Willie Hugh Nelson (born April 29, 1933) is an American musician, actor, an… Read Full Bio ↴Willie Hugh Nelson (born April 29, 1933) is an American musician, actor, and activist. The critical success of the album Shotgun Willie (1973), combined with the critical and commercial success of Red Headed Stranger (1975) and Stardust (1978), made Nelson one of the most recognized artists in country music. He was one of the main figures of outlaw country, a subgenre of country music that developed in the late 1960s as a reaction to the conservative restrictions of the Nashville sound. Nelson has acted in over 30 films, co-authored several books, and has been involved in activism for the use of biofuels and the legalization of marijuana.

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.

My Baby's Gone
Willie Nelson Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Hold back the rushing minutes make the wind lie still
Don't let the moonlight shine across the lonely hill
Dry all the raindrops, hold back the sun
My world has ended, my baby's gone.

The Milkman whistles softly as he comes up to my door
The Mailman brings the letters by, just like he did before
They seem so busy all day long, as though there's nothing wrong

Don't they know the world has ended, my baby's gone?

Hold back the rushing minutes, make the wind lie still
Don't let the moonlight shine across the lonely hill
Dry all the raindrops, and hold back the sun
My world has ended, my baby's gone.

I wake up sometimes in the night and realize you're gone
And then I toss upon my bed and wait for day to come
And I try to tell my lonely heart it must go on alone
But it cries, 'the world has ended, my baby's gone.'

Hold back the rushing minutes, make the wind lie still
Don't let the moonlight shine across the lonely hill
Dry all the raindrops, and hold back the dawn
My world has ended, my baby's gone.

My world has ended, my baby's gone

Overall Meaning

The lyrics in Willie Nelson’s “My Baby’s Gone” paint a picture of loss and heartbreak. In the song, the singer pleads for time to stop and the world to halt for just a moment to come to terms with the fact that his baby has left him. The singer speaks of the mundanity of life continuing, with the milkman and mailman still coming around, unaware that his world has ended. He struggles to accept his new reality, waking up in the night and trying to convince his heart to move on, but it continues to cry out in pain.

The song’s theme of heartbreak is one that is familiar to many listeners. The lyrics describe a sense of being stuck in time, unable to move forward without the one they love. The use of imagery, such as with the moonlight and raindrops, creates a feeling of a world that is frozen in time. The verses also include a sense of isolation and loneliness, with the singer feeling as though the world is unaware of his grief.

Line by Line Meaning

Hold back the rushing minutes make the wind lie still
I wish time could stop and everything could be frozen so that I wouldn't have to face the reality of my baby leaving me

Don't let the moonlight shine across the lonely hill
The comforting glow of the moonlight only serves as a reminder of my loneliness without my baby

Dry all the raindrops, hold back the sun
I wish the world would stop turning altogether and all activity would halt, so that I could mourn in peace

My world has ended, my baby's gone.
My life has been irreparably damaged by the loss of my baby, and I feel like my existence has been entirely uprooted

The Milkman whistles softly as he comes up to my door
The world continues to turn, and people carry on with their daily business, despite my loss

The Mailman brings the letters by, just like he did before
Even though my baby is gone, ordinary life continues beyond my grief

They seem so busy all day long, as though there's nothing wrong
Everyone around me seems oblivious to the huge impact that my loss has had on me

I wake up sometimes in the night and realize you're gone
My subconscious mind is always reminding me of my loss and the pain that comes with it, even in my sleep

And then I toss upon my bed and wait for day to come
When I wake up, I find myself longing for the night to end so that I can get through another day without my baby

And I try to tell my lonely heart it must go on alone
Although it's hard, I know that I have to accept the loss and try and move on without my baby

But it cries, 'the world has ended, my baby's gone.'
Even though my mind knows that I have to carry on, my heart is broken and I can't help but feel like the world is ending without my baby

Dry all the raindrops, and hold back the dawn
I want to stop time and hold off the daylight so I don't have to face the reality of the world without my baby

My world has ended, my baby's gone.
The pain from the loss of my baby is catastrophic and feels like an insurmountable obstacle in my life

Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: HAZEL MARIE HOUSER

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

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