Countless pundits have had their say on what makes Willie Nelson tick. But the only person who really knows is the Red Headed Stranger himself.
The just-released Willie Nelson on Willie Nelson: Interviews and Encounters (Chicago Review Press) compiles 31 conversations with the 92-year-old legend, starting with a 1969 story on his career for the long-defunct Country Song Roundup. Across the book, Nelson talks about songwriting, environmentalism and his memories of North Texas, including the first time he smoked weed in Fort Worth in the 1950s (spoiler alert: he didn’t get high).
He also recounts the story behind his famous 1974 Dallas Police Department mugshot after a pot bust. Before that, he always avoided arrest by schmoozing with cops and giving them free LPs. “But in Dallas there was one down there that never heard of Willie Nelson and didn’t want to know the son-of-a-bitch. He took me to jail,” the future potrepreneur told Texas journalist Nelson Allen in 1975.
The singer rarely gives interviews these days, but he never stops performing. On Sept. 20, he’ll play in Minneapolis at the 40th annual Farm Aid concert with John Mellencamp and Neil Young, his co-founders of the organization. And on Nov. 7, he’ll release Workin’ Man: Willie Sings Merle, an album of songs written by his old pal Merle Haggard. His cover of “Workin’ Man Blues” is out now.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.dallasnews.com ’
