Country music performer Willie Hugh Nelson was born in the United States on April 29, 1933.
Nelson, who was reared by his grandparents and was a Great Depression baby, penned his first song at the age of seven and joined his first band at the age of ten.
He traveled regionally as the lead vocalist and guitarist with the Bohemian Polka while still in high school. He enlisted in the U.S. Air Force in 1950 after finishing high school but was later released owing to back issues.
Nelson returned and spent two years at Baylor University before leaving due to his musical success. He performed as a performer and songwriter throughout the late 1950s while working as a disc jockey at radio stations in his native Texas and various radio stations in the Pacific Northwest. During that time, he wrote songs like “Funny How Time Slips Away,” “Hello Walls,” “Pretty Paper,” and “Crazy” that would later become country staples.
. He relocated to Nashville, Tennessee, in 1960, and later obtained a publishing agreement with Pamper Music, which enabled him to play bass in Ray Price’s band. He recorded his debut album,…And Then I Wrote, in 1962. Nelson secured a contract with RCA Victor in 1964 as a result of his popularity, and the following year he joined the Grand Ole Opry.
Nelson became tired of the corporate Nashville music industry after mid-chart singles in the late 1960s and early 1970s, so he relocated to Austin, Texas, in 1972. Nelson was inspired to resume performing by Austin’s thriving music culture, and he frequently appeared at the Armadillo World Headquarters.
Willie Nelson top music
Nelson shifted to outlaw country in 1973 after signing with Atlantic Records, releasing albums like Shotgun Willie and Phases & Stages.
He changed labels in 1975 and cut the highly regarded album Red Headed Stranger for Columbia Records. Along with Waylon Jennings, Jessi Colter, and Tompall Glaser, he recorded the outlaw country album Wanted! The Outlaws in the same year.
He joined the country supergroup The Highwaymen in the middle of the 1980s, along with singers Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, and Kris Kristofferson, while releasing hit albums like Honeysuckle Rose and cutting popular songs like “On the Road Again,” “To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before,” and “Pancho and Lefty.”
He assisted in planning the inaugural Farm Aid event in 1985 to support American farmers. Nelson has been a regular participant in every Farm Aid concert since then.
Nelson’s assets were taken by the Internal Revenue Service in 1990, which asserted that he owed $32 million in back taxes. Weak investments he had made in the 1980s made it more difficult for him to pay off his existing debt.
Nelson produced The IRS Tapes: Who’ll Buy My Memories? in 1992; the proceeds of the double album, which were earmarked for the IRS, plus the sale of Nelson’s valuables at auction allowed him to pay off his debt. Nelson maintained a rigorous touring schedule and consistently released albums in the 1990s and 2000s. Reviews were both favorable and conflicting. He experimented with folk, jazz, blues, and reggae, among other genres.
Nelson made his screen debut in the 1979 movie The Electric Horseman, which was followed by several film and television roles. Nelson is a well-known liberal activist and the co-chair of the advisory board for the pro-legalization National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML). Nelson owns the biodiesel company Willie Nelson Biodiesel, which produces a product from vegetable oil, on the environmental front. The Texas Music Project, the state of Texas’s official music charity, has appointed Nelson as its honorary chairman of the advisory board.
Willie Nelson awards
The Country Music Association presents the Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award, which was established in 2012 during the 46th CMA Awards.
The award is given in recognition of “an iconic artist who has attained the highest degree of recognition in Country Music (that) achieved both national and international prominence and stature through concert performances, humanitarian efforts, philanthropy, record sales, and public representation at the highest level,” with the requirement that the recipient “must have positively impacted and contributed to the growth of the genre over time.”
The award, which bears Willie Nelson’s name and was created by Chicago-based maker R.S. Owens & Company, was originally given to him. A bronze medallion was supported on top of the trophy by two aluminum struts, which were constructed to resemble the “bullet shape” of a standard CMA award. The entire construction was joined to a walnut base.
