Willie Nelson

Willie Nelson (born April 29th, 1933 in Abbott, Texas) is a country music icon, a musician who flirted with rock, pop and jazz whilst keeping his country roots firmly based within his music throughout his career. A member of the country outlaws, so-called because of their refusal to conform to the new musical leanings of Nashville, he released acclaimed records alongside Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings. Hits “Bloody Mary Morning” and “After the Fire Is Gone” gained him a huge fan base of traditional country fans, but also among the new soft rock audiences of the time. His lyrical talent should also not be underestimated as he was the writer responsible for such hits as Roy Orbison's “Pretty Paper” and Patsy Cline's “Crazy” during the beginnings of his career in Nashville when he worked as a songwriter, unable to secure a record contract of his own. He also had a successful acting career, appearing in films including The Electric Horseman (1979) and Barbarosa (1982). His image as an outlaw came in 1990 when he faced a lengthy battle with the IRS over $32 million in back taxes, eventually paying off the debts to an amount of $16 million, negotiated by his lawyer, in 1993. He bounced back from the bad name this scandal gave him and set out on a continuous touring schedule from the late 1990s into the 2000s. In 2005 he released a reggae album titled Countryman which featured Toots and the Maytals on the track “I'm a Worried Man”. He continued to tour, with appearances at charity gigs, including the 2005 Tsunami Relief Austin to Asia concert, and continued to produce new music with albums Two Men With the Blues (2008) with Wynton Marsalis, Moment of Forever (2008) with Buddy Cannon, and Country Music (2010), a compilation of country standards. In 2012 Nelson moved to Legacy Records where he released Heroes, his sixtieth studio album. He followed this with To All the Girls..., an album of duets with female performers including Dolly Parton, Norah Jones, Emmylou Harris and Carrie Underwood. The album scored him a number two on Billboard's Top Country Albums Chart, making it his highest-ranking record in more than 20 years. Band of Brothers was released in 2014, earning him a number one spot on the chart. 2017 saw the release of God's Problem Child which debuted at number one on the Top Country Albums Chart and number ten on the Billboard 200. 2018 saw the release of album Last Man Standing which peaked at number two on the UK Country Albums Chart and number three on the Billboard Top Country Albums Chart, followed by the Frank Sinatra tribute album My Way. In 2019 he released the new album Ride Me Back Home, which was followed in 2020 by the landmark arrival of First Rose of Spring, his seventieth LP, produced by longtime collaborator Buddy Cannon.

Please enable Javascript to view this page competely.