• 1. Name: Willie Hugh Nelson
  2. Nickname: The Red Headed Stranger
  3. Born: April 30,1933
  4. Birth Place: Abbott, Texas
  5. Married four times
  6. Children: 7
  7. Grammy Awards: 10
  8. Was part of the platinum selling band [The Highwaymen
  9. Acted in several films such as The Electric Horseman (1979)
  10. Established the Farm Aid benefit concerts in 1985
  11. Arrested in 2006 for possession of marijuana

• Willie Nelson is a country musician, singer-songwriter author, poet, actor and activist. whose career has spanned almost four decades. He was born and raised in Abott, TX. He received mail-order music lessons from his grandparents when he was six years old an wrote his first song when he was seven years old. At the age of nine, he was playing a guitar in a local band while his sister played the piano. In high school he had a band called Bohemian Fiddlers which had a fiddler by the name of Bud Fletcher, Willie also worked as a disk jockey while in high school and sang in honky tonk bars. While in high school, Willie was also active in the Future Farmers Of America which led him to studying agriculture at Baylor Universtiy for one year in 1954. Prior to Baylor and after graduating from high school in 1951, Willie Nelson joined the Air Force but was discharged after 9 months due to back problems. In 1956, Willie moved to Vancouver, WA to start a music career. He recorded a song written by Leon Payne called Lumberjack which sold some but not enough to start his career. He continued in radio as an announcer and sang in clubs. He wrote a song, Family Bible, and sold it for [[$100.00]] which became a hit for Claude Gray in 1960. The song is often referred to as a gospel music classic. [1]

• Career

  As a member of the "Outlaw Country" movement of the late 1970s, Nelson released a number of highly successful solo records - as well as collaborations with fellow country musicians like Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson, Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard. After pursuing a brief acting a career, Nelson returned to music in the 1980s and released some of hit best known songs, including "On the Road Again" and "Always on My Mind." He continues to record and perform new material and has become involved with a company that markets biodiesel to truckers. He is also a fierce advocate for the legalization of marijuana.

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