Willie Nelson Biography
Plus Lyrics and Tutorials

On this Willie Nelson Biography page you'll find a brief Willie Nelson history and links to various pages within this section of the website. You can get the latest on what's happening with Willie on the Willie Nelson News page.



Willie Nelson has been in the music business for more than 50 years and has recorded, compiled and guest appearred on more than 150 albums. One of my favorites is the Willie Nelson Teatro album. He has been on TV, in films, has had many books written about him and has probably played in more musical genres than any other artist. This page is a mini biography of an incrediable artist.



Willie started his career in music at age six, when his grandparents ordered him a guitar thru mail order. He was playing by age 7 and had a bit of a band going by the time he was 10. How old is Willie Nelson you ask? He turned 77 in Apr 2010 and still plays approx 120 shows a year. To see his current schedule, visit the Willie Nelson concerts page.

He played bass guitar in Ray Price's band and wrote many hits for others before he broke out onto his own. Hits such as Hello Walls, (for Faron Young) ... Pretty Paper, (for Roy Orbison) and of course Crazy, (for Patsy Cline), were all written by Willie. You can find more songs written by Willie Nelson here.

Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings collaborated in 1975 on Willie's first album with Columbia records.

It was a huge success because it was not the Nashville sound which was common from most artists during this time. He also had the first Platinum album (1,000,000 sales) in country music.

Of course, Waylon and Willie collaborated again in the mid 1980's when they became part of The Highwaymen, also featuring Kris Kristofferson and Johnny Cash and has had hits with all. You can find a top list of Willie Nelson greatest hits here.


Willie has always been an advocate for the Farmers, and in 1985 he established the Farm Aid concerts which help struggling farmers across the USA with his annual Farm Aid shows which began back in 1985. His roots in the American Farmer run deep as help joined the Future Farmers of America organization while still in high school. He also studied Ariculture at Baylor Univ in 1954.

And yes, Willie is in favor of legalizing weed as told to Larry King. You can read more about Willie's comments on the news page or check out the clip in the right menu.

During the 1960's Willie played bass in the Ray Price band after Price recorded one of his songs, Night Life. In 1982 Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard recorded the album Pancho and Lefty. Wille has recorded over 100 albums. See a list of Willie Nelson albums and more on the Willie Nelson discography page.

And in 1986, Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson appeared together in a made for TV movie called Stagecoach and later as part of the 4some, The Highwaymen. Willie has also appeared with many singers and actors over the years on numerous TV shows and movies.


More recently, Willie has teamed up with some entrepreneurs to create Bio-Willie, which produces Bio Fuel for truckers that allows the fuel to be burned without any modification to their Diesel engines.

Willie has also been a strong advocate for the legalization of weed and sits on an advisory board called NORLM.


During a radio ralk show, Willie expressed his doubts about the US Governments official explaination about 911, believing instead that the Twin Towers were imploded intentionally, and not brought down by the aircraft that hit them.



You'll find several demo tutorials on how I play a few Willie songs here on the Willie Nelson song lyrics page. More will be added over time as requests come in.

I hope you found this biography of Willie Nelson page useful in helping you discover a bit more about this great American icon. You can read much more at the Wiki in the right menu and view some Willie Nelson photos here.

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