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.
Medley: Opportunity to Cry
Willie Nelson Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Once more I've waited and once more you've let me down
This would be a perfect time for me to die I'd like to take this opportunity to cry
You gave your word now I return it to you with this suggestion as to what you can do
Just exchange the words I love you for goodbye while I take this opportunity to cry
I'd like to see you but I'm afraid that I don't know wrong from right
And if I saw you would I kiss you or want to kill you out of sight
It's been a long night so I think I'll go home
They'll be the last ones to tell me goodbye
And they'll give me many opportunities to cry
They'll give me many opportunities to cry
The lyrics to Willie Nelson’s “Opportunity to Cry” are a poignant portrait of unrequited love and the pain associated with it. The opening lines “Just watch the sunrise on the other side of town, Once more I’ve waited and once more you’ve let me down” conveys the sense of abandonment and frustration felt by the singer. The repeated disappointments have led to a point where the character has given up any hope for redemption and suggests that this would be a perfect time for him to die. However, he doesn’t do so, and instead, decides to take this opportunity to cry.
The following line, “You gave your word now I return it to you with this suggestion as to what you can do” shows an air of resignation and hints at the involvement of two people in the relationship, hinting at a probable broken promise. The singer then suggests that the words 'I love you' be replaced with 'goodbye' and asks for permission to cry. He then reflects upon his own inability to make a decision about seeing his lover, unsure if he would kiss her, or want to kill her out of sight. Since he is unsure, he decides to feed his nightmares instead, and let them bid him goodbye, thus presenting him with many opportunities to cry.
The song encapsulates a heart-wrenching feeling of disappointment and the powerlessness felt in the face of an unequal relationship. It is a song that examines the different emotions of love and the ache caused by the inability to make sense of it.
Line by Line Meaning
Just watch the sunrise on the other side of town
I have been waiting for you all night, and now that the sun is up, I realize that you are not coming.
Once more I've waited and once more you've let me down
This is not the first time I have waited for you, and not the first time you have failed to show up.
This would be a perfect time for me to die I'd like to take this opportunity to cry
I am so devastated by your absence that I feel like dying. Instead, I will take this time to cry.
You gave your word now I return it to you with this suggestion as to what you can do
You promised to be here, but you are not. I am returning your word to you and suggest that you leave me alone.
Just exchange the words I love you for goodbye while I take this opportunity to cry
We used to say 'I love you', but now it's time to say goodbye. While I grieve, you should leave.
I'd like to see you but I'm afraid that I don't know wrong from right
I still have feelings for you, but I am afraid that seeing you will only bring me pain and confusion.
And if I saw you would I kiss you or want to kill you out of sight
I am so conflicted about my feelings for you that I don't know if I would want to be affectionate or violent towards you.
It's been a long night so I think I'll go home
I have been waiting for you all night and I am exhausted. I am going home now.
And feed my nightmares they've been waiting all night long
I am going to bed now, but I know that my nightmares will consume me.
They'll be the last ones to tell me goodbye
My nightmares will be the only ones to comfort me, even as I say goodbye to you and this painful chapter in my life.
And they'll give me many opportunities to cry
My nightmares will cause me to cry repeatedly, but at least I won't have to face the reality of losing you anymore.
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: WILLIE NELSON
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind