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BiographyEarly life and career
His grandparents William Alfred Nelson and Nancy Elizabeth Smothers gave him mail-order music lessons starting at age six. Willie played the guitar, while Bobbie played the piano. He met Bud Fletcher, a fiddler, and both siblings joined his band, Bohemian Fiddlers, while Nelson was in high school.
After graduation, Nelson joined the Air Force, but left after about a year due to back problems. He also attended Baylor University for one year.[citation needed] Eventually, he became a DJ at a country music radio station in Fort Worth,[citation needed] while singing locally in honky tonk bars. In 1956, Nelson moved to Vancouver, Washington, to begin a musical career, recording Lumberjack, which was written by Leon Payne. The single sold fairly well, but did not establish a career. Nelson continued to work as a radio announcer in Vancouver and sing in clubs. He sold a song called Family Bible for $50; the song was a hit for Claude Gray in 1960, has been covered widely and is often considered a gospel music classic.
Willie Nelson performing at the Chumash Casino Resort in Santa Ynez, California.
Popular songwriter
Nelson moved to Tennessee, but was unable to land a record label contract. He did, however, receive a publishing contract at Pamper Music. After Ray Price recorded Nelson's Night Life (reputedly the most covered country song of all time), Nelson joined Price's touring band as a bass player. While playing with Ray Price and the Cherokee Cowboys, many of Nelson's songs became hits for some of country and pop music's biggest stars of the time. These songs include Funny How Time Slips Away (Billy Walker), Hello Walls (Faron Young), Pretty Paper (Roy Orbison) and most famously, Crazy (Patsy Cline). Nelson signed with Liberty Records in 1961 and released several singles, including Willingly (sung with his wife, Shirley Collie) and Touch Me.
He was unable to keep his momentum going, however, and Nelson's career ground to a halt. Demo recordings from his years as a songwriter for Pamper Music were later discovered and released as Crazy: The Demo Sessions (2003). His personal life during this period was colorful. His alcoholism,[citation needed] failed day jobs and a penchant for carrying guns[citation needed] got him in trouble with the law, not to mention with his wife,[citation needed] numerous times.
Austin
In 1965, Nelson moved to RCA Victor Records and joined the Grand Ole Opry. He followed this with a series of minor hits. Frustrated with the music business, which tried to force him into a mould,[citation needed] Nelson retired and moved to Austin, Texas. While in Austin, with its burgeoning hippie music scene (see Armadillo World Headquarters), Nelson decided to return to music. His popularity in Austin soared, as he played his own brand of country music marked by rock and roll, jazz, western swing, and folk influences. A lifelong passion for running and a new commitment to his own health also began during this period.
Outlaw country
Nelson signed with Atlantic Records and released Shotgun Willie (1973), which won excellent reviews but did not sell well. Phases and Stages (1974), a concept album inspired by his divorce, included the hit single Bloody Mary Morning. Nelson then moved to Columbia Records, where he was given complete creative control over his work. The result was the critically acclaimed, massively popular concept album, Red Headed Stranger (1975). Although Columbia was reluctant to release an album with primarily a guitar and piano for accompaniment, Nelson insisted (with the assistance of Waylon Jennings) and the album was a huge hit, partially because it included a popular cover of Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain (which was written by Fred Rose in 1945).
Along with Nelson, Waylon Jennings was also achieving success in country music in the early 1970s, and the pair were soon combined into a genre called outlaw country (outlaw because it did not conform to Nashville standards). Nelson's outlaw image was cemented with the release of the album Wanted: The Outlaws! (1976, with Waylon Jennings, Jessi Colter and Tompall Glaser), country music's first platinum album. Nelson continued to top the charts with hit songs during the late 1970s, including Good Hearted Woman (a duet with Jennings), Remember Me, If You've Got the Money I've Got the Time, Uncloudy Day, I Love You a Thousand Ways, and Something to Brag About (a duet with Mary Kay Place).
In 1978, Nelson released two more platinum albums, Waylon and Willie (a collaboration with Jennings that included Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys, which was written and originally recorded as a hit single by Ed Bruce a couple of years earlier), and Stardust, an unusual, string-based album of popular standards. It was produced by Booker T. Jones. Though most observers predicted that Stardust would ruin his career, it ended up being one of his most successful recordings.
Acting career
Nelson began acting, appearing in The Electric Horseman (1979), starring in Honeysuckle Rose (1980), Thief (1981), Barbarosa (1982), Red-Headed Stranger. Also in 1982 he played Red Loon, a gulag prisoner in Out of the Ice with John Savage, (1986, with Morgan Fairchild), Wag the Dog (1997), Gone Fishin (1997) as Billy 'Catch' Pooler, and the 1986 TV movie Stagecoach (with Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings and Kris Kristofferson, all of whom would form a band with Nelson called The Highwaymen). He has continued acting since his early successes, but usually in smaller roles and cameos, such as Half Baked as an elderly Historian Smoker who, while smoking marijuana, would reminisce about how things used to be in his younger years; Nelson also appeared as himself in the 2006 movie Beerfest, looking for teammates to join him in a mythical world-championship marijuana-smoking contest held in Amsterdam. Nelson has made guest appearances on Miami Vice, Delta, Nash Bridges, The Simpsons, Monk, Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, King of the Hill, and The Colbert Report. He played Uncle Jesse in The Dukes of Hazzard, the 2005 cinematic treatment of the television series, and was the only member of the big screen cast to reprise the role in the TV/DVD movie prequel The Dukes of Hazzard: The Beginning (2007) (V).
Hits, excesses, and Farm Aid
The Eighties saw a series of hit singles: Always on My Mind (originally made popular by Elvis Presley), On the Road Again from the movie Honeysuckle Rose and To All the Girls I've Loved Before (a rather incongruous duet with Julio Iglesias). There were also more popular albums, including Pancho & Lefty (1982, with Merle Haggard), WWII (1982, with Waylon Jennings) and Take it to the Limit (1983, with Waylon Jennings).
In the mid-1980s, Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson, and Johnny Cash formed a group called The Highwaymen. They achieved unexpectedly massive success, including platinum record sales and worldwide touring. Meanwhile, he became more and more involved in charity work, such as establishing the Farm Aid concerts in 1985.
In 1990, the IRS handed Nelson a bill for $16.7 million in back taxes and took away most of his assets to help pay the charges. He released The IRS Tapes: Who'll Buy My Memories? as a double album, with all profits going straight to the IRS. Many of his assets were auctioned and purchased by friends, who gave his possessions back to him or rented them at a nominal fee. His debts were paid by 1993.
In 1996, Willie Nelson was featured on the Beach Boys' now out-of-print album Stars and Stripes Vol. 1 singing a cover of their 1964 song The Warmth of the Sun with the Beach Boys themselves providing the harmonies and backing vocals. He also starred in Baywatch as an old man in boxer shorts.
Hard-Drivin' American troubadour
He released Across the Borderline in 1993, with guests Bob Dylan, Sin?ad O'Connor, David Crosby, Bonnie Raitt, Kris Kristofferson and Paul Simon.
During the 1990s and 2000s, Nelson has toured continuously and released albums that generally received mixed reviews, with the exception of 1998's critically acclaimed Teatro (which was produced by Daniel Lanois—more commonly known for his work with U2—and featured supporting vocals by Emmylou Harris). Later that year, he joined rock band Phish onstage for several songs as part of the annual Farm Aid festival. He also performed a duet concert with fellow Highwayman Johnny Cash, recorded for the VH1 Storytellers series.
Nelson received Kennedy Center Honors in 1998. A star-studded television special celebrating his 70th birthday aired in 2003. In 2004, he released Outlaws & Angels, featuring guests Toby Keith, Joe Walsh, Merle Haggard, Kid Rock, Al Green, Shelby Lynne, Carole King, Toots Hibbert, Ben Harper, Lee Ann Womack, The Holmes Brothers, Los Lonely Boys, Lucinda Williams, Keith Richards, Jerry Lee Lewis and Rickie Lee Jones.
Environmental and social endeavors
In 2004, Nelson and his wife Annie became partners with Bob and Kelly King in the building of two Pacific Biodiesel plants, one in Salem, Oregon, and the other at Carl's Corner, Texas (the Texas plant was founded by Carl Cornelius, a longtime Nelson friend). In 2005, Nelson and several other business partners formed Willie Nelson Biodiesel (BioWillie), a company that is marketing biodiesel biofuel to truck stops. The fuel is made from vegetable oil (mainly soybean oil), and can be burned without modification in diesel engines.
Nelson is a cochair of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) advisory board. He has worked with NORML for years for marijuana decriminalization and has producing commercials for NORML that have appeared on Pot TV programs. In 2005, Nelson and his family hosted the first annual Willie Nelson & NORML Benefit Golf Tournament, which appeared on the cover of High Times magazine. Nelson once claimed on Late Night with David Letterman that he smoked marijuana on the White House roof while visiting President Jimmy Carter.[A citation would be wonderful here.]
On January 9, 2005, Nelson headlined an all-star concert at Austin Music Hall to benefit the victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. Tsunami Relief Austin to Asia raised an estimated $120,000 for UNICEF and two other organizations.
Nelson was a supporter of Kinky Friedman's campaign in the 2006 Texas gubernatorial election. In 2005, he recorded a radio advertisement asking for support to put Friedman on the ballot as an independent candidate. Friedman promised Willie a job in Austin as the head of a new Texas Energy Commission due to Nelson's support of biofuels. (Friedman was on the ballot but came in fourth with 12.43 percent, losing to Republican Rick Perry.
Nelson supported Dennis Kucinich's campaign in the 2004 Democratic presidential primaries. He raised money, appeared at events, composed a song (Whatever Happened to Peace on Earth?), and contributing a quote for the front cover of Kucinich's book for the campaign.
Nelson is an honorary trustee of the Dayton International Peace Museum.
Nelson is an advocate for horses and their treatment. He has been campaigning for passage of the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act (H.R. 503/S. 1915) with the Society for Animal Protective Legislation. He is on the Board of Directors and has adopted a number of horses from Habitat for Horses.
In March 2007, Ben & Jerry's released a new flavor, Willie Nelson’s Country Peach Cobbler Ice Cream. Nelson's proceeds will be donated to Farm Aid. The flavor has been re-released and is now available, after Ben & Jerry's voluntary recall of 250,000 pints of the new flavor on March 19, 2007, as wheat was incorrectly excluded from the list of ingredients.
Willie Nelson founded the Willie Nelson Peace Research Institute in April 2007. Nelson and his daughter Amy Nelson wrote a song called A Peaceful Solution, which they released into the public domain, and encouraged artists to render their own version of the song, which he would feature on the Institute's web site.
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