Three Chords and a Legacy: Willie Nelson’s July 18 Milestones

Willie Nelson has been recording music since the mid-1950s and dropping radio singles since 1962. The iconic 92-year-old singer/songwriter nabbed 20 No.1 country hits and 114 chart singles between 1962 and 1993.

However, it was the early 1980s when Nelson cemented his transition from a soft-spoken Texas poet to a pop-culture star. Today, July 18, is a poignant milestone. Nelson’s movie Honeysuckle Rose, his debut in a starring role, opened in theaters across America on July 18, 1980. Two years later, on July 18, the album named after his signature hit, “Always On My Mind,” went No. 1 on country music charts.

“I’ve learned that we’re all pretty much alike,” Nelson told Dan Rather. “No matter where you live, what you look like, what color you are, or what country you’re from. What makes me and you laugh or cry, chances are it’ll make everyone else laugh or cry, because we all have basically the same emotions. I’ve traveled around singing in other places – London, France. It’s all the same. People are the same all over the world. They all like music.”

Nelson grew up in central Texas, surrounded by a plethora of musical styles –including Grand Ole Opry stars, Texas honky-tonk, Western swing, and German American polka.

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He got married to his first of four wives and joined the Air Force in 1952. Nelson played in local bands, worked at radio stations, and self-released songs.

While he had started writing songs as a child, it was the 1950s that saw his writing blossom into songs that became standards, such as Frank Sinatra’s “Night Life.”

“I’m a huge Frank Sinatra fan,” Nelson told Rather, explaining Sinatra inspired his singing style. “I’ve been listening to him for many, many years. I love the way he phrased. He sang it the way he wanted to. He sang it with a jazz-like feel. And I liked that. I felt like it was easy for me to do.”

He moved to Nashville in 1960 and met Hank Cochran, who introduced him to Hal Smith, which led to his involvement with Pamper Music publishing. Very soon, Nelson began cranking out songs that blossomed into some of the most identifiable hits of generations. In the early ‘60s, he wrote “Crazy” (Patsy Cline), “Funny How Time Slips Away” (Billy Walker), and “Hello Walls” (Faron Young).
Nelson signed his first major record deal in 1962 and became a member of the Grand Ole Opry in 1964.

By the 1970s, Nelson’s second marriage was over, his house had burned down, and he grew out his hair, pierced his ears, and found some worn denim. His aesthetic choices helped spark the Outlaw movement.

Enter the Outlaws

He hosted his first Willie Nelson Picnic in Dripping Springs, Texas, on July 4, 1973, and invited many of his famous friends to play with him. It became a tradition and helped keep Nelson in the spotlight.
Nelson released Red Headed Stranger in 1975, a concept record that became his first million-seller. One year later, he joined Waylon Jennings to release Wanted! The Outlaws is a compilation album that became country music’s first LP to be certified platinum by the RIAA.

“Once you sell a lot of records, more people know who you are,” Nelson said. “It opened up some doors. I thought if they bought them, they’d buy (the next one).”

With his recording career soaring, Nelson ventured into the film industry. He joined Robert Redford in The Electric Horseman in 1979 before playing Buck Bonham in Honeysuckle Rose in 1980.
He wrote “Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground” for his co-star, Amy Irving, in the movie. This year, he joined her to sing the song from her new album, Always Will Be. Irving created a 10-song collection of reimagined versions of Nelson’s songs. In Honeysuckle Rose, Nelson plays a family man and country singer who is tempted to the point of downfall when Irving’s character joins his band.
Cinematically, from there, Nelson was in Songwriter with Kris Kristofferson in 1984 and Red Headed Stranger in 1987. He was also in Barbarosa, Where the Hell’s That Gold?, and Once Upon a Texas Train.

In the middle of all of that, he recorded Always On My Mind, which Nelson released in 1982. It became the No. 1 country album of the year and spent 22 weeks at the top of the charts.

“Always On My Mind”

Wayne Carson co-wrote the title track with Johnny Christopher and Mark James in the early 1970s following an emotional phone conversation with his wife.

“I said, ‘Well, I know I’ve been gone a lot, but I’ve been thinking about you all the time,’” Carson said in a 1988 interview with The Times. “And it just struck me like someone had hit me with a hammer. I told her real fast I had to hang up because I had to put that into a song.”

The trio of men wrote the song, and Brenda Lee recorded it, releasing it in June 1972. The list of artists who recorded “Always On My Mind” is long, and includes Elvis Presley, John Wesley Ryles, and Bob Dylan, in addition to Nelson, who cemented the title into pop culture.

Carson, Christopher, and James even won Song of the Year at the Grammy Awards in 1983. One decade later, voters elected Nelson to the Country Music Hall of Fame. Duets with modern artists, including Lee Ann Womack and Toby Keith, kept Nelson on country radio in the 2000s. The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences awarded him its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000.

In 2012, he was the inaugural recipient of his namesake award, CMA’s Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award. Three years later, Nelson became the first country artist to receive the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song.

“I get by with my little three chords and the truth,” Nelson said.

(Gary Miller/Getty Images for Shock Inc)