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.
Pretend I Never Happened
Willie Nelson Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Erase me from your mind
You will not want to remember
Any love as cold as mine
I'll be leaving in the morning
For a place that I hope I find
All the places must be better
But I don't suppose you'll be unhappy
You'll find ways to spend your time
And if you ever think about me
And if I ever cross your mind
Just pretend I never happened
Erase me from your mind
You will not want to remember
Any love as cold as mine
But I don't suppose you'll be unhappy
You'll find ways to spend your time
And if you ever think about me
And if I ever cross your mind
Just pretend I never happened
Erase me from your mind
You will not want to remember
Any love as cold as mine
Any love as cold as mine
The lyrics of Willie Nelson's "Pretend I Never Happened" are a heartbreaking plea from a lover who is leaving and asking to be forgotten. The singer acknowledges that they have been a disappointing partner, and suggests that the other person will be better off not remembering the bitter and cold love they shared.
The first verse is an emotional declaration of defeat. The singer recognizes their own flaws and does not want to be remembered for the pain they have caused. The second verse suggests that the singer is running away, not just from the relationship but from their past. They hope to find a better place where they can start over and leave the memories of their past behind.
In the chorus, the singer understands that their leaving will not cause much of an impact on the other person's life. They sense that the other person will find ways to fill their time and will not miss them much. Thus, the singer asks the other person to forget them entirely and erase them from their memory.
The last verse is a reiteration of the request from the chorus, that the other person should pretend that the singer never existed. The singer acknowledges that their love was cold, and it is for the best that their memory is forgotten.
Overall, Nelson's song presents a poignant portrait of the end of a relationship, in which one person acknowledges their own flaws, recognizing that their love was not enough to sustain the relationship, and offers to disappear from the other person's life in the hopes that they can start anew.
Line by Line Meaning
Pretend I never happened
Please act like I never existed in your life.
Erase me from your mind
Remove all memories of me from your thoughts.
You will not want to remember
You won't have any desire to keep thoughts of our relationship with you.
Any love as cold as mine
No one should have to deal with a love as frigid as mine was.
I'll be leaving in the morning
I'm going to depart soon.
For a place that I hope I find
I'm uncertain of where I'm going, but I desire a better location.
All the places must be better
I am certain that the places I go to will be better than where I was.
Than the ones I leave behind
The locations I depart from will all be worse off than where I'm heading.
But I don't suppose you'll be unhappy
I don't think you'll be sad when I leave.
You'll find ways to spend your time
You'll be able to locate ways to fill the time I used to occupy.
And if you ever think about me
In the event that you remember me.
And if I ever cross your mind
If I ever come to mind.
Just pretend I never happened
Simply act like I never existed.
You will not want to remember
You won't want to keep thoughts of our relationship with you.
Any love as cold as mine
No one should have to deal with a love as frigid as mine was.
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: WILLIE NELSON
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind