49 Fun Facts About Willie Nelson

In which small Texas town was Willie Nelson born in 1933?

He was born on April 29, though a doctor wrote down April 30. His mother left soon after and he was raised by his grandparents alongside his sister Bobbie.

At what age did Willie Nelson write his first song?

His grandfather had bought him a guitar the year before and taught him a few chords. By nine he was playing in a local Bohemian polka band.

Which Willie Nelson composition became Patsy Cline's signature hit and the most-played jukebox song ever?

He wrote it in under an hour and originally called it 'Stupid'. Cline recorded her vocal in a single take while still bruised from a car accident.

Which singer had a 1961 hit with the Willie Nelson song 'Hello Walls'?

In the same era Nelson wrote 'Night Life' for Ray Price and 'Pretty Paper' for Roy Orbison, all while playing bass in Price's touring band.

Which branch of the US military did Willie Nelson join after high school, before a medical discharge?

He lasted eight months. He later attended Baylor University from 1954 to 1956 without finishing.

To which city did Willie Nelson move in 1972, where the hippie music scene rejuvenated his career?

He had spent the 1960s in Nashville as a songwriter and RCA artist. The move made him the figurehead of the outlaw country movement.

What was the title of Nelson's 1973 Atlantic Records album that won great reviews but sold poorly?

It was his first release after leaving RCA and marked the start of the looser, funkier sound of his Austin years.

Roughly how much did it cost to record the 1975 concept album Red Headed Stranger?

It was cut at Autumn Sound in Garland, Texas. A Columbia executive asked why he was turning in a demo; Nelson replied, 'Ain't no demo.'

What crime is the fugitive of Red Headed Stranger on the run for?

Nelson played the title character himself in a 1986 film adaptation. The album is number 183 on Rolling Stone's 500 greatest albums list.

Which Fred Rose song from Red Headed Stranger gave Willie Nelson his first number one hit as a singer?

The album went platinum in March 1976 and double platinum a decade later, and it was added to the National Recording Registry in 2009.

Who produced Stardust, Willie Nelson's 1978 album of pop standards?

Columbia thought it would end his career. Instead it spent 540 weeks, a full decade, on the country albums chart and went quintuple platinum.

For how many weeks did Stardust stay on Billboard's country albums chart?

That is ten years. 'Georgia on My Mind' from the album won him a Grammy in 1979 and 'Blue Skies' went to number one.

Willie Nelson wrote 'On the Road Again' for which 1980 film he starred in?

He reportedly wrote it on a barf bag when the film's producer asked for a song about touring. It was nominated for an Oscar and won the Grammy for Best Country Song.

On what did Willie Nelson famously scribble the lyrics to 'On the Road Again'?

It peaked at number 20 on the Hot 100, entered the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2011 and has since turned up in Forrest Gump and Shrek.

Willie Nelson's 1982 hit 'Always on My Mind' peaked at what position on the Billboard Hot 100?

Elvis Presley and Brenda Lee had recorded it earlier; the Pet Shop Boys would take it to number one in Britain five years later.

With which Spanish crooner did Willie Nelson record 'To All the Girls I've Loved Before'?

The unlikely 1984 pairing was a worldwide hit and won the CMA's single of the year.

'Pancho & Lefty', Willie Nelson's 1982 duet album, paired him with which fellow country legend?

The title track, written by Townes Van Zandt, gave both men a number one country single in 1983.

Which of these was NOT a member of the country supergroup The Highwaymen alongside Willie Nelson?

The quartet formed in 1985 and their Jimmy Webb-penned debut single 'Highwayman' went to number one on the country chart.

Who wrote 'Highwayman', the number one single that gave Willie Nelson's supergroup its name?

The group also covered Guy Clark's 'Desperados Waiting for a Train' and released three albums between 1985 and 1995.

With which two musicians did Willie Nelson found Farm Aid in 1985?

The idea came from a remark Bob Dylan made at Live Aid about American family farmers. Nelson still serves as the organisation's president.

In which city was the first Farm Aid concert held on September 22, 1985?

Eighty thousand people filled Memorial Stadium and the show raised over $9 million. Dave Matthews later joined the board.

How much did the IRS claim Willie Nelson owed when it seized his assets in 1990?

He settled the debt with the auction of his belongings and the profits from a 1992 double album, The IRS Tapes: Who'll Buy My Memories?

What was the subtitle of The IRS Tapes, the 1992 album Willie Nelson released to pay off his tax debt?

Its profits went straight to the government, and together with the auction of his assets it cleared the debt.

What is the name of Willie Nelson's famously battered nylon-string guitar?

He named it after Roy Rogers's horse. It is a Martin N-20 he bought unseen in 1969 for $750 after a drunk damaged his Baldwin at Floore's Country Store.

Which company built Willie Nelson's famous nylon-string guitar?

It is an N-20 classical model with a Brazilian rosewood body and Sitka spruce top, and decades of flatpicking have worn a hole through it above the bridge.

Which musician was the first to carve his signature into the top of Nelson's famous guitar?

He suggested scratching names rather than writing them so they would last. More than 100 signatures now cover the soundboard.

What did Willie Nelson vow to do if the IRS ever auctioned off his beloved guitar?

His daughter retrieved the guitar and his lawyer hid it until the debt was settled in 1993. Luthier Mark Erlewine has given it an annual check-up since 1977.

In which state was Willie Nelson's Ridgetop ranch, which burned down in December 1970?

The fire helped push him out of the Nashville orbit and back to Texas within two years.

What product did Willie Nelson's company Bio-Willie, formed in 2005, market to truck stops?

A decade later he launched his own cannabis brand, Willie's Reserve, in states where marijuana had been legalised.

What is the name of the cannabis brand Nelson announced in 2015?

He has been one of the most visible advocates for legalisation in American music for decades.

In which year was Willie Nelson inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame?

He was made a Kennedy Center Honoree in 1998 and received the Library of Congress's Gershwin Prize in 2015.

In 2023, at the age of 90, Willie Nelson was inducted into which institution?

He had received the Grammy Legend Award in 1990 and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000, on top of a dozen competitive Grammys.

Which record label signed Willie Nelson in 1964, under Chet Atkins, for $10,000 a year?

He joined the Grand Ole Opry the following year, but the polished Nashville Sound never suited him and he left the label at the start of the 1970s.

In which country star's touring band did the young Willie Nelson play bass?

Price also recorded Nelson's 'Night Life'. Nelson had moved to Nashville in 1960 and signed with the Pamper Music publishing company.

What was the title of Willie Nelson's 1962 debut album?

His first Top Ten single, 'Willingly', a duet with Shirley Collie, came the year before; he married Collie in Las Vegas in 1963.

Which of these singers did Willie Nelson name among his early influences?

That Sinatra influence explains Stardust, the album of Tin Pan Alley standards that became one of his biggest sellers.

How much did Willie Nelson pay in 1969 for the classical guitar he has played ever since?

He bought it sight unseen. Its frets have worn from smooth ridges into wavy lines over more than 10,000 performances.

How many competitive Grammys had Willie Nelson won by end of 2024, from 57 nominations?

That is on top of the Grammy Legend Award in 1990 and the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000.

Which relative grew up with Willie Nelson and played piano in his band for decades?

Bobbie Nelson played piano beside him from the Abbott childhood, when their grandparents taught them both music, until her death in 2022.

Nelson named his famous guitar after the horse of which singing cowboy?

The guitar has no pickguard, since classical guitars are meant to be played fingerstyle, so decades of pick strumming have worn a sweeping hole into the body near the sound hole.

His 1974 concept album Phases and Stages tells the two sides of what story?

Side one is told from the woman's viewpoint and side two from the man's, drawing on his own experience. It produced the hit 'Bloody Mary Morning'.

Nelson produced and starred in the 1974 pilot of which long-running PBS music series?

On his 1975 tour he raised funds for PBS stations across the South to get the pilot aired. PBS then ordered ten episodes for 1976, formally launching the show.

Which 1976 compilation with Waylon Jennings became country music's first platinum album?

Jessi Colter and Tompall Glaser rounded out the record. It cemented the pair's 'outlaw' image, a label coined because their music did not conform to Nashville standards.

How much did the struggling young Nelson sell the song 'Night Life' for?

He sold it to guitar instructor Paul Buskirk, who had hired him as a teacher, along with 'Family Bible' for $50. 'Family Bible' became a hit for Claude Gray in 1960.

In 2014 Nelson earned a fifth-degree black belt in which Korean martial art?

He trained on his tour bus, the Honeysuckle Rose, and sent videos to his Grand Master for critique. He also holds a second-degree black belt in taekwondo.

When he quit music for a year in Fort Worth, he rose to sales manager for which product?

He had started out selling Bibles and vacuum cleaners door-to-door. Earlier jobs included nightclub bouncer, saddle maker and tree trimmer for the electric company.

Nelson's 2003 duet 'Beer for My Horses' topped the country chart for six weeks with which singer?

The video won Best Video at the 2004 Academy of Country Music Awards, and the song later lent its title to a 2008 comedy film starring both singers.

Nelson hosts the 'Smoke Hour' radio interludes on which 2024 album?

The record is the second in Beyoncé's planned trilogy. Later that year the death of Kris Kristofferson left Nelson as the last surviving Highwayman.

Nelson sang Daniel Lanois's 'Cruel World' for the soundtrack of which 2018 video game?

A hurricane nearly stopped him recording, so Rockstar had Josh Homme cut a backup version. Nelson made it in time and the game ended up including both.