Life can be amazing, and one of the many phenomena that make it so is coincidence. Coincidences have amounted to marriages, friendships, opportunities, and more. They are pleasant surprises that spice life up when one is least expecting it. That being said, coincidence brought together the unlikely musical duo of Willie Nelson and Booker T. Jones.
Videos by American Songwriter
Willie Nelson and Booker T. Jones are certainly titans of the industry. However, given their respective genres, they would seemingly have little to no reason to cross paths professionally. However, that all changed on an arbitrary day in Malibu, California. And that arbitrary day that would create a friendship and a one-of-a-kind musical partnership.
Booker T. Jones’ Incidental Willie Nelson Sighting
In the 70s, Willie Nelson spent some time in California away from the deserts and honky tonks of Texas and Nashville. Consequently, he unknowingly rented an apartment in the same building as Booker T. Jones. Concerning their first meeting, Booker T. Jones recalled the whole thing in the Netflix docuseries, This Is Pop.
“I had rented an apartment on the beach in Malibu and had just moved in,” Jones recalled. “I saw a guy running down the beach who, to me, looked like Willie Nelson. He looked up at me and waved and I said, ‘Oh my God, that is Willie Nelson!’”
Following that chance encounter, the two went on to further solidify their friendship by spending the rest of the night playing music together.
“We ended up jamming at night, just the two of us, on our decks, on different songs we played as boys,” Jones remembered.
Following this jam session, Jones said Nelson stated, “Why don’t we go in the studio and record these songs rather than sitting out here on the deck?”
Subsequently, the two would go on to create Willie Nelson’s 1977 album, Stardust. Thanks to the influence Jones had on the album as the producer, it took on a very pop sound. In retrospect, Jones didn’t believe Nelson was the biggest fan of it, as he stated, “I think he just didn’t care what the genre was. If it felt good to him, he wanted to do it. But it was just not something that was done in those days in Nashville. It just wasn’t traditional.”
Regardless, if it wasn’t for that coincidence on a Malibu beach, the album would seemingly never have existed, and the two wouldn’t be friends today.
Photo by Jordan Vonderhaar/Getty Images
Leave a Reply
Only members can comment. Become a member. Already a member? Log in.