See how the 1970s were the turning point for Willie Nelson’s unstoppable career

Willie Nelson interviews and photos at ClickAmericana com

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No man embodies the spirit of country music quite like Willie Nelson. Born during the Great Depression in 1933 in a small Texas town, Nelson’s humble beginnings were an early predictor of the heart-tugging ballads that he would go on to create.

Young Willie Nelson with guitar and no beard (1967) via ClickAmericana com

At six, Nelson received a guitar from his grandfather and began making music. From those early days, a legend was in the making. The years would see him evolve into a songwriter, an author, an activist, and an actor, but first and foremost, he was always a singer.

From writing country classics like “Crazy” (which became a hit for Patsy Cline) to topping the charts himself with “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain,” Nelson always knew how to strike a chord with listeners. His distinctive, nasal voice has echoed across countless stages, delighting fans for decades.

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Willie Nelson has never been one to stand alone in the spotlight. Over his storied career, he’s shared stages and studios with a variety of artists, creating an impressive roster of collaborations. One of his most noteworthy partnerships was with none other than Dolly Parton. In 1983, the pair released “From Here to the Moon and Back,” a sweetly melodic duet that showcased the perfect blending of their distinct voices.

Alongside these unique collaborations, Nelson has also been part of some legendary supergroups, most notably The Highwaymen, featuring fellow country heavyweights Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, and Kris Kristofferson. These partnerships not only broadened Nelson’s musical reach, but reinforced his status as a true team player in the industry, always willing to share the limelight with fellow musicians for the sake of a great tune.

Vintage Willie Nelson ad (1978) via ClickAmericana com

Beyond his music, Nelson’s distinctive look, complete with a bandana and braids, has become as iconic as the man himself. And who can forget his trusty guitar, “Trigger,” (nicknamed after Roy Rogers’ famous horse) a Martin N-20 nylon-string classical acoustic guitar that he’s played since 1969?

While his successful music career has been the backbone of his fame, Nelson has also made a name for himself as an actor and activist. His acting career includes over 30 films and television appearances.

On the activism front, he’s been an outspoken advocate for marijuana legalization, and co-founded the Farm Aid concert in 1985 to raise awareness about the loss of family farms, and to raise funds to keep farm families on their land.

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It’s hard to sum up a man like Willie Nelson in just a few paragraphs. His life has been one of creativity and resilience — along with constant reinvention. Through all the highs and lows, Nelson’s music has always been there ready to offer comfort, solace, and, of course, a good time. His status as a living legend is well-earned, and his contribution to music is undeniable. Below, take a look back at some video highlights, photos and features from his long and productive career.

Willie Nelson in 2004
Willie Nelson in 2004 (Photo by s_bukley/Dreamstime)

Willie Nelson keeps the audience happy (1977)

From an article by Larry Williams – Commercial Appeal (Memphis, Tennessee) May 15, 1977

Whatever it is that sets Willie apart — charisma, laid back mellowness, an off-the-wall wildness — he is, indeed, the biggest star in red-neck rock, progressive country or whatever the name might be, and he does possess those rare qualities that somehow capture and hold all elements of diverse audiences.

Willie is full of contradictions. He is often low-key and yet he can be expected to do the unexpected on stage. One thing is for sure: He turns on audiences.

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When he played The Auditorium North Hall a few months ago, Willie had them in the aisles — literally. He probably could have played and wailed all night and kept his full audience.

And what an audience. It had young people in it — including teeny hoppers and on up to 19-year-olds — and middle-aged straights as well as some older folks. There were business suits and jeans, elegance and pure raunchiness as far as attire went. And Willie had them all.

This guru was born during the Depression in Abbott, Texas. His first job, at age 10, was playing rhythm guitar with a Bohemian polka band in a nearby town. Since then, he has covered a lot of territory, including Nashville, where his songs caught on with performers like Faron Young (“Hello Walls”) and Ray Price (“Night Life”).

Young Willie Nelson with no beard via ClickAmericana com

With the ’60s and the rise of the rock music scene, a change was in the air, and Willie Nelson became part of it. Then came the “Shotgun Willie” album, and the artist’s return to Texas. He settled down outside Austin and became a catalyst in the Austin music scene, bridging the gap between the older country music audience and Austin’s large youth culture.

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Playing in the honky-tonks as well as the country clubs and mostly holding forth at the now-defunct Texas Opry House, Willie played to them all, but his special audience was the 21 to 35 crowd, which is a wide variance at that.

Along with his pal, Waylon Jennings, he held on to the outlaw audience as well as the regular Nashville crowd. He was more at home with his other good friend and fellow artist, Jerry Jeff Walker, but he never really completely turned his back on Nashville.

He has been inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. Last year, he and Waylon won the Best Duo of the Year (“Good-Hearted Woman”) and Best Album of the Year (“Outlaw”) with Waylon and Jessie Colter. This year Willie won the award for Best Country Single with “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain,” which sold more than a million copies.

Willie Nelson album cover via ClickAmericana com

He sings it on the Austin City Limits premiere, along with other songs from the Red-Headed Stranger album

To a standing-room-only crowd in the Austin studios where the show was taped, Willie Nelson provided the kind of music they had come to hear, ranging from the poignant, melodic “Blue Eyes” to the upbeat country classic, “Down Yonder.” It’s all vintage Willie.


Willie Nelson: The hero and the legend (1977)

By Patrick Gilbert in the Evening Sun (Baltimore, Maryland) September 9, 1977

Some people will say that Willie Nelson was before his time. Others will argue that time was always behind Willie Nelson. Willie could agree either way.

“People like my music ’cause I offer them something different. But, hell, I’m just doin’ what I’ve always been doin’,” said Willie in explaining the phenomenon that has made him a cult hero with hippies, rednecks, and even the middle class.

Willie doesn’t think of his music as progressive country as people are wont to call it. “Guess I might call it white man’s blues. That’s as good as anything else.”

“It’s my audience that’s progressive, not my music. Besides, I’m not sure anybody agrees on what progressive country music means,” Willie said.

Willie Nelson on stage (1977) via ClickAmericana com

His smallish frame was draped with the attire that has become a trademark: blue jeans, sneakers, T-shirt. A headband encircled a face that looks like an index file to the kind of hard-life and sad-time songs he writes. Six weeks of one-night stands and the pain from a sprained foot made their additions to the lined face and soulful eyes.

He had fallen from a friend’s front porch in the Bahamas several days before. He had sneaked into the islands to refuel for the end of a tour that was to take him to Greensboro, N.C., Columbia, Md., and Canyon, Texas.

But resting in a backstage dressing room after a show at the Merriweather Post Pavilion, Willie’s mood was one of satisfaction.

Vintage Willie Nelson platinum albums

“It was a helluva show. It came off good,” he was saying to guitarist Jody Payne and Paul (Devil) English, his drummer of long standing.

He had wowed them with the new Willie, singing one whole side of the “Red Headed Stranger” LP, and lulled them with the old Willie in “Ain’t It Funny How Time Slips Away.”

But it was his rocking arrangement of the spiritual, “Will the Circle Be Unbroken,” and his blues version of “Amazing Grace,” sung with Emmylou Harris, that deposited the audience in his hip pocket.

Three men from the White House were ushered in so they could give him a few “beautiful, man,” “great show” and get an autograph. A woman from Columbia Records publicity in New York dropped in to say hello. Photographers from Time and Country Music magazines were clicking away. A band member reminded Willie he was to go to Washington the next day with Emmylou to meet Jimmy Carter.

Willie was smiling and saying “thank you” to accolades in his soft Texas twang. He was making the place seem as cordial as an after-dinner liqueur.

After the hard years, you could tell that Willie Nelson was now wearing the good life and success as comfortably as an outlaw packs two six-shooters on his hips.

An outlaw. That’s what they call Willie Nelson and friends Waylon Jennings, Tompall Glaser, Kris Kristofferson, David Allen Coe, and Billy Joe Shaver, to name a few.

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They did things differently, in their music, their dress, and the way they lived. A southern county poll tax was abolished faster than Nashville accepted the outlaws.

Willie, 44, left his native north-central Texas for Nashville in the early 1950s. Hank Cochran found him in Tootsie’s Bar and signed him up. He was an instant success as a songwriter, penning such classics as ”Hello Walls,” “Crazy,” “Night Life,” and “Ain’t It Funny How Time Slips Away.”

He signed up with Ray Price’s band as a guitarist. His last entry into the Baltimore area was in the early 1960s with Price.

His association with Price ended with a dispute over a fighting cock which Price used to exercise on Willie’s farm. The rooster got loose several times and laid waste some of Willie’s laying hens. Several efforts to rectify the oversight failed. After losing a few more hens, Willie blasted Price’s prized fighting cock with a shotgun.

An angry Price threatened never to record any of Willie’s songs again. ”And you know, I don’t believe he ever did,” Willie said with a grin.

Willie Nelson (1977)

In 1962, Willie had his own hit recording, “Touch Me,” but it was to be more than 10 years before he saw his name in the top 10 again.

Willie left Nashville in 1972. There are all kinds of stories as to why he toted his career down to Austin, Texas. They tell of his being ostracized by the tradition-bent powers-to-be of the Nashville music scene. Record company biggies were telling him that maybe he was ahead of his time and he should go away until his time was right. Success seemed to have put him out for the night.

Willie tells it a little differently: “I left ’cause my house burned down.”

He was at a club on a December night in 1972 when someone sashayed in and told him his house was on fire. By the time he got there, firemen were running all over the place. Undaunted, Willie ran into the burning house on a life-saving rescue mission — to get his stash.

Willie Nelson - To Lefty from Willie (1977) via ClickAmericana com

“Hell, man, I was stumbling over firemen and hoses and they were tripping over me. But it was justified. When I saw that house burning, I knew I was going to need to get high.”

He moved to Austin temporarily until his house was rebuilt. Then Willie went back to Nashville for a while. But like two ex-lovers who are trying to be friends, it didn’t last long. Willie was soon back in Texas.

Even in 1973, when Willie Nelson’s fame was starting to seep beyond the Red River, Nashville would reopen old wounds. He deadheaded into Nashville that fall for the annual country disc jockey’s convention, only to learn he was excluded from performing.

But unlike the “Red Headed Stranger’ he wrote about who was wild in his sorrow, Willie doesn’t seek to gun down Music City, USA. “You can’t put down a whole city and the music scene just because of a couple of ——,” he said.

Willie Nelson vintage album sleeve

Of course, success and being given three of those statues at the 1976 Country Music Association Awards Show — Country Duo of the Year (along with Waylon), Album of the Year, and Song of the Year — can help heal wounds as well as three-fingered whisky.

The song that figured in all three awards was “Good Hearted Woman.” It was written during a pause in a poker game in Fort Worth.

“Room 58 of the Fort Worther Motel to be exact. It was a memorable evening,” Willie said as he signed another autograph. Just how memorable it was, he wasn’t saying, leaving it locked behind his twinkling blue eyes.

Success didn’t really let Willie Nelson back in the door. It was more like Willie knocked the door down.

Back in Texas, he started his now-famous Fourth of July picnics to showcase himself and the other outlaws. Willie went searching for the audience that understood the direction of his music. He found them at his picnic-concerts in Dripping Springs and at clubs in Austin, Fort Worth, and Tulsa, Oklahoma.

“I needed to get my name around, to sell myself. It’s the game you gotta play in this business.”

Two of the most unusual albums ever recorded in country and western music, “Phases and Stages” and “Red Headed Stranger,” and hit singles like “Blue Eyes Cryin’ in the Rain” and “Sad Songs and Waltzes” spread his popularity far outside Texas.

Willie Nelson became a hero and a legend. In the Baptist-rich country in and around Austin, they sold T-shirts that read ‘Matthew, Mark, Luke, and Willie.’ And they tell the story of the time rain threatened to interfere with one of his picnic-concerts. Willie, impatient with the foul weather, stuck his head out of his trailer and yelled at the damn rain to stop. It did — immediately.

Willie took on a few more well-wishers at Merriweather as the crowd backstage began to thin. Outside the dressing room, T. Snake, one of his roadies, was working to keep two young groupies at bay.

Photo by Joseph Rouse | Dreamstime.com
Photo by Joseph Rouse | Dreamstime.com

Another roadie passed and, noticing one girl with her blouse unbuttoned to her belt, observed, “You’re either looking for the ladies’ room or a rock star.”

T. Snake finally gave the two the sign from Willie’s dressing room door. It wasn’t the piece of Willie they were hoping to get, but they left anyway.

An hour and a half after the last chords of “Whisky River” had sent a packed crowd home fulfilled, Willie Nelson picked up his crutches and peeked out the door. Backstage was empty except for a few roadies leaning against some equipment lockers.

Willie hobbled his way slowly down the darkened stage. He stopped and invited a visitor to come by his motel room the next day. “We’ll tie it on and cut it loose.”

He had an impetuous grin on his face like a kid waiting for the “don’t walk” sign to cross the street. But then, Willie Nelson has been jaywalking his way to success for years.

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