Willie Nelson

His parents moved to Texas from Arkansas in 1929 to look for work.

His grandfather, William, worked as a blacksmith, while his father worked as a mechanic.

His mother left soon after he was born, and his father remarried and also moved away, leaving Nelson and his sister Bobbie to be raised by their grandparents, who taught singing back in Arkansas and started their grandchildren in music.

Nelson's grandfather bought him a guitar when he was six, and taught him a few chords, and Nelson sang gospel songs in the local church alongside Bobbie.

He wrote his first song at age seven, and when he was nine, he played guitar for local band Bohemian Polka.

During the summer, the family picked cotton alongside other Abbott residents.

Willie Hugh Nelson (born April 29, 1933) is an American country singer, guitarist and songwriter.

Nelson was born in Abbott, Texas, on April 29, 1933, the son of Ira Doyle Nelson and Myrle Marie (née Greenhaw).

His birthday was incorrectly recorded by Dr. F. D. Sims as April 30.

He was named Willie by his cousin Mildred, who also chose Hugh as his middle name, in honor of her recently deceased younger brother.

Nelson traces his genealogy to the American Revolutionary War, in which his ancestor John Nelson served as a major.

After graduating from high school in 1950, he joined the U.S. Air Force but was later discharged due to back problems.

After his return, Nelson attended Baylor University for two years but dropped out because he was succeeding in music.

He worked as a disc jockey at radio stations in his native Texas, and in several radio stations in the Pacific Northwest, all the while working as a singer and songwriter throughout the late 1950s.

During that time, he wrote songs that would become country standards, including "Funny How Time Slips Away", "Hello Walls", "Pretty Paper", and "Crazy".

He was one of the main figures of the outlaw country subgenre that developed in the late 1960s as a reaction to the conservative restrictions of the Nashville sound.

In 1960 he moved to Nashville, Tennessee, and later signed a publishing contract with Pamper Music which allowed him to join Ray Price's band as a bassist.

After mid-chart hits in the late 1960s and the early 1970s, Nelson grew weary of the corporate Nashville music scene, and in 1972 he moved to Austin, Texas.

The ongoing music scene of Austin motivated Nelson to return to performing, appearing frequently at the Armadillo World Headquarters.

In 1962, he recorded his first album, ...And Then I Wrote.

Due to this success, Nelson signed in 1964 with RCA Victor and joined the Grand Ole Opry the following year.

The critical success of his album Shotgun Willie (1973), combined with the critical and commercial success of Red Headed Stranger (1975) and Stardust (1978), made Nelson one of the most recognized artists in country music.

Nelson has acted in over 30 films, co-authored several books, and has been involved in activism for the use of biofuels and the legalization of marijuana.

Nelson wrote his first song at age seven and joined his first band at ten.

During high school, he toured locally with the Bohemian Polka as their lead singer and guitar player.

In 1973, after signing with Atlantic Records, Nelson turned to outlaw country, including albums such as Shotgun Willie and Phases and Stages.

In 1975, he switched to Columbia Records, where he recorded the critically acclaimed album Red Headed Stranger.

The same year, he recorded another outlaw country album, Wanted! The Outlaws, along with Waylon Jennings, Jessi Colter, and Tompall Glaser.

Nelson made his first movie appearance in the 1979 film The Electric Horseman, followed by other appearances in movies and on television.

Nelson is a major liberal activist and the co-chair of the advisory board of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), which is in favor of marijuana legalization.

On the environmental front, Nelson owns the biodiesel brand Willie Nelson Biodiesel, whose product is made from vegetable oil.

Nelson is also the honorary chairman of the advisory board of the Texas Music Project, the official music charity of the state of Texas.

During the mid-1980s, while creating hit albums like Honeysuckle Rose and recording hit songs like "On the Road Again", "To All the Girls I've Loved Before", and "Pancho and Lefty", he joined the country supergroup The Highwaymen, along with fellow singers Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, and Kris Kristofferson.

The difficulty of paying his outstanding debt was aggravated by weak investments he had made during the 1980s.

In 1985, he helped organize the first Farm Aid concert to benefit American farmers; the concerts have been held annually ever since and Nelson has been a fixture, appearing at every one.

In 1990, Nelson's assets were seized by the Internal Revenue Service, which claimed that he owed $32million.

During the 1990s and 2000s, Nelson continued touring extensively, and released albums every year.

Reviews ranged from positive to mixed.

He explored genres such as reggae, blues, jazz, and folk.

In 1992, Nelson released The IRS Tapes: Who'll Buy My Memories?; the profits of the double album—destined to the IRS—and the auction of Nelson's assets cleared his debt.