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Happy BD Willie Nelson!

By Aaron Tyler on April 29, 2022

If you ever think you were born too late or too early, just remember you get to live in the time of Willie Nelson. Happy 89th birthday!

Fifteen Facts About Willie Nelson.

April 29, 1933 (age 89 years) #Taurus

1. Because he was born close to midnight, some sources list Willie’s birth date as April 29.
2. For his first-ever public performance, at 5 years old, Willie recited a poem.
3. Willie wrote his first song at 7 years old.
4. The first song Willie ever learned was “Amazing Grace.”
5. At just 13 years old, Willie performed with Bob Wills, the inventor of Western swing music.
6. In addition to a stint in the Air Force, Willie has worked as a cotton picker, saddle maker, disc jockey and Bible, vacuum cleaner and encyclopedia salesman.
7. Willie’s first album was titled And Then I Wrote. It included “Crazy,” “Hello Walls” and “Funny How Time Slips Away,” songs that would initially become huge hits for Patsy Cline, Faron Young and Billy Walker, respectively.
8. Willie’s 1978 album of pop standards, Stardust, remained on the country album chart for 540 weeks — that’s 10 consecutive years.
9. In 1979, Willie made his big-screen acting debut in “The Electric Horseman,” starring Robert Redford and Jane Fonda.
10. The following year, Willie starred in “Honeysuckle Rose.”
11. Willie wrote one of his most famous songs, “On the Road Again,” while on an airplane with director Sydney Pollack.
12. Willie Nelson’s trusty acoustic guitar, named Trigger after cowboy star Roy Rogers’ horse, is a 1969 Martin N-20.
13. While “Trigger” carries the signatures of many fellow artists, the first person to sign it was Leon Russell.
14. Willie worked to settled his 1990s IRS tax debt by releasing a double-album called The IRS Tapes: Who’ll Buy My Memories?
15. Among his many honors, Willie was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1993 and, for his support of family farms, the National Agricultural Hall of Fame in 2011.