Staying Fit
William Morrow / Photo by Gary Miller/Getty Images
Willie Nelson, 90, is one of the great singers and songwriters of country music, an icon known for his long braids, bandanna and outlaw style since the 1960s. Now, in his new book, Energy Follows Thought: The Stories Behind My Songs (October 31), the legend reveals the origins of 160 of his classic songs, including “Crazy,” which he wrote and Patsy Cline recorded and made her own in 1961.
He explains in the book that “the words always come first”: “I figure that once I get the words right, melodies will appear. They always have. Get the story down first and it’ll sing on its own.”
AARP Membership— $12 for your first year when you sign up for Automatic Renewal
Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine.
Cowritten with David Ritz, the book was timed to celebrate Nelson’s 90th birthday earlier this year, which was marked in April with two rollicking shows at the Hollywood Bowl in California (available as an album, Long Story Short: Willie Nelson 90 Live at The Hollywood Bowl, on December 15) and his induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on Nov. 3.
In the following excerpts, the musician offers the stories behind “Crazy” and “Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground,” a number 1 hit released on the soundtrack to the 1980 film Honeysuckle Rose, starring Nelson as a struggling country music singer.
Willie Nelson performing in Atlanta in 1981.
Photo By Rick Diamond/Getty Images
“Crazy”
I’m crazy, crazy for feeling so lonely
I’m crazy, crazy for feeling so blue
I knew that you’d love me as long as you wanted
And then someday you’d leave me for somebody new
Worry, why do I let myself worry?
Wondering what in the world did I do?
I’m crazy for thinking that my love could hold you
I’m crazy for trying and crazy for crying
And I’m crazy for loving you
Sometimes the craziest stories are the best.
And God knows how many crazy stories have come out of Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge, the famous barroom in downtown Nashville a few feet from Ryman Auditorium, home to the Grand Ole Opry. I was in there one night and saw Charlie Dick. I knew he was married to sweet Patsy Cline, who sang like an angel. I had a scratchy record of me singing “Crazy” where I sure as hell didn’t sound like an angel. I sounded more like a man desperate to have someone else sing the song. Anyway, I played it for Charlie, who liked it so well he drove me over to his house at one a.m., woke up poor Patsy, and made her listen to it.
Because Patsy liked it, I was poor no longer.
It almost didn’t happen because Patsy, who recorded it in a Nashville studio, tried singing like me. Big mistake. No one should ever try to follow my style of phrasing. Not that I don’t like my style. I do. I believe it’s natural, at least for me. But it’s offbeat. I tend to kick way back behind the beat or hurry up ahead of the beat. As my good buddy Waylon Jennings once said, “Willie wouldn’t know where the beat is if it bit him in the butt.”
Fortunately, Patsy’s famous producer, Owen Bradley, urged her to forget my phrasing and stick to her own.
Crazy is as crazy does, and this particular “Crazy” convinced me, at a time when I wasn’t a hundred percent sure of my writing talent, that I’d be crazy to stop writing.
Craziness can be a pretty good strategy for survival.
More From AARP
Changing Nashville
As America becomes more diverse, so does its music
Streisand and Winkler Among the Celebs With Big Memoirs Out This Fall
Top Hollywood stars and music legends describe love, pain and dreams dashed and fulfilled on their roads to fameCher, 77, Tells All About Her Star-Studded ‘Christmas’ Album
She opens up about grief, her 37-year-old boyfriend and upcoming memoir