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Biography by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
As a songwriter and a performer, Willie Nelson played a
vital role in post-rock & roll country music. Although
he didn't become a star until the mid-'70s, Nelson spent the
'60s writing songs that became hits for stars like Ray Price
("Night Life"), Patsy Cline ("Crazy"), Faron Young ("Hello
Walls"), and Billy Walker ("Funny How Time Slips Away") as
well as releasing a series of records on Liberty and RCA
that earned him a small, but devoted, cult following. During
the early '70s, Willie aligned himself with Waylon Jennings
and the burgeoning outlaw country movement that made him
into a star in 1975. Following the crossover success of that
year's The Red Headed Stranger and "Blue Eyes Crying in the
Rain," Nelson was a genuine star, as recognizable in pop
circles as he was to the country audience; in addition to
recording, he also launched an acting career in the early
'80s. Even when he was a star, Willie never played it safe
musically. Instead, he borrowed from a wide variety of
styles, including traditional pop, Western swing, jazz,
traditional country, cowboy songs, honky tonk, rock &
roll, folk, and the blues, creating a distinctive, elastic
hybrid. Nelson remained at the top of the country charts
until the mid-'80s, when his lifestyle -- which had always
been close to the outlaw clichés with which his music
flirted -- began to spiral out of control, culminating in an
infamous battle with the IRS in the late '80s. During the
'90s, Nelson's sales never reached the heights that he had
experienced a decade earlier, but he remained a vital icon
in country music, having greatly influenced the new country,
new traditionalist, and alternative country movements of the
'80s and '90s as well as leaving behind a legacy of classic
songs and recordings.
Nelson began performing music as a child growing up in
Abbott, TX. After his father died and his mother ran away,
Nelson and his sister Bobbie were raised by their
grandparents, who encouraged both children to play
instruments. Willie picked up the guitar, and by the time he
was seven, he was already writing songs. Bobbie learned to
play piano, eventually meeting -- and later marrying --
fiddler Bud Fletcher, who invited both of the siblings to
join his band. Nelson had already played with Raychecks'
Polka Band, but with Fletcher, he acted as the group's
frontman. Willie stayed with Fletcher throughout high
school. Upon his graduation, he joined the Air Force but had
to leave shortly afterward, when he became plagued by back
problems. Following his disenrollment from the service, he
began looking for full-time work. After he worked several
part-time jobs, he landed a job as a country DJ at Fort
Worth's KCNC in 1954. Nelson continued to sing in honky
tonks as he worked as a DJ, deciding to make a stab at
recording career by 1956. That year, he headed to Vancouver,
WA, where he recorded Leon Payne's "Lumberjack." At that
time, Payne was a DJ and he plugged "Lumberjack" on the air,
which eventually resulted in sales of 3,000 -- a respectable
figure for an independent single, but not enough to gain
much attention. For the next few years, Willie continued to
DJ and sing in clubs. During this time, he sold "Family
Bible" to a guitar instructor for 50 dollars, and when the
song became a hit for Claude Gray in 1960, Nelson decided to
move to Nashville the following year to try his luck. Though
his nasal voice and jazzy, off-center phrasing didn't win
him many friends -- several demos were made and then
rejected by various labels -- his songwriting ability didn't
go unnoticed, and soon Hank Cochran helped Willie land a
publishing contract at Pamper Music. Ray Price, who co-owned
Pamper Music, recorded Nelson's "Night Life" and invited him
to join his touring band, the Cherokee Cowboys, as a
bassist.
Arriving at the beginning of 1961, Price's invitation began
a watershed year for Nelson. Not only did he play with Price
-- eventually taking members of the Cherokee Cowboys to form
his own touring band -- but his songs also provided major
hits for several other artists. Faron Young took "Hello
Walls" to number one for nine weeks, Billy Walker made
"Funny How Time Slips Away" into a Top 40 country smash, and
Patsy Cline made "Crazy" into a Top Ten pop crossover hit.
Earlier in the year, he signed a contract with Liberty
Records and began releasing a series of singles that were
usually drenched in strings. "Willingly," a duet with his
then-wife Shirley Collie, became a Top Ten hit for Nelson
early in 1962, and it was followed by another Top Ten
single, "Touch Me," later that year. Both singles made it
seem like Nelson was primed to become a star, but his career
stalled just as quickly as it had taken off, and he was soon
charting in the lower regions of the Top 40. Liberty closed
its country division in 1964, the same year Roy Orbison had
a hit with "Pretty Paper."
When the Monument recordings failed to become hits, Nelson
moved to RCA Records in 1965, the same year he became a
member of the Grand Ole Opry. Over the next seven years,
Willie had a steady stream of minor hits, highlighted by the
number 13 hit "Bring Me Sunshine" in 1969. Toward the end of
his stint with RCA, he had grown frustrated with the label,
which had continually tried to shoehorn him into the heavily
produced Nashville sound. By 1972, he wasn't even able to
reach the country Top 40. Discouraged by his lack of
success, Nelson decided to retire from country music, moving
back to Austin, TX, after a brief and disastrous sojourn
into pig farming. Once he arrived in Austin, Nelson realized
that many young rock fans were listening to country music
along with the traditional honky tonk audience. Spotting an
opportunity, Willie began performing again, scrapping his
pop-oriented Nashville sound and image for a rock- and
folk-influenced redneck outlaw image. Soon, he earned a
contract with Atlantic Records.
Shotgun Willie (1973), Nelson's first album for Atlantic,
was evidence of the shift of his musical style, and although
it initially didn't sell well, it earned good reviews and
cultivated a dedicated cult following. By the fall of 1973,
his version of Bob Wills' "Stay All Night (Stay a Little
Longer)" had cracked the country Top 40. The following year,
he delivered the concept album Phases and Stages, which
increased his following even more with the hit singles
"Bloody Mary Morning" and "After the Fire Is Gone." But the
real commercial breakthrough didn't arrive until 1975, when
he severed ties with Atlantic and signed to Columbia
Records, which gave him complete creative control of his
records. Willie's first album for Columbia, The Red Headed
Stranger, was a spare concept album about a preacher,
featuring only his guitar and his sister's piano. The label
was reluctant to release with such stark arrangements, but
they relented and it became a huge hit, thanks to Nelson's
understated cover of Roy Acuff's "Blue Eyes Crying in the
Rain."
Following the breakthrough success of The Red Headed
Stranger as well as Waylon Jennings' simultaneous success,
outlaw country -- so named because it worked outside of the
confines of the Nashville industry -- became a sensation,
and RCA compiled the various-artists album Wanted: The
Outlaws!, using material Nelson, Jennings, Tompall Glaser,
and Jessi Colter had previously recorded for the label. The
compilation boasted a number one single in the form of the
newly recorded Jennings and Nelson duet "Good Hearted
Woman," which was also named the Country Music Association's
single of the year. For the next five years, Nelson
consistently charted on both the country and pop charts,
with "Remember Me," "If You've Got the Money I've Got the
Time," and "Uncloudy Day" becoming Top Ten country singles
in 1976; "I Love You a Thousand Ways" and the Mary Kay Place
duet "Something to Brag About" were Top Ten country singles
the following year.
Nelson enjoyed his most successful year to date in 1978, as
he charted with two very dissimilar albums. Waylon and
Willie, his first duet album with Jennings, was a major
success early in the year, spawning the signature song
"Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys." Later
in the year, he released Stardust, a string-augmented
collection of pop standards produced by Booker T. Jones.
Most observers believed that the unconventional album would
derail Nelson's career, but it unexpectedly became one of
the most successful records in his catalog, spending almost
ten years in the country charts and eventually selling over
four million copies. After the success of Stardust, Willie
branched out into film, appearing in the Robert Redford
movie The Electric Horseman in 1979 and starring in
Honeysuckle Rose the following year. The latter spawned the
hit "On the Road Again," which became another one of
Nelson's signature songs.
Willie continued to have hits throughout the early '80s,
when he had a major crossover success in 1982 with a cover
of Elvis Presley's hit "Always on My Mind." The single spent
two weeks at number one and crossed over to number five on
the pop charts, sending the album of the same name to number
two on the pop charts as well as quadruple-platinum status.
Over the next two years, he had hit duet albums with Merle
Haggard (1983's Poncho & Lefty) and Jennings (1982's
WWII and 1983's Take It to the Limit), while "To All the
Girls I've Loved Before," a duet with Latin pop star Julio
Iglesias, became another major crossover success in 1984,
peaking at number five on the pop charts and number one on
the country singles chart.
Following a string of number one singles in early 1985,
including "Highwayman," the first single from the
Highwaymen, a supergroup he formed with Jennings, Johnny
Cash, and Kris Kristofferson, Nelson's popularity gradually
began to erode. A new generation of artists had captured the
attention of the country audience, which began to
drastically cut into his own audience. For the remainder of
the decade, he recorded less frequently and remained on the
road; he also continued to do charity work, most notably
Farm Aid, an annual concert that he founded in 1985 designed
to provide aid to ailing farmers. While he career was
declining, an old demon began to creep up on Willie: the
IRS. In November 1990, he was given a bill for $16.7 million
in back taxes. During the following year, almost all of his
assets -- including several houses, studios, farms, and
various properties -- were taken away, and to help pay his
bill, he released the double album The IRS Tapes: Who'll Buy
My Memories? Originally released as two separate albums, the
records were marketed through television commercials, and
all the profits were directed to the IRS. By 1993 -- the
year he turned 60 -- his debts had been paid off, and he
relaunched his recording career with Across the Borderline,
an ambitious album produced by Don Was and featuring cameos
by Bob Dylan, Bonnie Raitt, Paul Simon, Sinéad
O'Connor, David Crosby, and Kris Kristofferson. The record
received strong reviews and became his first solo album to
appear in the pop charts since 1985.
After the release of Across the Borderline, Nelson continued
to work steadily, releasing at least one album a year and
touring constantly. In 1993, he was inducted into the
Country Music Hall of Fame, but by that time, he had already
become a living legend for all country music fans across the
world. Signing to Island for 1996's Spirit, he resurfaced
two years later with the critically acclaimed Teatro,
produced by Daniel Lanois. Nelson followed up that success
with the instrumental-oriented Night and Day a year later;
Me and the Drummer and Milk Cow Blues followed in 2000. The
Rainbow Connection, which featured an eclectic selection of
old-time country favorites, appeared in spring 2001.
Amazingly prolific as a recording artist, Nelson released
The Great Divide on Universal in 2002. A collection of his
early-'60s publishing demos for Pamper Music called Crazy:
The Demo Sessions came out on Sugar Hill in 2003. Later in
2003 Nelson released Run That by Me One More Time, which
reunited him with Ray Price and kicked off a relationship
with Lost Highway Records. It Always Will Be and Outlaws and
Angels both appeared on Lost Highway in 2004, followed by
the release of Nelson's long-delayed attempt at a
country-reggae fusion, Countryman, also on Lost Highway, in
2005. You Don't Know Me: The Songs of Cindy Walker arrived
the following year, along with Songbird, Nelson's
collaboration with alt-country singer/songwriter Ryan Adams
and his band the Cardinals. The double-disc Last of the
Breed, an ambitious project that paired Nelson with Merle
Haggard, Ray Price, and Asleep at the Wheel, was released by
Lost Highway in 2007.
Content Provided by All Music Guide. Copyright 2008 All Media
Guide, LLC.
