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Willie Nelson has had the most amazing life, both onstage and off.
Born Willie Hugh Nelson in Abbott, Texas in 1933, during the Great Depression, Nelson wrote his first song at the age of 7 and joined his first band at 10. He served in the Air Force and worked as a disc jockey before moving to Nashville, where he became an in-demand songwriter.
Nelson wrote a number of classics that were made famous by other artists, including Funny How Time Slips Away, Hello Walls, Pretty Paper and Crazy. His early solo albums saw reasonable success, but after he moved to Austin, grew his hair and re-invented himself as a self-styled country outlaw, he became one of the leaders of a new Outlaw Country movement in the 1970s.
25 Things You May Not Know About Country Icon Willie Nelson
In a career that has encompassed performing, songwriting, acting and activism, there are so many highlights to consider when looking back at Willie Nelson s life. Here are 25 of our favorite things you might not know about the American icon.
1. Willie Hugh Nelson was born April 29, 1933, in Abbott, Texas. Also born in Texas that same month were future TV stars Carol Burnett and Carolyn Jones (
The Addams Family).
2. Because he was born close to midnight, some sources list Nelson s birth date as April 30.
3. Nelson s sister Bobbie, who plays piano in his band, is two years older than him.
Willie Nelson s trademark braids make him one of the most instantly recognizable celebrities in the world but he looked a little (okay, a lot) different in his early years. In fact, younger fans may not recognize the singer in photos from when he first entered the music scene!
Before Nelson became one of music s biggest icons, his look was much more straight-laced: His first album,
. And Then I Wrote, for Liberty Records, was released in 1962 and featured Nelson on the cover sporting short hair and a suit. That same year, Patsy Cline released Crazy, which Nelson penned.
From there, the Texas native s career continued to build as he wrote music for himself and also lent his writing skills to classic songs such as Funny How Time Slips Away, Hello Walls and Pretty Paper. After leaving Nashville for Austin, Nelson grew out his hair and took on the role of a country outlaw in the 1970s, when his popularity skyrocketed.
Apr 29, 2021
He really is the Last Man Standing. Willie s the best, and while we all make a lot of pot jokes about him, he s genuinely one of the finest singer-songwriters America has ever produced. He s written some of the best, including Funny How Time Slips Away.