A Melodic Memoir Celebrating Willie Nelson’s Legacy
Jan 28, 2024
Randy
Remember the thrill of hearing "Turn Out the Lights" for the first time? That moment sparked a lifelong love for Willie Nelson's music for many, including myself. On today's show, we pay homage to the legend himself, exploring his journey from the whiskey-soaked strings to the pungent aroma of marijuana that he claims saved his life. Alongside tales from his book "Me and Sister Bobbie," we shed light on Nelson's prolific songwriting—a tapestry of over 2,500 songs penned from the heart without the confines of formal education. His melodies have been a soundtrack to our lives, and we uncover the profound narratives embedded within.
As we sift through Willie's anthology of tunes, we find humor in his "stupid songs" and heartfelt tributes that transcend time. Special guests Woody Harrelson and Cheryl Crowe join us, sharing personal moments that reveal the man behind the music—a card-playing magician who values family above all else. We've all felt the void left by the recent passing of his sister Bobbie, yet our conversation is a celebration of the bonds Willie cherishes. Embark on this heartfelt excursion through the life of a man whose universal appeal underscores his legacy, just as much as his undeniable talent does.
Remember the thrill of hearing "Turn Out the Lights" for the first time? That moment sparked a lifelong love for Willie Nelson's music for many, including myself. On today's show, we pay homage to the legend himself, exploring his journey from the whiskey-soaked strings to the pungent aroma of marijuana that he claims saved his life. Alongside tales from his book "Me and Sister Bobbie," we shed light on Nelson's prolific songwriting—a tapestry of over 2,500 songs penned from the heart without the confines of formal education. His melodies have been a soundtrack to our lives, and we uncover the profound narratives embedded within.
As we sift through Willie's anthology of tunes, we find humor in his "stupid songs" and heartfelt tributes that transcend time. Special guests Woody Harrelson and Cheryl Crowe join us, sharing personal moments that reveal the man behind the music—a card-playing magician who values family above all else. We've all felt the void left by the recent passing of his sister Bobbie, yet our conversation is a celebration of the bonds Willie cherishes. Embark on this heartfelt excursion through the life of a man whose universal appeal underscores his legacy, just as much as his undeniable talent does.
Speaker 1:
Hello everyone and welcome back to Hot Mike with Houston and Hogan. Randy Houston and Dave Hogan telling old radio stories and talking about country music. Some of our both of our careers involved a lot of country music back in the formative days Dave more so than me, but we've been talking about Willie Nelson and what a deep, deep well that is Dave.
Speaker 2:
Turn out the lights. The party's over. Yeah, Do you remember Howard Cosell and Dandy Don Meredith on football on television?
Speaker 1:
And Don Meredith, when the, when that big pass would come, he'd sing, that, wouldn't he?
Speaker 2:
Well, when the game got out of hand and one team got a big lead over the other and it's going to be impossible for them to catch up, he would. He would start singing Turn out the lights. The party's over. And that helped make that song popular. And Willie talks about that in this book and let's give credit to the book. It's called energy follows thought, the stories behind my songs by Willie Nelson, a brand new book on the market which you can get wherever you buy your books.
Speaker 1:
Willie Nelson friends with Woody Harrelson and Woody Harrelson actually introduced Willie at his 90th birthday party and as the introduction was rolling out, woody said in the past year Willie turned 90 and he recorded two albums, wrote a book, won three Grammys and smoked a bunch of weed.
Speaker 2:
Willie's known for his marijuana. Let's talk about that a little bit. Let's do. Let's say one time that he wrote a song called a got to get drunk and a really do dread it. He wrote that drinking song. He calls it a stupid song in his book, the book I referred to. He says I've written some stupid songs and I got to get drunk is one of them. Now I guess every time I've seen a Willie Nelson concert, either live or on TV, he's sung that song. It's one of the songs he always includes in his stage shows.
Speaker 1:
He called it a stupid song.
Speaker 2:
He called it a stupid song because when I was drinking I was stupid. I wrote that song while I was living. I could be a smart ass, and even today. I'm not against smart ass songs they're fun. But the bottom line is that for me there's nothing funny about drinking. If I hadn't put down the bottle, I'd be dead long ago and never have this chance to write about some of my dumb mistakes. And Willie put down the bottle and started smoking marijuana and he says that saved his life.
Speaker 1:
He talks about how and we talked about this earlier when we were talking about some of the addictions that artists face and Willie talked specifically about how, when he started out writing songs and performing, he thought you had to live that life in order to write a successful country song you had to write about. You had to live that life of drinking and carousing and negative thoughts. He talked about how one negative thought can poison your entire system. He is an absolute believer in the power of positive thinking and he says that marijuana just turned all of that around for him, got him out of that genre. You don't have to live that drunkard life in order to be successful.
Speaker 2:
And we're not endorsing marijuana in any sense. We're just speaking about what Willie said and it may work for some people and many not for others. But marijuana which, when it first became, when it first became, started getting popular and was put on the DEA list of dangerous drugs yeah, and if you got caught with half an ounce of marijuana, you went to jail for decades. Yeah and, but it has become a fact of life in a lot of areas. States like Massachusetts and several others have legalized marijuana, both medically and recreational marijuana.
Speaker 1:
Cheryl Crowe talked about when she on this 90th birthday show. I keep referring to it, but she said Willie Nelson's the only person I know that's offered my dad a joint Willie, such a, such an incredible artist. And we've listened to, we've talked about a few of the songs that were just giant hits, but did you tell me that there's like over 2,500 songs that he's penned?
Speaker 2:
That is what he said to a Stephen.
Speaker 1:
Colbert.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, stephen Colbert. He was interviewed by Colbert on his tour bus and he asked how many songs have you written? And he said well, somebody I think he said his daughter had done a little research and come up with 2,500, and Stop counting at that point, wow. And in this book. Look at this. I wish we could show this to the podcast listeners, but they might want to snap up the book if they're Willie Nelson fans. He has. You can see that handwriting there.
Speaker 2:
Yeah that's one of his songs and he's got a page in here. I can't find it at the moment or I would show it to you, randy. He's got a page here where he has actual photos of some songs that he wrote as a kid, as just a, just a small 7, 8 year old kid.
Speaker 1:
7, 8 year old kid. Yeah.
Speaker 2:
And he was writing songs. Then there it is. Look at that, see that page, two pages of the lyrics of some of the songs that he wrote as a kid, he said.
Speaker 1:
it just came naturally to him to be able to put it in song form a story.
Speaker 2:
It's a talent that very few people have. I always use the when I'm talking about the science or the art of songwriting. It's a book in three minutes. When you find a good song, it's like a whole book condensed down to about three minutes, and Willie Nelson could do that.
Speaker 1:
Still doing it to this day. He's still writing songs.
Speaker 2:
And so many of the great songwriters, and of course, we're talking mostly about country music because that's our background, but it applies to all genres of music. Much of the music that has been written has been written by people with very little formal education. You take Hank Williams, willie Nelson and many, many others are people who have no college degree Right. Some of them didn't even finish high school yet. They could string together words, paint pictures with words. It's an amazing talent and I've always admired songwriters.
Speaker 1:
Willie got hooked up with a gentleman that I can't remember his name but who claimed to be an accountant, and he was the one who was recommended to Willie by Whalen and he was supposed to be taken care of Willie's taxes.
Speaker 1:
After one of the successful ventures that Willie had and I can't remember if it was a movie or the Stardust album or what it was he made a lot of money and supposedly came up with a tax bill of like $2 million on like a $100 million profitable venture of some sort. And this so-called CPA of his told him that $200,000 would take care of his obligation to the IRS. And Willie said I sent him $200,000 and thought the subject was closed, thought that's a pretty good deal, but I'm going to take it. And he said the next thing he knew the IRS was knocking on his door, telling his secretary and people in the office you leave, you can take your purse and that's it. We're taking everything else. And that was a dark day. $32 million, thanks for watching. They filed a judgment against Willie for thirty two million dollars in back taxes.
Speaker 2:
And I think they settled For a little less than that, but it was two millions that Willie had to pay and he put out a recording called the IRS tapes and all the money that was made on that recording went to pay his tax.
Speaker 1:
He made a deal with the IRS. He said I'm going to put out this album. It's one whole album and for every one of these albums that sells you get a dollar. And he had already settled with them on the majority of it. But that was the last four or five million dollars that he owed them came from the IRS tapes Came from. A lot of his friends came to the absolute auction that they had of Willie's recording studio, his everything.
Speaker 2:
They auctioned off, as you said, everything, everything. But Daryl Royal was football coach at the University of Texas. Daryl Royal was a was a friend of Willie's and had some money and he bought. I forget what he bought, but he bought Maybe some of the land that they were auctioning and gave it back to Willie when everything blew over.
Speaker 1:
Several of his friends did the same thing the Florida coach company that supplied Willie with all of his motor coaches for all the years of traveling. They sent money by what you can with this money and give it back to Willie. And one of the great stories about how they just came bounding in the IRS and padlocked everything, everything was trigger. They didn't get trigger Trigger. How did he hide trigger with it? He won't tell you and there's a lot of stories floating around when was trigger when they had trigger?
Speaker 2:
is his guitar Trigger? Is the guitar the guitar? Is that, I guess, since he started, yeah, his career?
Speaker 1:
It's a Martin guitar and there's a lot of stories about who kept trigger from getting possessed by the IRS. But trigger survived and trigger survives today. Trigger is a highly thought of guitar. It of course has hole in it below the the sound hole. The whole Willie is a very physical playing guitar player. He's he hit strings hard and he wore a hole in the in the top of that Martin guitar and it's cared for by Luthier's inside bracing and that guitar is just everything to Willie you used a word to describe somebody who works on guitars Luthier, that's what I used to say until somebody corrected Correct me.
Speaker 1:
What is it?
Speaker 2:
Luthier Luthier.
Speaker 1:
OK.
Speaker 2:
Comes from the word Luth. You know there was a musical instrument called the Luth, an ancient instrument, and that's where that word comes from Big biblical times. He's a Luthier if he works on guitars, that's, but I just say Luthier. Somebody who is smarter than me corrected me.
Speaker 1:
Well, you're smarter than I am, no, no, no, no, no, no, no the guitar is a nylon string. He plays what they call cat gut string guitar and it's not a there's. Those are not steel strings and Willie really gets physical when playing his guitar and it and old trigger paid the price and has paid the price but trigger still working, I promise you.
Speaker 2:
Everyone I'm told of those IRS agents got in line to get Willie's autograph.
Speaker 1:
I don't doubt it, I don't doubt it. They're in Luck Texas, the town, the Western town. We told a story earlier, but it's bears repeating again Luck Texas, the Western town that he built. He says when you're in, when you're here, you're in luck, and when you're not here, you're out of luck.
Speaker 2:
I love the song looking back Texas by Waylon and Willie.
Speaker 1:
Did Willie write that one?
Speaker 2:
I don't think so. I think Ed Bruce wrote that song. I'm not totally sure, yeah, but I'll check on that. That's interesting. It always interested, interests me About who wrote a song?
Speaker 1:
Me too, me too, and Willie has written songs that so many people have recorded outside of country music. And if there's a song that Willie Records that someone else wrote, that came out in this doc docu series, I was watching how Willie makes every song his when you you forget about who wrote that song after you hear Willie sing it.
Speaker 2:
Willie was a DJ early in his career he DJed down in Texas, somehow got to Vancouver, british Columbia, and DJ there for a while and wrote a song called Mr Record man. Remember that I do I do. Early on, willie says I adopted an attitude that said I could write a song about anything. I could even write a song about a song, and that's how he came to write Mr Record man. And did you ever see the movie play misty for me.
Speaker 1:
Yes, yes, about late night FM, late night disc jockey.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, clint Eastwood and Jessica Walter Play misty and then they started that movie and the song was misty A great pop song. Yeah, originally linch terminal, and then somebody wrote words to it and Johnny. Mathis had a tremendous recording of misty. That's where the title of the movie comes from. Play misty for me.
Speaker 1:
Yeah.
Speaker 2:
And Jessica Walter played a great part in that movie where she will call the disc jockey and requested he play misty Misty. But she had other motives in mind.
Speaker 1:
You ever get a chance and you like.
Speaker 2:
that's the first movie. It's historical because it's the first movie that Clint Eastwood directed. So if you get a chance to pick it up on one of the channels that plays the older movies, that it's fun to watch. It's a little scary for a DJ it is scary, it's really scary. Yes For a DJ.
Speaker 1:
Because we've all had some of those callers over the years that were a little left to center or whatever you want to say. A misty for me.
Speaker 2:
Hmm, and that song that Willie wrote about Mr Record man.
Speaker 2:
No, the drinking song. Going back to it for just a moment, because he uses a line or two in the song about an old joke that most people have heard. He talks about a guy. I gotta get drunk and stay sober. There's a lot of people in town that like to hear me holler and see me spend my dollars. He wraps it up by saying there's more old rocks than there are old doctors, and so I guess we better have another round, and a lot of people have heard that expression, I'm sure.
Speaker 1:
He said he wrote some. He called them stupid songs.
Speaker 2:
That's, that's one of them.
Speaker 1:
I let me ask you this is, and I haven't read the book, but he and Snoop Dogg performed on the birthday party One of Willie's songs called roll me up and smoke me when I'm gone, and I don't know if that's listed as one of his stupid songs.
Speaker 2:
I don't think it's in the book but there are some and I mentioned this to you. There are some songs that Willie wrote in the book that aren't Songs that people would immediately recognize, some of the lesser known Willie Nelson songs there. Willie Nelson songs everybody knows, but there are a lot of songs he wrote. Here's one called opportunity to cry On that I've never heard. And there's a song called it always will be. And here's a song called I let my mind wonder. Here's one called a moment isn't very long. Songs I'd never heard of Willie wrote that are in this book. And again, the book is called Wilson, willie and Bill for this. It's called energy follows thought. The stories behind my songs by Willie Nelson.
Speaker 1:
We've enjoyed bringing you a couple of podcasts, as we enjoy talking about one of the guys that we've spun a lot of his songs over the years and continue to do so now.
Speaker 2:
The best, willie Nelson the best Willie Nelson, the best Thing I've heard anybody say that describes Willie Nelson, the best description that I've ever heard of Willie Nelson. Willie loves everybody and everybody loves Willie. Or maybe it was the other way around.
Speaker 2:
Yeah everybody loves Willie and Willie loves everybody. Yeah, if you want to, and there are a lot of people in show business like this, and I think it's because they are, they have the opportunity, whether they're actors or singers, they have the opportunity and we've even experienced that in our radio career to work with people who are different from us, definitely. And and Willie Nelson doesn't have a bigoted bone in his body Nope, nope. No prejudice against anybody for any reason.
Speaker 2:
Great guy and unfortunately, I've never had the opportunity to sit down and interview Willie me either.
Speaker 1:
And you said that he and Stephen Colbert talked recently on the bus. Most of the interviews that I've ever seen, dan rather did an in depth interview with Willie. It was done on that bus.
Speaker 2:
You know, willie got into magic at one time in his career and I think it was maybe Dan, rather on the bus, and Willie was doing his magic tricks for him. Excellent card player. Yeah Well, you're on a bus traveling. You got a lot of time to do a lot of things.
Speaker 1:
And Willie travels with the family. He has done that all through the years.
Speaker 2:
Unfortunately his sister died, bobby Bobby had been with Willie sister Bobby Right from the beginning playing piano. Talked a lot about sister Bobby and Bobby lived to be, I believe, ninety two and Willie is now ninety. Yeah, so there are some good genes going around there. Yeah, from.
Speaker 1:
Abbott, texas. All right, thank you, dave. I certainly enjoy sitting down and talking about great artists and great experiences we've had in radio, and we'll be back to do that again next time. Turn out the lights. The party is over. Hot Mike with Houston and Hogan. Thank you all. Be sure to click the subscribe button for another episode of Hot Mike with Randy Houston and Dave Hogan.