Picking your nose and lying down in the street might sound like rather mundane activities, but for Willie Nelson, they were some of the most influential moments of his entire life.
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00:00Willie Nelson is a lot of things. A legendary singer, iconic songwriter, he's even rescued
00:06a few dozen horses from being slaughtered. Now in his 90s, Nelson remains both a vital
00:12and fascinating performer. Here are 12 facts you may not have known about him.
00:18Everyone has to learn about grief and loss at some point, and for Willie Nelson, that
00:22came early on in life. When Nelson was just six months old, his parents got a divorce.
00:28He went to live with his grandparents, but unfortunately, his time with his grandfather
00:31was short-lived. Nelson remembered his grandfather as a powerful figure. He was also a blacksmith
00:37with a booming voice. His grandfather was only 56 years old when he came down with pneumonia
00:42and passed away. In his memoir, My Life, It's a Long Story, Nelson wrote,
00:48I was devastated the way any six-year-old boy losing the most important man in his life
00:52would be devastated. After briefly seeing their parents again at the funeral, Nelson
00:57and his sister, Bobbie, knew that they were going to continue living with their grandmother.
01:01However, life was hard, and the Nelson siblings found themselves living in a place where they
01:05pasted newspapers to the walls to stay warm. Still, Nelson said that he'd already been
01:09given the most precious gift of all, a guitar.
01:12I really do believe in imagining what you want to do and let it happen.
01:20Willie Nelson fans may have heard him be called by his nickname, Booger Red. But what's the
01:24meaning behind it? Is it a reference to his hair color? Something else? According to his
01:29memoir, it definitely falls into the category of something else. Nelson wrote how his grandparents
01:35insisted that he and his sister learn to be comfortable speaking in front of groups, so
01:38they forced them to speak at church gatherings. In the book, Nelson told a story of reading
01:43a poem at a church picnic while dressed in a little white sailor suit. Nelson recalled
01:48in his memoir, Just before I was set to go on, I started picking my nose. I was nervous
01:53and didn't realize how deeply I had dug into my skin. When I hit the stage, red blood was
01:58pouring all over my white suit. Nelson wrote that he told people that if they didn't like
02:03the way he looked, they could look away, adding, That's how I got the nickname Booger Red.
02:09Before he was making a living performing on stage, Willie Nelson worked a number of odd
02:13jobs. That included working mornings at a radio station called KBOP. Part of his responsibilities
02:19included signing on in the morning, usually when he was often hungover. He also did his
02:24own live show in a half-hour slot every day. It was there that he met Johnny Bush. From
02:30that meeting, they formed a group and played together in a series of shows at a local ballroom.
02:36Like all bands, they did their share of covers. In his book, Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When
02:40I Die, Nelson recalled one particular song that was a massive hit with the crowd. Yesterday
02:45by The Beatles, Nelson wrote, I thought that I had discovered an obscure song that no one
02:50had heard of before, not realizing The Beatles had just sold 90 zillion records.
02:56Willie Nelson has been candid about his early struggles. In his book, The Tao of Willie,
03:00A Guide to Happiness in Your Heart, he wrote about the difficulties that filled his early
03:04years and made him angry, rebellious, and self-destructive. By the time he'd gotten
03:08sick of trying and failing in Nashville, he'd already put a handful of failed marriages
03:13under his belt and had built up a reputation for fighting. Nelson wrote, One night I got
03:18so down on myself that I lay down in the middle of the street and waited for a car to come
03:22by and run me over. When no cars came along for quite a while, it occurred to me that
03:27there was no one to blame for this sorry situation other than myself. I also realized that eventually
03:33it all turned out okay. Nelson said that he'd spent so much time imagining his life going
03:38bad that it had become a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy. While it might not be advised to
03:43lay in the middle of the road to come to that realization, the singer believed that
03:46it went a long way to turning his life around. He wrote, It took me a long time to realize
03:51that I didn't have to make life so dang hard.
03:54It's arguable that Willie Nelson has had an even bigger impact as a songwriter than as
03:58a singer. After all, he's penned countless songs, including Patsy Cline's hit, Crazy.
04:05It's a great song, but Nelson has told multiple stories about how it all came together. Cline
04:10was recuperating from a devastating car accident when Nelson approached her, or didn't approach
04:15her at all. In one version, Nelson pitched the song to Cline's husband-slash-manager,
04:20Charlie Dick. They were at a bar, it was after midnight, and Dick was so taken with the song
04:25that he wanted to waste no time in getting it to his wife.
04:28I said, You don't want to go over there at midnight. I'm about half drunk and you are
04:32too.
04:33Even though Nelson didn't want to intrude at the unreasonable hour, Cline insisted. And
04:37the rest, as they say, is history.
04:40However, Nelson has also told a completely different version of the story. In the alternate
04:44version, Nelson paints Dick as being such a huge fan that he constantly plays one of
04:48Willie's songs. As a result, Patsy Cline grew irritated whenever she heard Nelson's music.
04:54So when Nelson brought Dick the demo of Crazy, he opted to stay in the car and wait until
04:59Patsy insisted that he come out.
05:01An article on biography.com adds that Cline initially struggled with the song. After stepping
05:06away for a few days, however, she returned to the studio and recorded it in a single
05:10take.
05:12There's no aspect of horse slaughter that's not horrific. The Humane Society says that
05:17166,000 horses were sent to slaughter in 2012, and the USDA notes that just over 92% of those
05:24horses are healthy and could have lived long lives. Horrified? Willie Nelson is, too.
05:30In 2019, KSAT talked to Willie Nelson about the 70-plus horses on his 700-acre ranch.
05:37The singer said that his horses were rescued in the 11th hour, just before they were shipped
05:41off to slaughter. Nelson told the outlet,
05:44Willie Nelson and marijuana go together like peanut butter and jelly, and he says that
05:52there's a good reason for that — genetics. In The Tao of Willie, he talks about how it's
05:57the best stress relief out there, and says that there's more to it than just feeling
06:01good. The singer also wrote,
06:03I suspect it has something to do with my Cherokee heritage.
06:07He went on to explain that the Cherokee belief system teaches that a connection to nature
06:10can make a person happy. He also explained that for generations, medicine came in the
06:15form of plants, flowers, seeds, and herbs. As Nelson wrote in his book,
06:20The farther away humankind gets from that connection to nature, the worse off they are
06:24mentally, physically, and emotionally.
06:27According to Texas Hill Country, Nelson's Shotgun Willie nickname started when the singer
06:32found out that his daughter, Lana, had been the victim of domestic violence. Lana was
06:36married to a violent man named Steve, who was doing the abuse. Nelson recalled,
06:41I ran from my truck and drove to the place where Steve and Lana lived and slapped Steve
06:46around. When Nelson returned home, his son-in-law followed him with a .22 caliber rifle. Not
06:53about to stand for that sort of thing, Nelson ran back out and took a few shots with his
06:57M1 rifle. His son-in-law eventually left. However, Nelson figured he'd return, so he
07:03waited in his truck with a shotgun in hand. When his son-in-law returned, Nelson shot
07:08out the tires of his car. That's when the police got involved. When they questioned
07:13Nelson about what happened to Steve's car, he told them,
07:16He must have run over the bullet.
07:19In his memoir, Willie Nelson wrote that his secular and religious life came into direct
07:23conflict when he was teaching Sunday school. It was there that the singer was still pulled
07:28aside and told that since he played in bars on Saturday, it wasn't appropriate for him
07:32to be teaching on Sunday. Nelson started reading various books on faith and concluded that
07:37reincarnation went hand-in-hand with the basics of Christianity. He wrote in his memoir,
07:42I was drawn to the idea that you keep coming back till you get it right. We would need
07:46several lifetimes to shed our sins and learn the lessons necessary to heal our troubled
07:51souls.
07:53Fans of Willie Nelson can take their pick of reasons to look up to him, but whatever
07:57it is, it's fascinating to find out who he looks up to. Fortunately, he wrote about them
08:02in his book, Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die. As far as the best guitar player, he
08:07gave a shout-out to Django Reinhardt. Nelson also mentioned Ray Price as the best country
08:12singer.
08:13But when it came to the best all-around entertainer, Nelson had a different person in mind. He
08:18wrote,
08:19The greatest musician, singer, writer, and entertainer that I have ever seen or heard
08:23is Leon Russell. He recalled playing with Russell in New Mexico and bringing thousands
08:33of people to their feet, writing,
08:35The magic was the music. It touched all kinds of people, and the world has not been the
08:40same since.
08:42Willie Nelson turned 90 in 2023 and celebrated in style with a massive party that brought
08:47some of music's biggest names together. Hitting 90 is impressive, but having a big
08:52party wasn't Nelson's idea. The singer told Parade,
08:56It's kind of gotten out of hand. I don't know how many people are coming at this point.
09:00I just hope I get to sing something with all of them.
09:03Nelson said that he has no plans on slowing down either. He made it clear that he was
09:07going to keep performing and recording as long as people kept listening.
09:13When someone hits a certain age, everyone else wants to know what the secret is. Nelson
09:17has shared his, and it's the sort of thing that's both straightforward and deep. So what's
09:22the secret to a long and happy life, according to Willie Nelson? He told Parade,
09:26You have to do something every day to pay for the day. You need to run, walk, swim,
09:32sing, but whatever it is that's important to you, you have to do it, and then see how long
09:36you can keep doing it.
09:39It's human nature to look ahead to the future, and in 2012, Willie Nelson shared his thoughts
09:44for the future in his book Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die. Anyone expecting a hopeful
09:48sort of tone is about to be a little disappointed.
09:52In the book, Nelson predicted that major wars would come to an end, but it all goes downhill
09:56from there. With the cost of large-scale war getting too costly, he predicted that the
10:01world would be consumed by a series of small-scale skirmishes that were based on everyday necessities
10:06like the accessibility of food. Nelson wrote,
10:10Think about it. If your kids are hungry, thirsty, and sick, you will do anything to
10:13save them. Anything. That's when the s**t will hit the fan and it will be everybody
10:17for themselves. Like a dog-eat-dog, only the strong survive scenario.
10:22He also predicted that in a situation so grim, groups of people would ultimately find each
10:27other and thus be able to overlook the things that currently separate them, like religion
10:31and race. So maybe his predictions aren't so bad after all.