BIOGRAPHY
Willie Nelson was born April 29, 1933, in Abbott, Texas, and learned guitar from his grandfather, performing at local dances by age 10. After service in the U.S. Air Force and years as a disc jockey, he moved to Nashville by 1961, writing songs like 'Crazy' (a hit for Patsy Cline), 'Hello Walls,' 'Night Life,' and 'Funny How Time Slips Away.' In the early 1970s he relocated to Austin, traded Nashville's traditional stagewear for denim and bandannas, and helped lead the outlaw country movement with Waylon Jennings. His 1975 album Red Headed Stranger, featuring 'Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain,' made him one of country music's most popular performers, and 'On the Road Again' became his signature song after appearing in 1980's Honeysuckle Rose. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1993 and received the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song in 2015, the first country artist so honored.