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.
Half A Man
Willie Nelson Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Better yet if I had none at all
Then I wouldn't have two arms that ache for you
And there'd be one less mem'ry to recall
If I'd only had one ear to listen
To the lies that you told me
Then I more closely resemble
The half a man that you've made of me
Then a much, a much truer picture you'd see
For then I more closely resemble
The half a man that you've made of me
In Willie Nelson's song Half A Man, the lyrics tell the story of a man who is left heartbroken after a relationship ends. He wishes he had never had the ability to hold, hear or love his partner because now that it has ended, he is left with two empty arms, unsettled memories, and broken trust. He wishes he had only one arm or none at all so that he would not have to go through the heartache and the memories that come with having loved someone. The singer then says that if he had one ear, he would not have believed in the lies told by his partner, implying that he feels betrayed and deceived.
He continues to wish he had only one leg, for then his partner would see the damage they have done. By saying he's now half a man because of his partner, he suggests that he used to be whole and that their relationship and breakup have reduced him to a fraction of who he used to be. The song shows the struggle of dealing with heartbreak, regrets, and resentment while trying to move on from a toxic relationship.
Line by Line Meaning
If I'd only had one arm to hold you
If I didn't have the ability to hold onto you with two arms
Better yet if I had none at all
It would be even better if I didn't have any arms to hold you with
Then I wouldn't have two arms that ache for you
If I didn't have any arms or just one arm, I wouldn't feel the pain of not being able to hold onto you
And there'd be one less mem'ry to recall
I wouldn't have a memory of holding onto you and feeling the pain of losing you
If I'd only had one ear to listen
If I didn't listen to you with both ears
To the lies that you told me
To your dishonest words
Then I more closely resemble
I would be more like
The half a man that you've made of me
The person you have reduced me to be
If I'd only had one leg to stand on
If I didn't have the physical ability to stand on two legs
Then a much, a much truer picture you'd see
You would see a more accurate and realistic portrayal of who I really am
For then I more closely resemble
Because I would be more like
The half a man that you've made of me
The person you have reduced me to be
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: WILLIE NELSON
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@lioneljones8502
I could listen to this song over and over again
@sandrahovey9449
Same here.
@webbjr37
Probably the best writer ever,and for sure the greatest humanitarian have been a Willie fan since first hearing him in early 60s
@davidkellymitchell4747
Yeah but Willie's a Democrat.
@Erik-fz3gi
@David Mitchell so what?
@davidkellymitchell4747
@Erik Just joking but he is a Democrat and I'm not but I love Willie anyhow. My name is on an album award he received as the recording engineer. Nobody quite like Willie. He flushes to the beat of a different plumber.
@tirebiter4009
All the better.
@TheThomasmoon
Willie Nelson could write the phone book and make a hit
@mannyruiz1954
Countrypolitan to the bone. I like it. Willie is a country god.
@brendantheodore6919
Perhaps Willie's greatest.... brilliant phrasing and song writing skills. A sublime song.