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.



Willie Nelson has been in the music business for more than 50 years and has recorded, compiled and guest appeared on more than 150 albums. One of my favourites 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 incredible 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.

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.

Learn how to play Night Life on the acoustic guitar, a song Willie wrote and was recorded by Ray Price in 1962. Grab the free lyrics and tabs while you're at it.

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. He released his first single in 1975 called Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain. It was Willie's very first #1 hit that he recorded. You can learn how to play Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain by Willie Nelson here.



By 1978, Willie finally recorded his version of the Irving Berlin classic Blue Skies. Find out how to play Blue Skies on the acoustic. It's full of chords! Also that same year, the song Georgia On My Mind became a #1 hit for Willie. You can learn how to play Georgia On My Mind by Willie Nelson here.

In 1980 Willie did a cover on an Allman Brothers tune and took it to #6 on the charts. Higher than anyone else's cover. Learn how to play Midnight Rider by The Allman Brothers here. Another part of the Willie Nelson biography took place in 1982 when Willie took Always On My Mind, a song in 1972 and recorded by Brenda Lee and Elvis, to #1 on the country charts. Learn how to play Always On My Mind by Willie Nelson here.

In 1983 another part of the Willie Nelson biography expanded when he collaboration with Merle Haggard on the album "Pancho And Lefty" which spawned a #1 and a #6 hit. Learn how to play Pancho And Lefty by Willie Nelson here.

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.

1984 was a big year for Willie. He released the album "City Of New Orleans" and the album spawned two #1 hits. One was a duet and the other was the album's title. Learn how to play City Of New Orleans by Willie Nelson here.

He also collaborated with Ray Charles in 1984 on a song called Seven Spanish Angels and that song became another #1 hit for Willie. Learn how to play Seven Spanish Angels by Willie Nelson 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 Agriculture at Baylor University in 1954.

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.

Willie has recorded over 100 albums. See a list of Willie Nelson albums and more on the Willie Nelson discography page.

In 1980, Willie was asked to star in a movie directed by Jerry Schatzberg called Honeysuckle Rose. There was no soundtrack for the film and Willie was asked to come up with a song for the movie. He did, and the result was On The Road Again. Learn how to play On The Road Again here.

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. This product produces Bio Fuel for truckers and allows that 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 talk show, Willie expressed his doubts about the US Governments official explanation about 911, believing instead that the Twin Towers were imploded intentionally, and not brought down by the aircraft. And if you haven't seen Jessie Ventura's Conspiracy Theory show on 911 you should check it out.



I hope you found this biography of Willie Nelson page useful in helping you discover a bit more about this great American icon.






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