Willie Nelson

Willie Nelson has married four times during his lifetime. He has fathered seven children. He has been married to Martha Matthews, Shirley Collie, Connie Koepke, and Annie D’Angelo. He presently lives with his current wife, Marie, and their two sons, in Hawaii.

Willie has been a chain-smoker for a very long time and is an avid marijuana smoker, too. He has shown his support for the legalization of marijuana on several platforms.

Willie Nelson was born on April 29, 1933, in Abbott, Texas, during the Great Depression. His father, Ira Doyle Nelson, worked as a mechanic, and his mother, Myrle Marie, was a homemaker.

Willie did not have an average childhood. Soon after his birth, his mother left the family, and sometime later, his father, too, abandoned them after marrying another woman. Willie and his sister, Bobbie, were raised by their grandparents, who lived in Arkansas and taught music for a living. Under their guardianship, Willie and Bobbie started getting inclined toward music.

Willie got his first guitar at the age of 6. It was a gift from his grandfather. His grandfather would take the siblings to a nearby church where Willie would play the guitar and his sister would sing the Gospel. By the age of 7, Nelson started writing his very own songs, and a few years later, he joined his first music band.

By the time he reached middle school, he was playing music all over the state. His family picked cotton during summers, but Willie made money by playing music in parties, halls, and other small venues.

He was part of a local, small-time country music band, ‘Bohemian Polka,’ and learned a lot from that experience. He attended ‘Abbott High School.’ In school, he developed a liking toward sports and was part of the school’s football and basketball teams. While in school, he also sang and played the guitar for a band named ‘The Texans.’ He completed high school in 1950.

By 1956, Willie had started looking for full-time work. He headed to Vancouver, Washington. There, he met Leon Payne, who was an esteemed country singer and songwriter, and their collaboration created the song ‘Lumberjack.’ The song sold three thousand copies, which was a respectable figure for an indie artist. However, it did not bring Willie the fame and money that he thought he deserved. He worked as a disc jockey for the next few years, before moving to Nashville.

Willie made several demo tapes and sent them to major record labels, but his jazzy and laid-back music did not attract them. However, his songwriting abilities did get noticed by Hank Cochran, who recommended Willie to ‘Pamper Music,’ a popular music label. The label was co-owned by Ray Price. Ray was impressed by Willie’s music and invited him to join the band ‘Cherokee Cowboys.’ Willie became part of the band as a bass player.

By the early 1960s, touring with the ‘Cowboys’ proved greatly beneficial for Willie, as his talent was noticed by other band members. He also began producing music and writing songs for several other artists. During this early stage of his career, he collaborated with ace country musicians Faron Young, Billy Walker, and Patsy Cline. Several of his singles made their way to the ‘Country Top 40’ chart.

He recorded a duet with his then-wife, Shirley Collie, titled ‘Willingly.’ The song became a big hit. Soon after, his songs stopped resonating with the listeners, and after a couple of years, he changed the music label. He joined ‘RCA Victor’ (now ‘RCA Records’) in 1965 but was disappointed yet again. This continued till the early 1970s, when he finally decided to quit music and returned back to Austin, Texas, where he focused on pig farming.

He then closely observed the reasons behind his failure in music. He decided to give music a final shot and experimented with a rock-influenced country sound. The transformation worked, and he landed a record deal with ‘Atlantic Records.’ This was the true beginning of his music career.