And Then I Wrote

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After signing a new record deal with Legacy Recordings, in 2012 Nelson released the album Heroes, which featured appearances by Merle Haggard, Snoop, Kristofferson and Sheryl Crow, among others. It reached No. 4 country and No. 18 pop, his highest-charting effort since “Always on My Mind.” That same year, the Country Music Association honored Nelson with an all-star tribute at the CMAs in Nashville. In 2004, Nelson started marketing his own brand of green fuel, BioWillie, a combination of diesel and biodiesel made from soybeans. "It seems like that's good for the whole world if we can start growing our own fuel instead of starting wars over it," said Nelson in a 2005 interview. Of his longtime love affair with marijuana, Nelson writes in It’s a Long Story that “just as I’ve always loved robust coffee beans and the strong buzz produced by the brew, I felt the same way about cannabis. It pushed me in the right direction. It pushed me in a positive direction. It kept my head in my music. It kept my head filled with poetry.”

Nelson continued to tour heavily, often playing as many as 150 to 200 dates a year, while maintaining his prolific songwriting output. Among the highlights from this period are The Great Divide (2002) and Countryman (2005), which incorporated elements of reggae.And I do mean that, it'll be fascinating to see how the biggest name in the history of Texas music evolved throughout his 61 year career. Not enough people care about Nelson's contributions to music (which is entirely due to his genre, coastal yuppies aren't paying attention I can confirm that much for you) and I think most just see him as a gentle sage who smokes a lot of pot. But take a good gander at his musical accomplishments--he's the man who made country music into a legit artform, like Pet Sounds did to pop music, Public Enemy to hip hop, and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band to the album. Country music is easily separated by two eras in my opinion, before Red Headed Stranger and after, and that's not even discussing Phases and Stages which is the (debatably) better but not as iconic album that preceded it that similarly attempted the country concept album.

In 2008, Nelson released Moment of Forever, which garnered much critical praise. He also scored a Grammy that same year for the single "Lost Highway," a duet performed with Ray Price, whose recording of “Night Life” nearly a half-century before had been one of Nelson’s earliest successes. Collaborations: Snoop Dogg, Merle Haggard, Sheryl Crow and More Nelson moved around over the next few years, regularly playing gigs at local clubs and honing his songwriting craft. It was during this period that Nelson penned some of his finest early work, including "Night Life,""Crazy" and "Funny How Time Slips Away." However, despite these successes, Nelson’s own recordings fell on deaf ears during this period. He did not fit the traditional Nashville country music mold, and whenever producers tried to make him fit they only succeeded in stripping away the qualities that helped make him unique, such as his unusual manner of phrasing.In 1952, Nelson married for the first time, to Martha Matthews, with whom he had three children — Lana, Susie and Billy — before they split up a decade later. He followed by marrying singer Shirley Collie in 1963 and then Connie Koepke in 1971, with whom he had daughters Paula and Amy. Nelson became involved with Ann Marie D'Angelo (Annie) after they met on the set of the TV movie Stagecoach. “By then I was separated from Connie, who, like Martha and Shirley before her, had tried their level best to put up with me. No easy task,” Nelson writes of marital life in It’s a Long Story. “My years with Connie were not noted for fidelity on my part. I don’t say that to be prideful. I say it to be truthful.” Nelson was born on April 29, 1933, in Abbott, Texas. The son of Myrle and Ira D. Nelson, Willie and his older sister, Bobbie, were raised by their paternal grandparents during the Great Depression. Country singer and songwriter Willie Nelson rose to prominence at the end of the 1960s and contributed to the "outlaw country" subgenre, which challenged the music industry conservatism of Nashville at the time. During his lengthy, award-winning career, he has written some of the most popular and memorable country songs of all time, many of which have been covered by a wide range of artists over the last half-century. Now in his 80s, Nelson continues to record, tour and devote time to charitable and political causes. Early Life

Though the 1962 single “Touch Me” did reach the country Top 10, Nelson’s debut album, And Then I Wrote, failed to chart, as did his follow-up album, Here’s Willie Nelson. It seemed his efforts as a performing artist would fail to bring the success that others enjoyed from recording his songs. Return to Texas Always interested in different music styles, Nelson recorded his own takes on American standards on Stardust (1978), and his cover of Hoagy Carmichael and Stuart Gorrell's "Georgia on My Mind" earned him his second Grammy Award for best country vocal performance. Beyond its critical success, the album proved to have commercial staying power as well, lingering on the country charts for an entire decade. Films and "On the Road Again" Nelson and Connie divorced in 1988 and he married D'Angelo in 1991. They have two sons, Lucas and Jacob Micah, and live in a sustainable solar-powered community in Hawaii, on the island of Maui. “It’s love that brought Annie and me together, and it’s love that, nearly 30 years later, has kept us together,” Nelson wrote in 2015 of his fourth marriage. “When it comes to romantic relationships, that’s a record for me. Took me damn near a lifetime to get it right.” A&E Concert Special Kosser, Michael (2006). How Nashville Became Music City, U.s.a.: 50 Years of Music Row. Hal Leonard Corporation. ISBN 9780634098062. Best Known For: Willie Nelson is a country singer-songwriter known for hit songs like "Crazy" and "On the Road Again."Adding to his resume of successful collaborations, the following year Nelson joined with Johnny Cash, Jennings and Kristofferson to form the country supergroup the Highwaymen. “You wouldn’t think that our four uneven voices would blend. But they did. They fit together like a jigsaw puzzle,” Nelson writes of the group in It’s a Long Story. In 1947 Nelson joined the gospel group Bud Fletcher and the Texans, which already featured Bobbie on piano. He continued to attend school and lettered in numerous sports. The band played the local club circuit for the next few years and Bobbie and Bud Fletcher married. It was during this time Nelson first appeared on local radio. Air Force Nelson took the fire as a sign that things needed to change. Returning to his native Texas with family in tow, he settled in Austin and soon became an important part of the city’s country music scene, performing regularly at its many venues. By 1970 Nelson had set up home in Ridgetop, Tennessee, and that year his house burned down. During the blaze Nelson describes running inside and grabbing two guitar cases. “One contained [his guitar] Trigger and the other two pounds of primo Columbian pot,” he writes in It’s a Long Story. Nelson has a strong compassion for animals, and over the years he has been involved with various animal-welfare groups, including the Society for Protective Animal Legislation, Best Friends Animal Society and the Animal Welfare Institute. With the latter, Nelson has become deeply involved in a campaign to save horses from slaughter. His group Willie and the Nelson Family, which features his sister, Billie, recorded the song “Wild Horses” to benefit the cause. IRS and Legal Troubles