Born during the Great Depression and raised by his grandparents, Nelson wrote his first song at age seven and joined his first band at ten. During high school, he toured locally with the Bohemian Polka as their lead singer and guitar player. After graduating from high school in 1950, he joined the U.S. Air Force but was later discharged due to back problems. After his return, Nelson attended Baylor University for two years but dropped out because he was succeeding in music. During this time, he worked as a disc jockey in Texas radio stations and a singer in honky-tonks. Nelson moved to Vancouver, Washington, where he wrote "Family Bible" and recorded the song "Lumberjack" in 1956. He also worked as a disc jockey at various radio stations in Vancouver and nearby Portland, Oregon. In 1958, he moved to Houston, Texas, after signing a contract with D Records. He sang at the Esquire Ballroom weekly and he worked as a disk jockey. During that time, he wrote songs that would become country standards, including "Funny How Time Slips Away", "Hello Walls", "Pretty Paper", and "Crazy". In 1960 he moved to Nashville, Tennessee, and later signed a publishing contract with Pamper Music which allowed him to join Ray Price's band as a bassist. In 1962, he recorded his first album, ...And Then I Wrote. Due to this success, Nelson signed in 1964 with RCA Victor and joined the Grand Ole Opry the following year. After mid-chart hits in the late 1960s and the early 1970s, Nelson retired in 1972 and moved to Austin, Texas. The ongoing music scene of Austin motivated Nelson to return from retirement, performing frequently at the Armadillo World Headquarters.
In 1973, after signing with Atlantic Records, Nelson turned to outlaw country, including albums such as Shotgun Willie and Phases and Stages. In 1975, he switched to Columbia Records, where he recorded the critically acclaimed album Red Headed Stranger. The same year, he recorded another outlaw country album, Wanted! The Outlaws, along with Waylon Jennings, Jessi Colter, and Tompall Glaser. During the mid-1980s, while creating hit albums like Honeysuckle Rose and recording hit songs like "On the Road Again", "To All the Girls I've Loved Before", and "Pancho and Lefty", he joined the country supergroup The Highwaymen, along with fellow singers Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, and Kris Kristofferson.
In 1990, Nelson's assets were seized by the Internal Revenue Service, which claimed that he owed $32 million. The difficulty of paying his outstanding debt was aggravated by weak investments he had made during the 1980s. In 1992, Nelson released The IRS Tapes: Who'll Buy My Memories?; the profits of the double album—destined to the IRS—and the auction of Nelson's assets cleared his debt. During the 1990s and 2000s, Nelson continued touring extensively, and released albums every year. Reviews ranged from positive to mixed. He explored genres such as reggae, blues, jazz, and folk.
Nelson made his first movie appearance in the 1979 film The Electric Horseman, followed by other appearances in movies and on television. Nelson is a major liberal activist and the co-chair of the advisory board of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), which is in favor of marijuana legalization. On the environmental front, Nelson owns the bio-diesel brand Willie Nelson Biodiesel, which is made from vegetable oil. Nelson is also the honorary chairman of the advisory board of the Texas Music Project, the official music charity of the state of Texas.
Nelson uses a variety of music styles to create his own distinctive blend of country music, a hybrid of jazz, pop, blues, rock and folk. His "unique sound", which uses a "relaxed, behind-the-beat singing style and gut-string guitar" and his "nasal voice and jazzy, off-center phrasing", has been responsible for his wide appeal, and has made him a "vital icon in country music", influencing the "new country, new traditionalist, and alternative country movements of the 1980s and 1990s".
In 1969, the Baldwin company gave Nelson an amplifier and guitar with their "Prismatone" pickup. During a show in Helotes, Texas, Nelson left the guitar on the floor of the stage, and it was later stepped on by a drunk man. He sent it to be repaired in Nashville by Shot Jackson, who told Nelson that the damage was too great. Jackson offered him a Martin N-20 Classical guitar, and, at Nelson's request, moved the pickup to the Martin. Nelson purchased the guitar unseen for $750 and named it after Roy Rogers' horse "Trigger". The next year Nelson rescued the guitar from his burning ranch.
Constant strumming with a guitar pick over the decades has worn a large sweeping hole into the guitar's body near the sound hole—the N-20 has no pick-guard since classical guitars are meant to be played fingerstyle instead of with picks. Its soundboard has been signed by over a hundred of Nelson's friends and associates, ranging from fellow musicians to lawyers and football coaches. The first signature on the guitar was Leon Russell's, who asked Nelson initially to sign his guitar. When Nelson was about to sign it with a marker, Russell requested him to scratch it instead, explaining that the guitar would be more valuable in the future. Interested in the concept, Nelson requested Russell to also sign his guitar. In 1991, during his process with the IRS, Nelson was worried that Trigger could be auctioned off, stating: "When Trigger goes, I'll quit". He asked his daughter, Lana, to take the guitar from the studio before any IRS agent arrived there, and then deliver it to him in Maui. Nelson then concealed the guitar in his manager's house until his debt was paid off in 1993.
Nelson is widely recognized as an American icon. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1993, and he received the Kennedy Center Honors in 1998. In 2011, Nelson was inducted to the National Agricultural Hall of Fame, for his labor in Farm Aid and other fund raisers to benefit farmers. In 2015 Nelson won the Gershwin Prize, the lifetime award of the Library of Congress. In 2018 The Texas Institute of Letters inducted him among its members for his songwriting. He was included by Rolling Stone on its 100 Greatest Singers and 100 Greatest Guitarists lists.
Four Walls
Willie Nelson Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
You're drawn like a moth to a flame
You laugh while the wine's overflowing
While I sit and whisper your name
Four walls to hear me
Four walls to see
Four walls too near me
Closing in on me
Sometimes I ask why I'm waiting
But my walls have nothing to say
I'm made for love not for hating
So here where you left I stay
Four walls to hear me
Four walls to see
Four walls too near me
Closing in on me
One night with you is like heaven
And so while I'm walking the floor
I listen for steps in the hallway
And wait for your knock on my door
Four walls to hear me
Four walls to see
Four walls too near me
Closing in on me
Willie Nelson's Four Walls is a song that is beautifully written with a message about loneliness and heartbreak. The song is about a person who is feeling trapped in a relationship, their lover has gone out, most likely looking for adventure and excitement, yet the singer is left behind, sitting and waiting for them to come back. As the person left behind sits trapped within their walls four walls remind them of their isolation and their loneliness.
The song starts with an image of the night out in the town where one is drawn to the bright lights like a moth. While wine is overflowing and laughter echoes, the singer is left in their own prison of four walls with nothing but their own voice as the only echos. The singer wallows in their own misery and asks themselves why they wait, yet gets no response from the very walls that they address.
The second verse is the plea of the singer to the lover who has left them behind. The plea of one night being like heaven for the singer establishes the intimate relationship that they once had. The singer is still holding on to the relationship and unable to let go. The line, "And wait for your knock on my door" signifies the hope that the singer still has that their lover might come back, and everything will be the same as it was before. However, trapped within the four walls, the singer is not even able to look outside and see the world as they are left only with their thoughts.
Overall, Four Walls by Willie Nelson is a song that speaks to the human experience of loneliness and the longing for intimacy. The lyrics reflect the pain of being left behind by a loved one, and how one is trapped with their own thoughts amidst four walls while the world moves on.
Line by Line Meaning
Out where the bright lights are glowing
You're drawn to the excitement of the city lights
You're drawn like a moth to a flame
You can't resist the lure of the fun and action
You laugh while the wine's overflowing
You enjoy the good times and excess
While I sit and whisper your name
I'm alone and longing for you
Four walls to hear me
I'm trapped in this room
Four walls to see
I have no windows to the outside world
Four walls too near me
I feel suffocated by the confines of my space
Closing in on me
I feel the walls getting smaller and more oppressive
Sometimes I ask why I'm waiting
I wonder why I'm stuck here instead of with you
But my walls have nothing to say
I can't find answers or solace within these walls
I'm made for love not for hating
I want to feel love instead of bitterness
So here where you left I stay
I'm still waiting for you here in this room
One night with you is like heaven
Being with you is a transcendent experience
And so while I'm walking the floor
I can't sleep or rest without you
I listen for steps in the hallway
I wait anxiously for you to return
And wait for your knock on my door
I need you to come back to me
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Written by: CAMPBELL MOORE
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Mara Karetsos
A LEGEND!!
Wonderful!!!!
🎸🎸🎸🎶🎶🎼🎼🎵🎵🎹🎹🎹
Vince Ryan
Willie and Trigger doing Jim Reeves a solid! One of my Dad's favorite songs and singers of all-time! Willie does a great job as usual!
anella d'ambrosio
Che bella canzone! C'è tanta armonia nella voce di Willie! La musica e stupenda! Grazie!! 😇🤩🤩😍😍😍😘😘🎶🎸🎶💘♥️💔💯💋🌹
Ada Kennedy
Simply beautiful
Marianne Menon
Thank you!!!
~Marianne...
Dodora Pimpim
Linda, linda...💃🕺👏👏
flatroofer
Beautiful, love the harmonies.
Marianne Menon
Thank You :)
~Marianne...
Jim Malcolm
Magnificent! Willie does it again. Definitely Everest!
Marianne Menon
Thank you Jim for your kind comment! I have only been to 2 Willie Nelson concerts... one in Philadelphia 2011 and one in Roanoke VA 2014...but have been a fan since the mid '60s :)
~Marianne...