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Ten Minutes on a Barf Bag: How Willie Nelson Wrote \”On the Road Again\” at 30,000 Feet
Ten Minutes on a Barf Bag: How Willie Nelson Wrote “On the Road Again” at 30,000 Feet Some songs take years. Some take a lifetime. Willie Nelson wrote “On the Road Again” — the song that would become his signature, win him a Grammy, earn him an Oscar nomination, and define the sound of the…
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Willie Nelson: Horses, Heartbreak and the Family That Held Him Up
The braids, the bandana, the battered guitar named Trigger — Willie Nelson’s image is one of the most recognizable in American music. But behind the outlaw mythology is a man who has endured losses that would have broken most people: a son gone too soon, a sister who was his musical soulmate, marriages that didn’t…
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Willie Nelson’s “Stardust”: The Album the Label Tried to Bury
In December 1977, Willie Nelson walked into a mobile recording studio parked outside a house in the Hollywood Hills and committed commercial suicide — at least, that’s what his record label thought. He was going to record an album of ancient pop standards: Hoagy Carmichael, Irving Berlin, George Gershwin. No originals. No outlaw posturing. Just…
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The Untold Story of Willie Nelson: The $50 Song, the Burning House, and the Outlaw Who Outlasted Everyone
Willie Nelson has been famous for so long that it’s easy to forget how strange his journey was. He sold his first hit song for $50 and never saw a dime of royalties. He ran into a burning house to save his guitar and a bag of marijuana. He owed the IRS more money than…