Willie Nelson

When you think Texas many things come to mind. Maybe you think Texas music and when you think Texas music, Willie Nelson comes to mind. Of the Texas music giants Willie Nelson is a living, larger than life, legend.

Each year on July 4th Willie celebrates along with his fans and friends on his ranch and Willie's birthday party is a mega music event. At age 73 Willie Nelson continues to tour and perform and write songs. Willie was born in Abbott Texas on April 30, 1933. He remembers working in his grandfather's cotton fields and listening to African-American and Hispanic music, a childhood permeated with music from gospel to blues and country western. He first performed at a church picnic where at age 5 Willie Nelson read a poem to the faithful. Willie began writing songs and playing the guitar at age 6. He had a band as a teenager.

Willie Nelson moved to Nashville in 1961 where he mixed with other early country music pioneers. He played at Tootie's Orchid Lounge where he met Faron Young. Faron recorded Willie's song Hello Walls and Patsy Cline recorded Crazy. During this period in Willie's life he was unknown and selling his masterpieces cheaply. He sold Family Bible for $50. It was during his twenties in Tennessee that Willie was on his second marriage and had three children. He briefly tried hog farming near Rich Top Tennessee, a business that failed. When his home burned, he returned to Texas to the Austin area and began to develop his outlaw image.

Willie Nelson was among a number of performers that associated himself with the famous Armadillo World in Austin. The Armadillo was a place where sixties hippies and cowboy redneck types mixed. This was a mixing of cultures and a mixing of musical styles. To this day, forty years later, Willie still characterizes himself as a redneck hillbilly.

Willie's performing and recording career really took on in the seventies. In 1978 his Stardust album and especially Georgia on My Mind and other classic cuts became Willie Nelson classics. Stardust remained on the country charts for more than 10 years. Stardust helped make Willie the all time #1 country album artist.

In the 1990s the IRS indicated to Willie that he owed Uncle Sam something like 32 million dollars. His interest on that debt was around $5,000 per day. The IRS auctioned off Willie's earthly property. Such was Willie Nelson's positive karma and friendships, that his friends actually bought many of these things and gave them back. Willie eventually came to an understanding with the "Infernal*" Revenue Service settling for a repayment of nine million dollars over a 5 year period.
* my quote

Willie is one of the founders of Farm Aid and has a Farm Aid concert annually. This year his Farm Aid concert will be in New Jersey. For over 25 years his July 4th picnics have been a major Texas cultural event and a national favorite. Willie has also appeared in a number of movies including The Electric Horseman with Robert Redford and Jane Fonda, Songwriter with Kris Kristofferson, Wag the Dog with Robert DeNiro and Dustin Hoffman, The Red-Headed Stranger with Morgan Fairchild and Honeysuckle Rose with Amy Irving and Dianne Cannon. Our favorite Willie song On the Road Again was written for that movie. Willie has named his bus the Honeysuckle Rose. Willie spends about 200 days a year touring and making music with his friends.

When not on the road he lives on his 700 acre ranch in the Pedernales valley west of Austin. Willie has created his own town named Luck where he hangs with the rest of us free thinking and independent country hillbillies, writing and making music for his friends. Willie lives with his 4th wife and his two sons.

My Interpretation of Willie Nelson's Worldview

I hope Willie doesn't mind some of the things I write here and I really don't know what his worldview is, but I feel his is pretty close to mine. Some of this I borrowed from Willie's recent Time Magazine interview and also from my interpretation of his music. I guess I would start off by quoting a song lyric Willie, I think, did not write, to wit "Jesus don't own a car, he rides the bus with the rest of us". I 'm sure Willie believes in a faith higher than himself or anything else in this world. He thinks we should worship the "God of our choice". I think, also, that Willie favors the small ordinary guy or gal over the big dog. I don't think he likes put ons or fake people, although he has associated with a lot of Hollywood types and politicians. I think if I ran into Willie in Luck or Sheffield, he would drink a beer with me or whatever and would probably remember me the next time we met. I think Willie, like the rest of us, has dualities and that one of the most prominent of these is the love of the road vs. the need for roots. I think Texas is Willie's roots and I know that each road brings him back again and again and again back to Texas. I bet Willie thinks like I do, that when we die, if we can't go to heaven, then send us back to Texas.