Associated Press
[Source: AP]
Willie starts with the words.
It’s one of the surprising revelations in Willie Nelson ‘s new book, “Energy Follows Thought: The Stories Behind My Songs,” an examination of the 90-year-old country legend and soon-to-be Rock & Roll Hall of Famer ‘s seven decades of songwriting.
While his guitar is practically an extension of his body at this point, he has always started the writing process by thinking up words rather than strumming chords. To him, it’s doing the hard part first.
“The melodies are easier to write than the words,” Nelson told The Associated Press in an interview ahead of Tuesday’s release of his book.
He does not, however, write those words down, not even on a napkin.
“I have a theory,” he said, “that if you can’t remember ‘em, it probably wasn’t that good.”
Nelson actually started out as a poet of sorts. At age 6 in Depression-era Texas, he composed a verse in response to the looks he got when he picked his nose and got a nosebleed while standing in front of his church congregation.
“My poem was, ‘What are you looking at me for? I ain’t got nothin to say, if you don’t like the looks of me, look some other way,’” he recalled 84 years later. “That was the beginning.”
He started writing songs soon after.
When he became a superstar in middle age in the mid-1970s, Nelson would be best known for his dynamic live performances and his guitar and vocal stylings.
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