Nelson was signed to Pamper Music as a songwriter. Nelson's first album was titled And Then I Wrote. One night, Nelson and Cochran wrote seven songs together in the basement of Nelson's home in Ridgetop, Tenn. Nelson's album of pop standards, Stardust , remained on the country album chart for weeks -- that's 10 consecutive years.
The two co-write almost entirely via text message. Nelson will send Cannon an idea from his bus, and Cannon will respond and help shape it. We never discuss changing stuff. Gerald Mann, a pastor at the Riverbend Baptist Church in Austin who had married several of his children. I ripped off the Baptist preacher. Not like the other screaming passengers in the car.
Paula has no more questions, so the studio clears except for Nelson, who picks up his guitar and gets to work. Newswire Powered by. Close the menu. Rolling Stone. Log In. To help keep your account secure, please log-in again. You are no longer onsite at your organization. The singer has acted in over 30 films, co-authored several books, and has been involved in activism for the use of biofuels and the legalisation of marijuana. He even owns the bio-diesel brand Willie Nelson Biodiesel, which is made from vegetable oil.
The singer is widely recognised as an American icon, inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in , receiving the Kennedy Centere Honours in , inducted to the National Agricultural Hall of Fame in , and winning the Gershwin Prize in In The Texas Institute of Letters inducted him among its members for his songwriting, before being included in Rolling Stone's Greatest Singers and Greatest Guitarists lists. Willie Nelson was born on April 29, Willie celebrated his 88th birthday in He was named Willie by his cousin Mildred, who also chose Hugh as his middle name, in honour of her recently deceased younger brother.
His grandfather, William, worked as a blacksmith, while his father worked as a mechanic. His mother left soon after he was born, and his father remarried and also moved away, leaving Willie and his sister Bobbie to be raised by their grandparents. One can think of a lot of reasons a very rich year-old man, who has sold more than 40m albums, written some of the greatest music of the 20th century and been declared an American icon, might decline to spend his dwindling days in a darkened bus, flogging a ghosted book.
But Nelson likes to be doing. On top of all this, he will spend nights on the bus, touring. He owns properties in Texas, Maui and Malibu, but his true home, he says, is the Honeysuckle. I get depressed. He bought a Learjet once, but it was always being grounded due to weather conditions and he found himself missing too many gigs.
Another time, he took a six-month residency at a theatre in Branson, Missouri. It was a disaster. As soon as he was able, he went back to the bus. But when I ask about the state of his vocal cords, he is adamant his voice is as strong as ever.
I should acknowledge at this point that I regard Nelson as one of the great geniuses of popular music, a man whose contributions to the American songbook rank up there with those of Ray Charles or Nina Simone. I named my daughter, Louella Nelson, after him. If nothing else, you are witnessing the twilight of a god. Nelson grew up during the Depression, in the tiny town of Abbott, Texas. His mother, Myrle, left home six months after he was born and went off west to work as a dancer, waitress and card-dealer.
His older sister, year-old Bobbie, the pianist in his band for the last 50 years, says Myrle is the person from whom Nelson inherited his restless gene. Willie and Bobbie were raised by their saintly-seeming paternal grandparents, Alfred and Nancy. I learned a lot before I ever left the house. I learned about what I wanted to do.
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