Archive for the ‘quotes’ Category
Willie Nelson headed 2 Nashville
Thursday, September 26th, 2013“thx 4 the concern. I Feel better & headed 2 Nashville & will make up missed dates.”
— Willie Nelson
Willie Nelson and Lance Armstrong
Tuesday, July 23rd, 2013
photo thanks to www.supertouchart.com
“I think it is just terrible how everyone has treated Lance Armstrong, especially after what he achieved, winning seven Tour de France races while on drugs.
When I was on drugs, I couldn’t even find my bike.”
– Willie Nelson
[I don't know if Willie Nelson really said this or not, but it's funny.]
Willie Nelson, “Marijuana won’t kill you unless a bale of it falls on you”
Monday, April 15th, 2013
Read article, and see more videos here.
Willie Nelson turns 80 this month, and the country music legend is celebrating — you guessed it — by going on the road again in support of a new album. Out April 16 from Legacy Recordings, “Let’s Face the Music and Dance” is heavy on covers from the the 1930s, the decade when Nelson was born. The singer-songwriter, actor and activist has composed some of the most indelible tunes of our times (did you know that he wrote “Crazy,” popularized by Patsy Cline?), but it’s a pleasure to hear him breathe new life into these sturdy old numbers, and a relief to know that his vocal and guitar stylings are aging like fine Kentucky bourbon. (Yes, he’s from the Lone Star State, but who’s ever heard of Texas bourbon?)
Nelson recently visited the South by Southwest festival in Austin, where he played a modern St. Nick in the indie film “When Angels Sing,” and he told a reporter there that he supports gay marriage and finds the controversy over legalizing it “ridiculous,” adding, “Let’s get off that and talk about guns.” Well, we took the opportunity to ask him about guns and a whole lot more. Read on to find out what Willie thinks of federal gun-control efforts, the prospects for legalized marijuana, the rising young boxer who shares his name and what really happened in Nashville to him and Paul.
Your birthday’s coming up on April 26, and you’re celebrating with a new album. What else do you have planned?
I haven’t really thought about it that much. I think other people seem to have more plans than I do. So I’m really just waiting to see what everyone else plans, and then I’ll do a little duckin’ and dodgin’, probably.
The album focuses on the 1930s. Is that because you were born in 1933? No, but thanks for bringing that up. I didn’t realize that. [Laughs.] It’s Irving Berlin and the classic face of music and dance, and that was his era.
What’s the biggest thing that has changed for you since you wrote “On The Road Again” back in 1979? I think things have gotten better. We’re traveling in new buses these days. The crowds are still good, everyone seems pretty healthy. I really believe that music brings people together. They come a long way to clap their hands and sing along, so it must be just as therapeutic for them as it is for me, because I send out a lot of energy and they send it back.
Are there ever songs you get tired of playing after all these years?
Not really. With this short-term memory, I forget what I did last night.
Do you have a favorite song that you just can’t wait to get to every night?
Years ago I did an album called “The Great Divide.” I really enjoyed singing the title song back then, and then I sort of got out of the habit of doing it after [guitarist] Jodi Payne retired. But I’m back doing it every night, because I like doing the song better than I thought I did.
I heard a rumor that you park the tour bus at your house and sleep in there. Is it true?
Well, it depends on if there’s anybody waiting for me at the house. If my wife is there and she’s sleeping, I just might sleep in the bus until she wakes up. Normally I go home. But the back of the bus has been home for a long time, too.
One of my favorite songs of yours is “Me & Paul,” which chronicles your adventures with your drummer, Paul English. Have you two gotten in any trouble since you wrote it?
Well, the good news is that Paul is still back there and we still do the song every night. There were times along the way when I wasn’t sure either one of us would still be there, but here we are.
In the song, you sing, “Nashville was the roughest, but I know I’ve said the same about them all.” What exactly happened in Nashville?
If you’re a young songwriter in Nashville and nobody knows you, you have problems to begin with. The odds are always stacked against you. By then I was doing well in the rest of the world, and by that I mean Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico. I was doing all right there, but when I got to Nashville very few of those folks had been to my show or knew who I was. So I had all of those walls to break through. Waylon [Jennings] had the same problem. They didn’t like our lifestyle, and they didn’t like the fact that we’d let our hair grow, etc. There were many things back in those days that frankly I don’t think exist to any great degree now in Nashville. I go back there all the time and have a lot of friends there, and enjoy doing it. It was rough at one time. It’s not rough at all now. A few of those little guys are still around, but not so many.
You’re from Texas where people are very protective of their right to bear arms. What’s your view on gun control in the wake of the shootings in Newtown and elsewhere?
Well, my honest opinion is, I don’t think we need to have any of those guns that will fire a hundred times a second. I don’t think we need that. But the other side of that is, they do exist. And the old saying around Texas is: “If you got one, I want one.” They used to kid Ray Price and Ernest Tubb because they were highly competitive, and they used to say that if Ernest Tubb got a battleship, Ray Price would want an aircraft carrier. It’s kinda like, whatever you’ve got, I want too. I don’t want you to have an advantage. But where does it stop? Are you gonna get a bazooka? Do I get a drone?
Do you think the federal government needs to do something?
I don’t think the federal government needs to do anything but shut up for a while and let the people vote in and vote out who they like and don’t like. I think the federal government has kinda got a negative image at this point because they tend to tell you what to do and me what to do. I don’t like that. My old friend D.C. Cooper says, “It’s my mouth, I’ll haul coal in it if I want to.” I think that should be the attitude everyone should think about — that my rights and your rights are more important than what some old guy over in somewhere thinks we oughta be doing.
What about pot policy? I know you’re active in that. Do you think there’s hope? Do you think we’re going to get to a place where marijuana will be legalized?
Oh, yeah, I think it’s only a matter of time. The economy going off is going to help it a lot. There’s money there, and anyone with any brains at all can say, Why do you want the criminals to make all the money off of this when it’s proven that it won’t kill you unless you let a bale of it fall on you?
Are you a boxing fan, by any chance?
Oh, yeah.
Have you heard about the boxer Willie Nelson? He’s 25 years old and he had a first-round knockout last month.
Well that’s great, I’m glad to hear it. I have never met him, but I’m obviously his biggest fan.
Willie Nelson, “Every show is a blessing.”
Monday, January 14th, 2013
“Since life is a journey, let’s think of it as a road trip. Ahead of you are untold opportunities for joy, learning, sharing, and a lot of fantastic sunsets and sunrises. And every one of these opportunities will be at the intersection of your trip and a road called Now.
Unlike a real highway, it’s not a problem if you doze off and coast right through the corner of Now and Happiness avenues, because life is an infinite progression of these intersections, and each of them holds opportunity, surprise, and the promise of a smile.
But if you’re asleep at the wheel your whole life, you’re gonna miss a lot of places called Now.
Thousands of pages and millions of words have been written about living in the moment, but it is not a complicated idea. All you have to do is open your eyes — and all your senses – to the world around you.
The easiest mistake on earth is to forget to appreciate what you have right now.
Take last year, for instance, when my hand started knotting up on me and I found it almost impossible to play guitar. I went to see a bunch of doctors and they got worried looks on their faces, and that put a worried look on my face, and that got my band and crew looking really worried. When I don’t work, they don’t work. And we all like to work.
So I had to take a few months off for surgery. And while my hand was healing more slowly than I wanted it to, I had a of time to appreciate all those gigs that I’d sometimes let myself think were just the okay gigs.
Away from the road, I realized that every show is a blessing.
I’m not trying to say that nothing goes wrong in my life. Or in yours. Your love life may not be perfect — okay, chances are your love life is definitely NOT perfect. Work may have something lacking, and you may be a few coins shy of that Jamaican vacation you’ve been dreaming about. But those are not causes of unhappiness. Those are distractions, obstacles, and challenges to overcome.
You may carry a big chip on your shoulder about things that happened to you in the past, but that chip is nothing but a weight that’s anchoring you to intersections you’ve already passed. Quit looking in the rear view mirror and set your sights on the road ahead.”
The Tao of Willie
A Guide to the Happiness in Your Heart
by Willie Nelson, with Turk Pipkin
The Right Words, at the Right Time: Marlo Thomas and Friends
Sunday, December 23rd, 2012
“If I had to break it down, I’d say about 99 percent of the people in my life were telling me I wasn’t going to make it. All that adversity and lack of faith ended up just strengthening my own convictions. All that negativity really helped me in the end, because there’s no better inspiration for doing something than having somebody say that you can’t do it.”
Willie Nelson
The Right Words at the Right Time, Marlo Thomas and Friends
2002
“Willie Nelson is like a lighthouse” — Gary Busey
Sunday, August 7th, 2011
“Willie Nelson is like a lighthouse, like a preacher. Every time I find myself in an emotional pressure situation, the first thought in my mind is what would Willie do? ‘Cause nothing seems to rattle him. I’ve had some problems here lately with my mind, like, ‘Oh, gosh, everything’s moving so fast, what gear should I be in?’ And Willie, he’ll tell me which gear.”
– Gary Busey
Rolling Stone
September 1978
“I like to play music” — Willie Nelson
Monday, August 1st, 2011
(Thanks again to Pat from Texas for sharing this picture great photo she took of Willie Nelson’s bus in Galveston, TX)
“Add it all up and I’ve spent more time on the road than off and slept more nights on the bus than anywhere else. On the bus, I sleep like a baby. Sometimes I dream that I’m on the road headed through the heart of America toward another town full of people who are coming to hear me sing. And when I wake up, I find that my dream has come true.”
“People wonder what keeps me going back on the road again, but the answer is obvious – I like to play music. And the more I move around, the more people I get to play that music for.”
– Willie Nelson
The Tao of Willie
A Guide to the Happiness in Your Heart
by Willie Nelson and Turk Pipkin
“Willie Nelson stands at the crossroads of all the sounds and colors of this country.” — Carlos Santana
Wednesday, June 29th, 2011
“Willie Nelson’s impact on American music is indelible. He stands at the crossroads of all the sounds and colors of this country. What he reflects is true soul and sincerity. He’s also a pretty mean guitar player.”
— Carlos Santana
“Willie Nelson’s face will always represent freedom, heart and laughter” — Kris Kristofferson
Saturday, April 9th, 2011
photo by Ed Rode
“Willie Nelson is a profound, original songwriter in a class with Stephen Foster who continues to enrich our lives with classics. He plays guitar like Django Reinhardt – it’s an extension of his body and soul, totally responsive to the power of his imagination. He is an artist of the very highest order, and beautifully – often hilariously – human. His heroic face will be on stamps and money, and it will always represent freedom, heart, and laughter.”
– Kris Kristofferson
Monday, November 22nd, 2010
“I think everything we go through is a test,” Willie Nelson says. “I don’t think we’re ever asked to endure anything that we can’t endure. And believing that, I just sit around and wait to see what’s gonna happen next.
“And so far, more good things have happened, more positive things than negative, and the more I think that way, the more that positive things happen.
“That’s how I keep it together.”
– Willie Nelson
Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash
Monday, October 25th, 2010
“I was fascinated with his style of singing. Then when we started doing the Highwayman shows ten years ago – I screwed up the band, because I insisted on playing rhythm to Willie’s singing. Then I realized, after a couple of songs, that you just can’t do that.”
– Johnny Cash
Willie Nelson: The Power of Amazing Grace
Sunday, October 24th, 2010
“I grew up in a town in Texas called Abbott. It’s a small, country town. The incomes around there were all farm-related. You either owned a farm or you worked on one, manning cotton gins, etc. No one had any money, but everybody raised his own food in a garden behind the house, where he also had some chickens and a couple of hogs.
As I grew older and ran into other people from other places they said, Man, that must’ve been pretty tough.” But life wasn’t tough in Abbott. In fact, it was a great place to grow up. The population was only three hundred. (It’s still that; more or less.) The school was small, and there weren’t a lot of kids in the classes. So you got more attention from the teachers and had more opportunity to learn. Whether we did or not, though, was entirely up to us.
School was okay, but I liked church better. As far back as I can remember, I was singing in a gospel choir on Sundays. “Amazing Grace” was a song we sang every week. It’s one of the first melodies I ever heard. Later in life, the preacher from that church told me it was the first song he ever remembered hearing me sing. There I was six or seven years old, walking through the streets of Abbott singing “Amazing Grace.” Even at such a young age, there was never a doubt in my mind what those words meant:
Amazing grace,
How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost
But now I’m found,
Was blind but now I see.
They’re all about faith and positive thinking. Which, to me, are all the same things.
It’s a pretty daily occurrence how “Amazing Grace” seems to rescue me at just the right time. See, I live and breathe around negativity. It’s all around me and always has been since I decided to become a musician. I had been writing poems since I was five. I had been playing guitar since I was six. But no matter how much I loved music, I still prepared a backup by studying law at Baylor University because I thought I would need something to fall back on, in case the music thing didn’t work out. It didn’t take long for me to realize that writing, performing and singing songs was what I was meant to do, but what other people thought was an entirely different issue.
If I had to break it down, I’d say about 99 percent of the people in my life were telling me I wasn’t going to make it. All that adversity and lack of faith ended up just strengthening my own convictions. All that negativity really helped me in the end, because there’s no better inspiration for doing something than having somebody say that you can’t do it. Between that and the positive message of “Amazing Grace” — which was so much a part of me, like DNA — I felt like I had something to prove and the power to prove it.
And it’s still that way. No matter how much success I’ve had, I still have to prove myself all the time. Maybe it’s to the people who are always coming up with different ideas for my CDs or the songs I write. Or maybe it’s against all the unfortunate circumstances I’ve faced, be they financial problems or failed marriages. In that sense, it’s a good thing that I’m able to sing “Amazing Grace” onstage every night. That song has rescued me many, many times. It helps me believe that every thing’s going to be all right. The more I believe that, the better chance I have of getting through the troubles. If you start acting like you feel good — whether you believe it or not — that’s the first step. Just act like you believe it for a while, and something good will come along.
I’m not the only one who responds to that song; those lyrics send a universal message. Everybody knows the chorus to “Ammazing Grace.” All the musicians I know love that song, and nobody has ever resisted it at one of my shows. I’ve performed it all over the world, in places where people don’t even speak English, and they still feel the power of “Amazing Grace.”
There’s a reason for that that maybe we can’t completely explain. It strikes a tone, hits a chord that cuts right through the BS of the day and goes right to the bone. The words and the melody have a healing quality. It brings people peace, lets them know there are other people in the world who are going through the same thing.
A lot of times when I perform that song, people start singing along, just like we used to do at church. And everyone benefits from that churchlike atmosphere, whether they go to church or not. You don’t have to be sitting in a pew to feel that sense of spirituality. We’re all living in our own churches; our bodies are our temples. At lest that’s what they told me when I was growing up. “Amazing Grace” makes you feel the hope of church wherever you are. I try to catch some feel of that hymn in all of my songs, some sort of light at the end of the tunnel. None of my songs are entirely hopeless. That’s been entirely intentional. I’m always trying to find a path to get us through the hard times.
– Willie Nelson
“The Right Words at the Right Time”
edited by Marlo Thomas
2002
