Willie Nelson on Willie Nelson Interviews and Encounters

Curating the most notorious, illuminating interviews from an American icon isn't easy.

Willie Nelson’s words can be found everywhere: TV, radio, movies, and on the many musical recordings he is responsible for over a decades-long career. Nelson, the last surviving member of the Highwaymen, has outlasted most of his generation of outlaw country musicians. And he is still releasing albums—and featuring on tracks with current superstars such as Beyoncé. Nelson is an American institution.

This collection reveals the icon as a complex and contradictory man, elusive at times, revealing at others. Willie Nelson on Willie Nelson is a collection of interviews that illuminates him not only as a musician, but as an actor, writer, political and animal-rights activist, drug advocate, and environmentalist. These interviews with Nelson, many of them unseen for decades, range from the early 1970s until 2020 and tie together with connective stories tethering a biographical timeline and compositional history of his most-beloved songs and albums. They reveal not only the life and work of Nelson, but also a bevy of committed journalists, some of them amateur, whom Nelson welcomed, one and all, to share his sometimes-radical worldview on an adoring public. 

Willie Nelson on Willie Nelson is the definitive source for anyone wanting to authentically encounter the legend in print.

Paul Maher Jr. is the author of Becoming Kerouac: A Writer In His Time and Self-Portrait: Collected Writings of Jack Kerouac as well as the editor of Miles on Miles and Tom Waits on Tom Waits among other titles. He resides in Lubec, Maine, with his wife, Caitlin.

Introduction
The Willie Nelson Story
Judy Myers | February 1969 | Country Music Magazine
Willie Nelson First in Nashville Club
March 1972 | Country Music Reporter
An Interview with Willie Nelson
Debbie Brimer | July 1974 | Country Music Reporter
The Emperor of Austin
Joe Nick Pataski | July 18, 1974 | Zoo World
A Tribute to Bob Wills
Willie Nelson | August 1974 | Country Music
Willie Nelson Talks
Nelson Allen | May 1975 | Picking Up the Tempo
from Happenin's 'Round Brazoria County
Grace Mikel | 1975 | The Country Hotline, vol. 10
The Man Who Beat the System
Patrick Carr | February 1, 1976 | Country Music
Willie: The Gypsy Cowboy Goes Hollywood
Michael Bane | May 1977 | Country Music
"Further Adventures of the Gypsy Cowboy"
Nelson Allen | May 1977 | Country Music
The Mystic Willie Nelson
Nelson Allen | June 2, 1977 | Country Music
The Nashville People
Stacy Harris | June 1977 | Countryside
On Picnics and Things
Stacy Harris | July 1978 | Country Music Roundup
A Voice Crying Out of the Country
Cliff Radel | April 10, 1979 | Cincinatti Enquirer
Bikers and Texas
Staff Interview | December 1979 | Easyriders
Honeysuckle Rose
Bill Oakey | March 1980 | Country Music
Being A Movie Star Sure Beats Working
Bob Allen | October 1980 | Country Music
Willie
Bob Millard | September 10, 1983 | Country Music
Willie Nelson's Picnic
Michael Bane | July 8, 1985 | Country Music
Catching Up with Ole Willie
Patrick Carr | January 2, 1987 | Country Music
Willie's Press Conference
"People" | November/December 1989 | Country Music
Minding Willie's Business
John Morthland | May/June 1990 | Country Music
Willie
Michael Bane | March 4, 1992 | Country Music
20 Questions with Willie Nelson
Michael "The Gray-Headed Stranger" Bane | March 4, 1993 | Country Music
Road Warrior
Holly George Warren | Winter 1994 | Country Guitar
Willie Nelson's Family and Friends
Russell Barnard | November/December 1994 | Country Music
Interview
Michael Hibblen | May 26, 2005 | Hibblen Radio
Rescuing Wild Horses
The Barbi Twins | 2013 | Origin Magazine
Willie Nelson
Alanna Nash |1979–1985 | from Behind Closed Doors
About the Contributors
Index