So at 39 years old, broke and rejected, Willie Nelson left Nashville, grew his hair long, moved to Texas, and started a revolution that changed country music forever. Willie Hugh Nelson was born in 1933 in Abbott, Texas, during the Great Depression. His parents abandoned him and his sister when they were babies. Their grandparents raised them, teaching Willie guitar and hymns in a tiny Texas town where there wasn’t much except hard work and church and music.
By his twenties, Willie was chasing the music dream. He worked as a radio DJ, sold vacuum cleaners and encyclopedias door-to-door, played honky-tonks at night. He was married, divorced, remarried. He had kids to feed. He was writing songs constantly—brilliant songs—but couldn’t catch a break.
In 1960, Willie sold “Family Bible” for $50 because he needed grocery money. The song became a hit for someone else. Willie got nothing.
That’s when he decided to go to Nashville. If he was going to make it in music, he had to go to the heart of country music and prove himself.
Nashville in the early 1960s was controlled by the Nashville Sound—polished, smooth, orchestrated productions that made country music palatable to pop audiences. It was professional, commercial, and profitable.
Willie didn’t fit.
But he could write songs. And Nashville recognized that. In 1961, Patsy Cline recorded Willie’s song “Crazy.” It became one of the most iconic country songs of all time. Willie also wrote “Hello Walls” for Faron Young, another massive hit. Suddenly, Willie Nelson was a successful Nashville songwriter.
But when he tried to record his own albums, they flopped. The producers wanted to smooth out his rough edges, orchestrate his simple arrangements, make him sound like everyone else. But Willie’s nasal voice, his jazz-influenced phrasing, his unconventional timing—none of it fit Nashville’s mold.
By the early 1970s, Willie was nearly 40 years old. He’d been chasing this dream for two decades. He’d written hit songs for other people but couldn’t succeed with his own music. His marriages kept falling apart. He was broke. He was exhausted. He was drinking too much.
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Read more of Willie’s roller-coaster ride to fame and fortune here (and Trigger):
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