Episode #127 | 4.25.23
Willie Nelson (Part 1): Shootouts, House Fires, and the Ballad of the Red Headed Stranger
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In this episode
Broke and depressed, Willie Nelson almost joined the 27 Club on a snowy Nashville street late one night – before he’d even sold a single song. He drank, smoked, and cheated his way through multiple marriages. He was nearly beaten to death by an angry husband in a parking lot. He wielded a shotgun and a rifle during a shootout on his own property. And after ten years of trying to make it on Music Row, he had the courage and the confidence to start all over again after a fire threatened to destroy the world he was living in.
Sources
It’s a Long Story: My Life, by Willie Nelson with David Ritz
Willie Nelson: An Epic Life, by Joe Nick Patoski
Watching Willie's Back (The Oxford American)
Willie Nelson and His Famous Guitar: The Tale of Trigger (Rolling Stone)
A Q&A With John Spong (Texas Monthly)
"That's Just the Way Willie Rolls" (Texas Monthly)
Poor Willie (Texas Monthly)
That '70s Show (Texas Monthly)
Willie Nelson: 'Marijuana Saved My Life' (Rolling Stone)
Willie Nelson's Heartbreak (People)
The Fascinating Story Behind Willie Nelson's 'Red Headed Stranger' (Wide Open Country)
Disgraceland is a podcast about musicians getting away with murder and behaving very badly. It melds music history, true crime and transgressive fiction. Disgraceland is not journalism. Disgraceland is entertainment. Entertainment inspired by true events. However, certain scenes, characters and names are sometimes fictionalized for dramatic purposes.
Credits
Hosted by Jake Brennan.
Written by Zeth Lundy.
Copy editing by James Sullivan.
This episode was mixed by Matt Beaudoin.
Score by Jake Brennan.
Mixed and Engineered by Sean Cahalin.
Additional music and score elements by Ryan Spraker.
Additional music services by Bryce Kanzer.
Ad music composed by the late, great Ian Kennedy.
Disgraceland theme song, "Crenshaw Space Boogie" written and produced by Jake Brennan. Performed by Jake Brennan, Bryce Kanzer, Jay Cannava and Evan Kenney. Mixed and engineered by Adam Taylor.Score by Jake Brennan.
*illustrations by Avi Spivak @avispivak