Talking about country music would be incomplete without mentioning Willie Nelson, its cornerstone. One of the greatest live musical icons to date, Nelson is 90 years old.
On April 29, 1933, shortly before midnight, Nelson was born in the small Texas farming community of Abbott.
He wasn’t officially born until the following morning, according to the county courthouse. Nelson
had been honoring both dates because he wasn’t really sure if his actual birthday fell on April 29 or April 30.
Nelson spent his entire youth living with his grandparents and developed an early interest in music while helping them in their cotton fields up until the age of ten.
Nelson began his musical career many years later while playing the guitar in German and Czech polka bands.
After graduating from high school, he joined the Air Force and briefly attended college before quitting.
He continued to instruct Sunday school students before being fired because the institution disapproved of his playing music in honky-tonk establishments, according to Rolling Stone.
Nelson decided to try his luck in Nashville after his anticipated success did not materialize. There, he met composer Hank Cochran,
who enjoyed Nelson’s work and helped him secure his first publishing deal, which opened the door for a career in the country music industry.
Nelson has experienced success ever since he made his breakthrough. His colorful personal life, which was marked by his numerous decades-long marriages, came along with the celebrity and success.
Nelson persevered through his struggles in life, including his run-in with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
They have been inseparable ever since Annie D’Angelo helped the country music legend overcome various obstacles in life starting in 1991.
Nelson had three kids with Martha Matthews, whom he married in 1952. Because of the hostility that pervaded their marriage,
it endured for ten years. According to reports, Matthews allegedly beat Nelson multiple times, including once when she reportedly
wrapped him in bedsheets and whacked him mercilessly with a broomstick. Lana, Susie, and Willie ‘Billy’ Hugh Jr. were their three offspring.
Nelson found love in American country music and rockabilly singer Shirley Collie a year after his marriage to Matthews ended.
However, Collie discovered a hospital bill at a Houston hospital that was issued to Nelson and Connie Keopke for the birth of Paula Nelson, and they too divorced in 1971.
In the end, Nelson wed Kepoke the same year. Amy Nelson, the second child of their union, was born. But in 1988, they got divorced.
He then married D’Angelo in 1991 after keeping a low profile for many years. Jacob Micah and Lukas Autry, their two kids, were born.
The twists and turns continued with his final successful marriage, though. Everyone was startled in
2012 when Renee Butts came forward and said that she was Nelson’s child with his friend Mary Haney from many years prior.
However, D’Angelo’s marriage to Nelson and affection for him persisted, and they are still together today.
Nelson, who has nothing but praise for his wife, first met her in 1986 while working as a makeup artist on one of the movies he was in.
‘I had a knack for making things difficult when it came to relationships. But getting married to Annie wasn’t at all difficult.
It’s probably the wisest thing I’ve ever done. In his memoir ‘Me and Sister Bobby: True Tales of the Family Band,’
he remarked of his wife, ‘I can say that because, 34 years after we first met, we’re still together and going strong.
Nelson referred to his wife in an interview with People Magazine as his ‘pet rattler’ and his ‘lover, my wife, nurse, doctor, and bodyguard.’
Nelson added to the magazine, ‘We’ve got a few excellent kids. ‘I am pleased with what they have accomplished on their own.
It’s wonderful to have your kids around you at any time, but it’s much better if they can sing well and join you on stage.
Autry, his oldest child with D’Angelo, spoke movingly of the affection his parents share.
The best thing about my mother is how well she looks after my father. Although it’s not the best quality about her—there are plenty of positive aspects—that is one of my favorites.
How well she looks after him and how she has managed to keep him alive, healthy, and doing what he
loves for such a long time. That’s something I think he understands and respects,” Lukas said on the “One By Willie” podcast.
Nelson said in an interview with Parade Magazine that he might not be the easiest guy to live with, but that D’Angelo usually makes his life simpler.
I’m difficult to live with. I can be really moody, you know. Conflict developed with my other marriages.
But it appears that Annie and I got along well. To live with me, you have to be exceptional, he said.
D’Angelo was not only a wonderful wife, but she also made the best nurse when Nelson converted his home
into a hospital during the epidemic. D’Angelo revealed to The New York Times that she was stricter than ever at the time.
‘If I have to be the bad guy to keep him safe, I’ll be the bad guy,’ she declared. ‘A virus doesn’t care about who you are, what you believe, or how famous you are.’