“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
Archive for the ‘quotes’ Category
Carlos Santana and Willie Nelson
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010
Willie Nelson
Monday, June 1st, 2009
“People used to ask one of my ex-father-in-law’s for advice, and he’d say, “Take my advice, and do what you want to.” So that’s my advice: Follow your heart, then do what you want to do. It’s worked for me.”
– Willie Nelson
The Tao of Willie Nelson, and the heart of a clown
Sunday, March 1st, 2009
picture, thanks to www.bobbygibson.com
“A lot of my best friends have been clowns. They didn’t all wear red noses like Turk did when he was the opening act for some of my shows in his much younger days, or dive into a barrel just before an angry bull sent it flying like the fearless Leon Coffee.
Perhaps I’m drawn to foolishness, but I’ve had plentyof other pals who seemed to stumble through life in one extended pratfall. And the lack of clown shoes didn’t reduce their ability to find a joke whenever one was needed.
Asleep at the Wheel’s Ray Benson wears a size 17, which means he’s in clown shoes all day long, even when he plays golf. The last itme we teed it up, Ray had this piece of widom for me.
What do you call a beautiful woman on a caddie’s arm?
A tattoo.
Roger Miller, who may have been the king of clowns, said his pappy was a pistol, which made him a son of a gun. Only a clown searching for a rhyme for the word purple would come up with “maple surple.”
When a cop pulled Roger over for erratic driving and said, “Can I see your license?” Roger replied, “Can I shoot your gun?”
Roger was practically the patron saint of holy fools. A holy fool sees the world in his own unique way and sticks with it. For Roger, there was no cow too sacred to roast, no chicken too sacred to pluck.
By other people’s standards, that may seem like a dumb way to do things, but for the fool, it works. Form the fool’s perspective, the rest of us are the fools. And so it falls to fools to point out our weaknesses. And it rises to them to act, not as society commands, but according to their own understanding of what is right and wrong.
The holy fool’s verion of the Golden Rule would be, “Undo the others, and maybe they’ll undo you right back again.”
The point — other than a good laugh, which is point enough — is that a sense of humor will often get you through hard times better than good times will get you through no sense of humor.
Take the IRS, for instance (and I wish you would). When I suddenly found myself in dept up to my ears to the Feds, a sense of humor about what seemed like a hopeless situation helped me hold on to my sense of self.
Maybe I was a fool not to have worried more about the situation at the time, but worry didn’t seem as practical as hard work. After my debt was paid, all I’d lost were things I didn’t need anyway.”4th, 2009
The Tao of Willie: A Guide to the Happiness in Your Heart (Unabridged)
Willie Nelson
The Tao of Willie
A Guide to the Happiness in Your Heart
Willie Nelson, with Turk Pipkin
Monday, November 17th, 2008
“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
Fortunately, we are not in control
Saturday, August 2nd, 2008
The Tao of Willie: A Guide to the Happiness in Your Heart (Unabridged)
by Willie Nelson, with Turk Pipkin
“As I say to the band, indecision may or may not be our problem.Â
I’m sure your life is also plenty complicated, but since I don’t know about yours, pretend for a moment that you’re me. This year, like just about every year, you’ll travel tens of thousands of miles in the company of four or five buses, several semi-trailers of equipment, a large band, and even larger assortment of friends, family members, roadies, technicians, and various assorted hangers-on. All of this will be scheduled around a couple hundred audiences, each of which numbers in the thousands, and it all has to happen on time or everything will fall apart.
Each night, I have to decide which songs to sing and in what order, and the only thing that’s certain is that we’ll run out of time or the venue will run out of beer before I run out of songs.
So things tend to get a little complicated — as things tend to do — and the most single important thing for you to remember is not to panic.
When the panic – among other things — hits the fan, there’s one key phrase to remember:
Fortunately, we are not in control.
Sounds so good, I think I’ll try it again.
Fortunately, we are not in control.
There, I feel better already.
“Fortunately we are not in control” is my way of saying it ain’t my fault, and probably isn’t anyone else’s fault either.
So if we’re not in control, you’re probably wondering who is in control. And the answer is: I dont know. But it ain’t me, and it ain’t you, because…
Fortunately, we are not in control.”
Famous Willie Nelson Movie Lines
Saturday, July 19th, 2008
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“It’s a short term loan on a long term lie. It’s called high finance.”
–Doc (Willie Nelson) to Blackie (Kris Kristofferson), from Songwriter
Famous Willie Nelson Movie Lines (Electric Horseman)
Sunday, June 22nd, 2008
“I’m gonna get me a bottle of tequila and find me one of them Keno girls that can suck the chrome off a trailer hitch and just kinda kick back.”
Willie Nelson in “The Electric Horseman”
Famous Willie Nelson Movie Lines (Honeysuckle Rose)
Friday, June 20th, 2008
Slim Pickens, (about to retire from Willie Nelson’s band): “You know, there was a time when all you needed was a hardon and a guitar and you were set.
Willie Nelson: “Well, at least you still have the guitar.”
Though he spoke most of his movie dialogue in a slow Western drawl, actor “Slim Pickens” was a pure-bred California boy. An expert rider from the age of four, Pickens was performing in rodeos at 12. Three years later, he quit school to become a full-time equestrian and bull wrangler, eventually becoming the highest-paid rodeo clown in show business. In films since 1950′s “Rocky Mountain”, Pickens specialized in Westerns, appearing as the comic sidekick of Republic cowboy star “Rex Allen”. Pickins played Garland Ramsey in ‘Honeysuckle Rose.’
Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson
Saturday, March 1st, 2008
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
Willie Nelson: “Every Show is a Blessing”
Sunday, February 17th, 2008
“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.Â
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.”
–Â Â The Tao of Willie
     a Guide to the Happiness in Your Heart
     by Willie Nelson, with Turk Pipkin
Bee Spears
Tuesday, February 12th, 2008
” I was just an 18 year old kid from Helotes, Texas when Willie hired me, he more or less raised me. I think the most important thing he taught me was that no matter what situation you’re in…stay positive. But then again, he raised hogs and look at what happened to them.”
– Bee Spears
Willie Nelson is a Gypsy
Saturday, February 9th, 2008
“Willie Nelson is a true gypsy. No matter what era he might have been born in, his music would have touched the hearts and souls of everyone as it has in our time.”
– Waylon Jennings
Floyd Tillman
Tuesday, February 5th, 2008
“I remember letting Willie sit in with my band before he had his own band and was very grateful when he returned the favor years later. From the first time we met, I’ve always thought Willie was a very nice person. I don’t know how he does it, but he’s always been the kind of person who would give you the shirt off his back.”
– Floyd Tillman
Carlos Santana
Thursday, January 31st, 2008
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“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
