www.stillisstillmoving.com

 

Joe Nick Patoski continues to tour and speak about Willie Nelson and sign copies of his great book, “Willie Nelson: An Epic Life.” During the course of writing the book, Joe Nick was talking to Willie  who told Joe Nick that he was glad it was him writing this book.  When you read the book you will understand why.  Joe Nick is a Willie Nelson and Texas music fan, and that’s why fans like me enjoyed reading this book so much. Keep checking his website at www.joenickp.com , to see if he will be speaking near you. He has current writing projects that take him around the country, and he often speaks and signs his books, when his schedule permits.

I’ve got to sit with Joe Nick a few times, and he is such a nice guy and so much fun to talk to about Willie Nelson and Texas Music.  He let me interview him in Texas last year, and you can read it here: https://stillisstillmoving.com/?p=3664

LL: Did Willie know you were writing a book about him?

JN: Well, when I called people to talk to them, a lot of them would call Willie to check, ‘Is it okay to talk to this guy?’ In fact, when I saw Willie sitting in with Paula at the Saxon Pub, a little more than a year ago, I said to him. “Willie, I’ve been spending the last nine months obsessing about you.”

And Willie said, “I know. People keep calling, to ask if it’s okay to talk to you.” Then he paused and said, “I’m sure glad it’s you doing this.”

When I talked to Fred Foster, he said that he’d talked to Willie, and he told him that I’d never said a negative thing about him. And I said, really? And I thought, well, maybe I’ve said something critical about his music, or something.

But I’m not here to judge; the reader has to judge. Whatever you think; that’s your business. I don’t think I did too much shaping, as far as to say, ‘it’s this,’ or ‘it‘s this.” The best thing I do is put it all in context. So it’s all about place, because he couldn’t come from anywhere else but Texas. It’s about what Abbott was like; what the area in Arkansas was like, where his people came from. And Waco, San Antonio, and Fort Worth. Fort Worth twice, Fort Worth’s key! And this little known Portland/Vancouver place. He was big shit in Portland/Vancouver. He was a star. He kind of glosses it over. I went a little deeper about his time there, and there’s still some mysterious aspects that I haven’t solved. Or how it was when he went to Nashville. So it’s putting it all together.

I did a lot of detective work. I remember researching the weather on the day he first played the Armadillo, and how hot it was. And it was the day that the last troops had been pulled out of Viet Nam. And I wasn’t even thinking of that. It’s putting Willie in context. It’s like looking at Willie almost as if he were a static character, and looking at all these periods, what was around him..

He didn’t talk that much about that. He talked about what he is experiencing. And I can never pretend to experience what he experiences. I can’t get in his head that way.  But I can put what’s around him in context, so maybe you can make some judgment about what it must have been like.

If you live in Texas:

10/4/08: 1-4 PM (central) – signing, Austin Record Convention, Crockett Events Center, 10601 N. Lamar, austinrecords.com 512.288.7288

6-9 PM (central) – signing, Evening With the Authors, Lockhart, TX, fundraiser for the Clark Library, tickets $25-30 (www.clarklibraryfriends.com/ewa.html) 512.398.9707

10/25/08: speaking at the Texas Non-Fiction Writers Retreat, Cibolo Nature Center, Boerne TX (www.texasnonfiction.org/cms/docs/retreatbrochure2008.pdf) or visit texasnonfiction.org 830.446.9067

10/30/08: speaking and signing,Friends of Granbury Public Library, Granbury, TX

11/1/08 Texas Book Festival

11/10/08 6 PM – speaking and signing, Monroe Public Library, Monroe, Michigan (monroe.lib.mi.us/calendar)

11/14/08 6PM – reading and signing, Legacy Books, Plano, TX

11/15/08 6:30 PM – speaking, Wimberley Community Center, Wimberley, TX for the Katherine Anne Porter Charter School Fundraiser (www.kapschool.org)

11/21/07 6:30 PM – reading and signing, Georgetown Library Fundraiser, Georgetown TX (library.georgetown.org)

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