From his first performance at age four Willie Nelson was driven to make music and live life on his own terms. But though he is a songwriter of exceptional depth - Crazy was one of his early classics - Willie only found success after abandoning Nashville and moving to Austin Texas. Red Headed Stranger made country cool to a new generation of fans. Wanted: The Outlaws became the first country album to sell a million copies. And On the Road Again became the anthem for Americans on the move. A craggy-faced pot-smoking philosopher Willie Nelson is one of America s great iconoclasts and idols. Now Joe Nick Patoski draws on over 100 interviews with Willie and his family band and friends to tell Nelson s story from humble Depression-era roots to his musical education in Texas honky-tonks and his flirtations with whiskey women and weed; from his triumph with #1 hit Always On My Mind to his nearly career-ending battles with debt and the IRS; and his ultimate redemption and ascension to American hero