelson, in his 2015 memoir It’s
a Long Story: My Life, the self-described guitar “picker” recalls that church “did not calm
my restless and rambunctious soul. … Mama Nelson had to tether toddler Willie to a pole
in the yard to keep him from wandering off. Don’t know where I’d have gone if I could
have, but I had the itch early on–the itch to look beyond the end of the road.”
A few years later, he started playing his first professional gigs with a local polka band. A
job at odds with his Christian upbringing. “I was ten, a member in good standing of the
Methodist Church and a devoted grandson,” Nelson writes. “At the same time, when I was
invited to play music in a beer joint, I said to hell with all the objections raised by the bible-
thumpers.”
In 1947 Nelson joined the gospel group Bud Fletcher and the Texans, which already
featured Bobbie on piano. He continued to attend school and lettered in numerous sports.
The band played the local club circuit for the next few years and Bobbie and Bud Fletcher
married. It was during this time Nelson first appeared on local radio.
Air Force
After graduating from Abbott High School in 1950, Nelson enlisted in the United States Air
Force and first stationed at Lackland in San Antonio. The Korean War was raging but his
military career was short-lived when persistent back problems from previous injuries led to
a medical discharge nine months later.
Unsure of where to turn next, Nelson briefly enrolled in a farming program at Baylor
University. While pursuing his studies, he took odd jobs to make ends meet, including
selling encyclopedias door to door. But Nelson had not lost his passion for music, which he
pursued by working as a disc jockey for various radio stations.
In 1960, Nelson settled in the country music capital of Nashville, Tennessee, where he
found a job as a songwriter for Pamper Music, earning a salary of around $50 a week. The
following year, two of Nelson's creations became hits for other artists — Faron Young's
version of "Hello Walls" reached No. 1 on the country charts and sold two million
copies. Patsy Cline's legendary rendition of "Crazy" became a Top 10 hit on both country
and pop. Two years later, Ray Price’s recording of his “Night Life” was also a Top 40
country hit.
READ MORE: How Patsy Cline and Willie Nelson Teamed up for Her Hit Song "Crazy"
However, despite these successes, Nelson’s own recordings fell on deaf ears during this
period. He did not fit the traditional Nashville country music mold, and whenever
producers tried to make him fit they only succeeded in stripping away the qualities that
helped make him unique, such as his unusual manner of phrasing.
“No one should try to follow my phrasing,” Nelson writes in It’s a Long Story. “My
phrasing is peculiar to me. I’ll lay back on the beat or jump ahead. I’m always doing
something funny with time because, to me, time is a flexible thing. I believe in taking my
time. When it comes to singing a song, I’ve got all the time in the world.”
His resistance to such efforts — as well as his growing reputation as a hard-living, hard-
drinking man — only served to highlight his outsider status. “With all the music coming
out of Nashville–all the great musicians and legendary producers–you’d think I’d be a
natural fit,” Nelson writes. “I never was. For that I don’t blame Nashville. I blame my own
peculiar nature.”
Though the 1962 single “Touch Me” did reach the country Top 10, Nelson’s debut
album, And Then I Wrote, failed to chart, as did his follow-up album, Here’s Willie Nelson.
It seemed his efforts as a performing artist would fail to bring the success that others
enjoyed from recording his songs.
Return to Texas
By 1970 Nelson had set up home in Ridgetop, Tennessee, and that year his house burned
down. During the blaze Nelson describes running inside and grabbing two guitar cases.
“One contained [his guitar] Trigger and the other two pounds of primo Columbian pot,” he
writes in It’s a Long Story.
Nelson took the fire as a sign that things needed to change. Returning to his native Texas
with family in tow, he settled in Austin and soon became an important part of the city’s
country music scene, performing regularly at its many venues.
He also began hosting his now-legendary Fourth of July picnics in 1973. Inspired by
Woodstock, the gatherings became popular musical celebrations and included performances
from other country music outlaws, such as Kris Kristofferson and Waylon Jennings. In
honor of his contributions, in 1975 the Texas State Senate declared July 4 to be Willie
Nelson Day. The annual event remains a popular attraction.
Around this time, Nelson’s collaborative endeavors found fertile ground as well. Along
with Jennings, Jessi Colter and Tompall Glaser, he contributed to the compilation Wanted!
The Outlaws (1976), which also achieved both critical and commercial success.
Grammys for 'Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up' and 'Georgia on
My Mind'
Nelson would team up with Jennings again soon after to record the popular single "Mamas
Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys," which won the 1978 Grammy Award for
best country vocal performance by a duo or group.
Always interested in different music styles, Nelson recorded his own takes on American
standards on Stardust (1978), and his cover of Hoagy Carmichael and Stuart Gorrell's
"Georgia on My Mind" earned him his second Grammy Award for best country vocal
performance. Beyond its critical success, the album proved to have commercial staying
power as well, lingering on the country charts for an entire decade.
Nelson starred as the titular role of the Red Headed Stranger, the 1986 western drama film
based on his 1975 album of the same name. He would later go on to appear in films such
as The Dukes of Hazzard (2005), Blonde Ambition (2007), Beer for My Horses (2008)
and Zoolander 2 (2016).
"Always on My Mind" and "To All the Girls I've Loved Before"
The 1980s brought continued musical success. Nelson’s ballad "Always
on My Mind" won the Grammy Award for Best Country Vocal
Performance in 1982, and the album of the same name topped both the
country and pop charts. Though Tougher Than Leather (1983), Without a
Song (1984) and City of New Orleans (1984), did not prove to be
crossover hits, all three still reached the top of the country charts. Nelson
teamed up with Julio Iglesias for the ballad "To All the Girls I've Loved
Before" (1982), a massive international success.
The Highwaymen
Adding to his resume of successful collaborations, the following year
Nelson joined with Johnny Cash, Jennings and Kristofferson to form the
country supergroup the Highwaymen. “You wouldn’t think that our four
uneven voices would blend. But they did. They fit together like a jigsaw
puzzle,” Nelson writes of the group in It’s a Long Story.
Nelson never lost touch with his farming roots, and in 1985 — along with
fellow rockers Neil Young and John Mellencamp — he helped organize
the first Farm Aid concert. With performances by scores of music’s
biggest names, it earned nearly $10 million to help family farmers keep
their land, and to date, the Farm Aid organization has earned many
millions more for its cause. Nelson continues to perform at the annual
event.
Nelson has a strong compassion for animals, and over the years he has
been involved with various animal-welfare groups, including the Society
for Protective Animal Legislation, Best Friends Animal Society and the
Animal Welfare Institute. With the latter, Nelson has become deeply
involved in a campaign to save horses from slaughter. His group Willie
and the Nelson Family, which features his sister, Billie, recorded the song
“Wild Horses” to benefit the cause.
In 1991, Nelson was dealt a devastating blow when his 33-year-old son
Billy died on Christmas Day in what Nelson describes as “a terrible
accident” in It’s a Long Story. Rarely discussing his children’s lives
publicly, Nelson writes he believes “the children of entertainers –
especially the children of wandering troubadours – pay a big price.
Sharing your dad with the world isn’t fun. And when that dad has moved
through three tumultuous marriages and is on his fourth – well, that’s no
picnic. I regret the pain that my lifestyle has caused my kids.”
After signing a new record deal with Legacy Recordings, in 2012 Nelson
released the album Heroes, which featured appearances by Merle
Haggard, Snoop, Kristofferson and Sheryl Crow, among others. It
reached No. 4 country and No. 18 pop, his highest-charting effort since
“Always on My Mind.” That same year, the Country Music Association
honored Nelson with an all-star tribute at the CMAs in Nashville.
Shortly before his 81st birthday in 2014, Nelson also showed that he was
still in top physical form, earning his fifth-degree black belt in the martial
art GongKwon Yusul. His next album, Band of Brothers, was released
that June and delivered Nelson yet another No. 1 country hit.
After receiving the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song by the Library of
Congress in 2015, Nelson released Summertime: Willie Nelson Sings
Gershwin (2016), a tribute to the iconic songs of George and Ira
Gershwin and featuring duets with artists such as Crow and Cyndi
Lauper.
Still going strong, the country legend released God's Problem Child in
April 2017, and one year later followed with Last Man Standing, his 67th
studio album. In 2019, the seemingly ageless artist released Ride Me
Back Home, its title track going on to win a Grammy for Best Country
Solo Performance.
Of his longtime love affair with marijuana, Nelson writes in It’s a Long
Story that “just as I’ve always loved robust coffee beans and the strong
buzz produced by the brew, I felt the same way about cannabis. It pushed
me in the right direction. It pushed me in a positive direction. It kept my
head in my music. It kept my head filled with poetry.”
Personal Life
In 1952, Nelson married for the first time, to Martha Matthews, with whom
he had three children — Lana, Susie and Billy — before they split up a
decade later. He followed by marrying singer Shirley Collie in 1963 and
then Connie Koepke in 1971, with whom he had daughters Paula and
Amy.
Nelson became involved with Ann Marie D'Angelo (Annie) after they met
on the set of the TV movie Stagecoach. “By then I was separated from
Connie, who, like Martha and Shirley before her, had tried their level best
to put up with me. No easy task,” Nelson writes of marital life in It’s a
Long Story. “My years with Connie were not noted for fidelity on my part. I
don’t say that to be prideful. I say it to be truthful.”
Nelson and Connie divorced in 1988 and he married D'Angelo in 1991.
They have two sons, Lucas and Jacob Micah, and live in a sustainable
solar-powered community in Hawaii, on the island of Maui. “It’s love that
brought Annie and me together, and it’s love that, nearly 30 years later,
has kept us together,” Nelson wrote in 2015 of his fourth marriage. “When
it comes to romantic relationships, that’s a record for me. Took me damn
near a lifetime to get it right.”