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Willie Hugh Nelson (born April 30, 1933) is an American guitarist and country singer-songwriter, originally from Abbott, Texas.

Early Days

Nelson and his sister, Bobbie Nelson, were raised by their grandparents after their father died and their mother ran away. Willie played the guitar, while Bobbie played the piano. She met Bud Fletcher, a fiddler, and both siblings joined his band while Willie was in high school. After graduation, Nelson joined the Air Force, but left due to back problems. Eventually, he became a DJ at a country radio station in Fort Worth, Texas, while singing locally in honky tonk bars.

Early Career

In 1956, Nelson moved to Vancouver, Washington to begin a musical career by recording Lumberjack by Leon Payne. The single sold respectably but did not establish a career. Nelson continued to DJ and sing in clubs, and sold a song called Family Bible for fifty dollars; the song was a hit for Claude Gray in 1960, has been covered widely, and is often considered a gospel music classic.

Nelson moved to Nashville, 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 bassist. While playing with Ray Price & the Cherokee Cowboys, many of Nelson's songs became hits. Funny How Time Slips Away (Billy Walker), Hello Walls (Faron Young), Pretty Paper (Roy Orbison) and, most famously, Crazy (Patsy Cline) became popular songs in the 1960s. Nelson signed with Liberty Records in 1961 and released several singles, including the hits Willingly (with his wife, Shirley Collie) and Touch Me. He was unable to keep his momentum going, though, 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 also colorful, to say the least. His alcoholism, failed day jobs, and penchant for carrying guns got him in trouble with the law and his wife a number of times.

In 1965, Nelson moved to RCA Records and joined the Grand Ole Opry, followed by a series of minor hits. Frustrated with the music business which tried to force him into a mold, Nelson retired and moved to Austin, Texas. While in Austin, with its burgeoning hippie music scene, 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.

Signing with Atlantic Records, Nelson 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 two hit singles, Bloody Mary Morning and After the Fire is Gone. 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). Though Columbia was reluctant to release an album with mostly just a guitar and piano for accompaniment, Nelson (with the assistance of Waylon Jennings) insisted and the album was a huge hit, partially because it included a popular cover of Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain (Roy Acuff).

Along with Nelson, Waylon Jennings was also achieving massive 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). The term was coined by a country music journalist, and cemented with the release of 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 one of Nelson's signature songs, Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys) and Stardust, an unusual, string-based album of pop songs produced by Booker T. Jones. Though most observers predicted that Stardust would ruin his career, it ended up being one of his most successful LPs.[1]