In these days of deep division, most people can agree that Willie Nelson is a national treasure. Along with his vocals on songs like “Always On My Mind” and “On the Road Again,” we’ve come to embrace his tousled hair, often in two braids, his facial hair, and his signature red bandana. However, the Red-Headed Stranger didn’t always embrace the scruffy life. With his slicked-back hair and clean-shaven jaw, Nelson looks like an entirely different person in this performance from 1962. That is, until he starts singing, and we hear the Willie we all know and love.
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Watch Willie Nelson Perform This Song He Wrote for Patsy Cline
On Friday (Sept. 12), X/Twitter user The Extreme Music Enthusiast shared an early recording of Willie Nelson. Looking more like a funeral home director than the godfather of outlaw country, Nelson is performing “Funny How Time Slips Away.”
A rare early video recording of Willie Nelson.
— The Extreme Music Enthusiast (@TheExtremeMusi1) September 12, 2025
From 1962. pic.twitter.com/KqTCw5b7eL
Well, hello there, the future megastar sings. It’s been a long, long time / How am I doing? / Oh, I guess that I’m doing fine.
Nelson had arrived in Nashville from his home state of Texas two years before this performance. Struggling to find a label that would give him a chance, he began frequenting Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge. There, he met Hank Cochrane, who worked for Ray Price and Hal Smith’s publishing company, Pamper Music. After witnessing Nelson play during a jam session, Cochrane gave up his $50-a-week raise, convincing Smith to offer Nelson both the money and a contract with Pamper Records.
After taking over as Price’s touring bassist, Nelson penned several monumental hits for other artists. Those included “Funny How Time Slips Away” and Patsy Cline’s “Crazy,” which the 12-time Grammy winner reportedly wrote in the same week.
Neither the lyrics nor Nelson’s delivery are particularly fancy. But that’s where the beauty lies.
It’s John Mellencamp’s Favorite
Willie Nelson and heartland rocker John Mellencamp have a relationship dating back to at least 1985, when they teamed up with Neil Young to start the now-famous FarmAid benefit concert. In a February 2025 interview with the Texas Monthly podcast One By Willie, the “Jack and Diane” hitmaker explained why “Funny How Time Slips Away” was his gateway drug to Nelson’s music.
“It makes me realize what a wonderful, simple songwriter Nelson is,” Mellencamp said. “And that he, you know, kind of overcame great odds to even be able to put his own voice on records, because he was the guy who was behind the scenes in the beginning, writing songs, because Nashville didn’t think his voice fit their sound, or whatever you want to call it. But in [a] Willie Nelson way, he proved them wrong. And that’s what I admire about Nelson.”
Featured image by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
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