Willie Nelson wrote his first song at seven. And he’s still touring at 93.
Abandoned by his parents as a young boy, he started making money as a musician early on, but over the decades he’s worn many cowboy hats: actor, writer, activist, outlaw, philanthropist, entrepreneur, and marijuana enthusiast. When the Internal Revenue Service seized his assets and claimed he owed $32 million in back taxes, he released The IRS Tapes: Who’ll Buy My Memories? That album unironically helped him pay down his gigantic tax debt. What a hero!
I had always appreciated Willie Nelson for being Willie Nelson, but when Teatro came out in 1998, I finally felt Willie Nelson. Nearly 30 years later, I can hear “I Never Cared for You” like it was the first time.
Willie is as whimsical as he is profound. As a Monk junkie, I loved his appearance in “Mr. Monk & the Red-Headed Stranger” a few years after the release of Teatro. And at the beginning of the COVID shutdown, the Red-Headed Stranger livestreamed a very lengthy variety show called Come and Toke It.
What’s not to love about Willie?