Willie Nelson

Award won Role or nomination

1. 1933 age 0

   Born

2. 1997 age 64

   CreditWag the Dog

3. 2016 age 83

   CreditZoolander 2

• GBGeoffrey Blake1 title
• BZBilly Zane1 title
• BSBen Stiller1 title
• RNRobert De Niro1 title
• AMAndrea Martin1 title
• JCJohn Cho1 title
• MMMarguerite Moreau1 title
• BCBenedict Cumberbatch1 title
• CEChris Ellis1 title
• NBNazanin Boniadi1 title

• When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around.

  Willie Nelson, CC BY-SA 4.0

• I have this kind of philosophy that I can't do anything about what happened yesterday, or what's going to happen tomorrow. But I feel in full control of what's going on now. I think worry will make you sick. I've never seen it accomplish anything. I've never seen worrying about anything change it. So I decided not to do it. If you can't do anything about it, why in the hell worry about it? Every negative thought you have releases poison into your system, and will kill you or give you cancer, or tumors or whatever else you can think of. So if you are thinking negative about anything, erase that.

  Willie Nelson, CC BY-SA 4.0

• I started learning my lessons in Abbot Texas, where I was born in 1933. My sister Bobbie and I were raised by our grandparents [...] We never had enough money, and Bobbie and I started working at an early age to help the family get by. That hard work included picking cotton. [...] Picking cotton is hard and painful work, and the most lasting lesson I learned in the fields was that I didn't want to spend my life picking cotton.

  Willie Nelson, CC BY-SA 4.0

• Well, there was a guy, a blacksmith, in Abbott, and he and my granddad both had blacksmith's jobs. I hung around there a lot. And he had a family band. He just let me play because he knew I wanted to work and needed the work. So, I played a guitar in a big polka band with a lot of horns and everything. So, fortunately, no one ever heard me, because I wasn't that great. But I was nine or 10 years old and making eight to 10 dollars a night. So, it was easier than picking cotton.

  Willie Nelson, CC BY-SA 4.0

• In church I was told that if I so much as smoked a cigarette or tasted alcohol, I’d be damned in hell for all eternity[...]it didn’t take long for me to start thinking that sounded all wrong [...]I didn’t cotton to the idea that your religion should be flaunted to other people. Your religion is for you, and is best kept close to your heart.

  Willie Nelson, CC BY-SA 4.0

• Bob Wills taught me how to be a bandleader and how to be a star. [...] There was no time wasted between songs. I learned from him to keep the people moving and dancing. [...] The more you keep the music going, the smoother the evening will be. Another thing he taught me was people came and paid their money to hear what they wanted to hear. Even if Bob had a mediocre band that night, the people knew his records and his radio shows and they heard what they thought Bob Wills sounded like. Whether he had a good night or a bad night, every night was a good night.

  Willie Nelson, CC BY-SA 4.0

Nationalities

United States

Languages

English

Years active

1956–

Instruments

guitar, steel-string acoustic guitar, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, classical guitar, voice

Record labels

Blue Note, Atlantic Records, Columbia Records, Island Records, Legacy Recordings, Liberty Records, RCA Records, Universal Music Group Nashville, Challenge Records, Impex Records

Genres

country music, pop music, progressive country, Americana, blues, traditional pop, rock music, alternative country, country rock, outlaw country

Education

Abbott High School, Baylor University