Growing up in the farming country of Central Texas, Nelson found himself working alongside migrant and tenant farmers. "I was raised and worked in the cotton fields around Abbott with a lot of African-Americans and a lot of Mexican-Americans, and we listened to their music all the time. I guess that's why I was influenced a lot by those around me--there was a lot of singing that went on in the cotton fields," said Nelson during a break at this year's Fourth of July Picnic.


Born in 1933 in the tiny Central Texas farming community of Abbott, Willie Nelson grew up in a world permeated with music: The gospel songs of the grandparents who raised him; the blues and Mexican corridas that eased the labor of the cotton fields; the country and Western Swing hits filling the airwaves from Nashville and Fort Worth...and the inner music that percolated up ceaselessly inside of him. Melodies are easy, he says of his songwriting; if he needs one, he just plucks one out of the air. The air, he says, is full of music.


Since waxing his first single in 1957, he has given birth to concept albums (his first, Yesterdays Wine, was recorded in 1971), gospel albums, jazz albums, movie soundtracks, myriad duet projects (at this point, Willie has recorded with everyone this side of Regis Philbin), Christmas albums, live albums, and an album of standards (1978's Stardust) which has become a standard in itself.


His around-the-beat blues-flavored vocals set the Nashville musical establishment on his ear. His spare-sounding breakthrough album, 1975's Red-Headed Stranger, went so against the Music City grain of the day that his record company president first thought Nelson had presented him with a demo. His early-Seventies merger of the traditional country and long-haired hippie audiences was called suicidal at the time, and has since come to be regarded as visionary.

Outside the recording studio, Nelson established himself as a champion for the family farmer with his annual Farm Aid concerts. His Fourth of July Picnics have for the past quarter-century served as a rite of musical passage in Texas. His films include The Electric Horseman (with Robert Redford and Jane Fonda), Songwriter (with Kris Kristofferson), Wag the Dog (with Robert DeNiro and Dustin Hoffman), and many others.


Today, Nelson divides his time between the road and his beloved Pedernales recording studio/golf course in the Hill Country outside of Austin, Texas. Often asked when he plans to retire, the 67-year old Nelson invariably replies with a smile, "All I do is play music and golf--which one do you want me to give up?"


- Courtesy of Island records