Every Friday around 11 a.m. Central, it’s time for Classic Americana on Radio Heartland. We pull a special track from the archives or from deep in the shelves to spotlight a particular artist or song.

Willie Nelson is a true icon in the music world, and he is in our Classic Americana spotlight this week. Willie Nelson turned 91 this past Monday, and he's been in the music business since 1956.

Nelson's story begins in 1933, when he was born in the midst of the Great Depression. Given the economic pressures of the time, Willie Nelson's biological parents flew the coop, and Willie and his sister were raised by their grandparents — music teachers who shared their love of music with their grandchildren. Willie started singing songs in church and he got his first guitar at age six.

By the time Willie Nelson was in high school, he was playing guitar and singing in a local Polka band, given there are a lot of people of German heritage in Texas. While in high school, Willie was also a three-sport athlete, playing football, basketball and baseball.

After he graduated, Willie was in the U.S. Air Force for a while, but had to leave due to a back injury. He studied agriculture for a couple years at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, but eventually left to pursue music as a career.

For quite a few years, Willie Nelson worked as a radio DJ while concurrently performing music in clubs. He lived in a number of places, including Washington state and Missouri, before eventually returning to Texas and then landing in Nashville.

As a songwriter, Willie Nelson wrote for a number of other artists — some of his best-known early hits included "Pretty Paper," a big hit for Roy Orbison, and "Crazy," a massive hit for Patsy Cline and among the biggest jukebox hits of all time.

As a solo artist, Willie recorded a number of albums, but he didn't really strike gold until 1975, when he released Red-Headed Stranger — his 18th studio album. Chalk one up for perseverance.

His next big album, Stardust, came out in 1978, and it featured Willie Nelson performing covers of American standards, arranged by the album's producer, Booker T. Jones — yes, the same Booker T. of Booker T and the MGs fame.

Since then, Willie has continued to release albums and collaborate with a number of artists; probably most notably with his buddy Waylon Jennings, who, along with Johnny Cash and Kris Kristofferson, formed a supergroup called the Highwaymen, a name that's winked at by the Americana supergroup the Highwomen: Brandi Carlile, Amanda Shires, Maren Morris and Natalie Hemby.

Lots of people know about Willie's music and about his activism and about his business ventures — but we don't need to get into the weeds, so to speak, about that right now. But here's something you may not know: Willie Nelson is big into the martial arts, and he holds a couple of black belts in different forms, including Tae Kwon Do.

Willie's also a bit of a philosopher and is known for witty sayings. In his 2006 book, The Tao of Willie: A Guide to the Happiness in Your Heart, Willie Nelson wrote, “Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you’ll start having positive results.”

Willie Nelson’s most recent album is Bluegrass, released on Sept. 15, 2023; it features bluegrass reinterpretations of great songs from Willie Nelson’s vast back catalogue. Nelson’s next album is The Border, which will be released at the end of this month, on May 31. No doubt Willie Nelson will be on tour this summer, so in honor of that, we’ll play one of Willie’s all-time classic songs, “On The Road Again.”

Classic Americana Playlist

External Link

Willie Nelson – official site