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Page 3 • Thursday, October 7, 1999
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Highwayman
\illie Nelson, the original Texas Outlaw, stops in College Station for performance
BY SUSAN OVERCASH
The Battalion
T exas, 1933. A country in the throes of the
Great Depression, America is caught in an
iron grip of famine, drowning in the heat and
hopelessness of bread lines and unemployment.
That April, in the Texas heat, a young boy is born
to Ira and Myrie Nelson in Fort Worth. The couple,
residents of nearby Abbot, a town which a geogra
phy buff would be hard-pressed to find on a mod
ern day Texas map, name their son Willie Hugh Nel
son — and a legend, an outlaw, is born. a
Nelson, raised by his paternal grandparents after
his father died and mother abandoned the family,
said his extended family turned him on to music.
“My grandparents were both music teachers,”
Nelson said. “So it was just natural that I started
learning things early.”
Nelson said his older sister Bobbie also helped
him learn music.
“My sister started learning to play piano and or
gan,” Nelson said. “She’s three years older than me,
so by the time I got up old enough to start learning
something, she already knew something.”
While sister Bobbie learned to play the piano, the
younger Nelson learned to play the guitar. Always
interested in music. Nelson cited some of his great
est influences. Hank Williams and George Jones.
“It’s sort of a broad list,” he said. “Anywhere
from Bob Wills and Hank Williams to Ray Charles
or Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby — all kinds of differ
ent people that I really like.
“Frank Sinatra was probably my favorite overall
singer, and George Jones is probably my favorite
overall country singer, him or Hank Williams.”
Throughout his teen years. Nelson worked odd
jobs and played in honky-tonk bands around Ab
bott to make money. After high school and a short
military service. Nelson took a job as a Disc Jock
ey at a local station in Fort Worth and recorded his
first single, “Lumberjack.” By the close of the ’50s,
Nelson had been married, divorced and fathered
two children.
In 1961, Nelson moved to Nashville and worked
as a songwriter, selling several songs to artists in
cluding Patsy Cline and Billy Walker, and, in 1965,
signed a deal with RCA records. However, in the
late ’60s, Nelson moved to Austin and began writ
ing and performing his own work.
According to Nelson, reading allowed him to
focus on a more positive attitude toward life and
his career.
“I started reading a lot,” Nelson said. “There’s
one book. The Power of Positive Thinking — that’s
sort of the overall accepted book on positive think
ing, but there’s a whole lot of others ones. That
pretty much persuaded me that that’s the only
way to go.”
Over the past three decades. Nelson has con
tinued to write and perform his own music, in
cluding the hit “Red-Headed Stranger” and one of
the top-selling country albums of all time, Want
ed: The Outlaws. More recently, albums such as
Spirit and Teatro have, according to Nelson, af
forded the artist a look back over five decades of
country music.
“Well, I feel like Spirit came from a place — it
was sort of like a 17-year overall look at every
thing,” he said. “Teatro was sort of a follow-up to
Spirit, a natural progression. The instrumental al
bum was also a natural progression — kind of what
I wanted to hear me do, just to get away from the
lyrics and the heavy rhythms, just for a second, and
do something that sort of soothes the mind.”
Nelson has also pursued an acting career, with
roles in films including Red-Headed Stranger,
see Willie on Page 6.
PHOTOS BY CODY WAGES/Tuk Battalion
'putcvie Octa&en, 7t&...
Don’t miss this once-a-year opportunity to visit with representatives from prestigious graduate and professional schools
around the country about their programs. Learn more about outstanding graduate, medical, dental, and MBA programs.
Graduate/Professional School Day ♦Oct. 7, 10:00 am-2:00 pm ♦ MSC Flagroom
ir#
in£ £■'
icei
sw** 1
13 <2
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