Book Title:  Willie Nelson:  An Epic Life
Author: Joe Nick Patoski
Publishing Company: Little, Brown and Company
Year:  2008
# of Pages: 567
ISBN-13:  978-0-316-01778-7 
ISBN-10:  0-316-01778-7
$27.99 U.S.   $30.99 Canada 

4 Stars

Reviewed By:  Deborah Ground Buckner (Kansas City Correspondent - USA) 

Willie Nelson has proved to be enduring, in both senses of the word.  He has endured it all: A childhood raised in poverty by grandparents who gave him the gift of music; years of playing Texas honky tonks where the band was sheltered with chicken wire from attacks of flying beer bottles, years of trying to play the role of a Nashville star before breaking out and finding his true performing self, and now, years of saying a last good-bye to many of the colleagues he has called friends.  But he is also enduring in the sense that his songs have become important markers in the history of American music and will continue to live on even when he can no longer play his music-a day that, thankfully, has not arrived.

Willie Nelson: An Epic Life by Joe Nick Patoski will take a reader through the complete journey of Willie's life, conjuring up the Texas heat, the smells of stale beer and cigarette smoke, the exhilaration of success, the disappointments along the way and the resolve to just keep going.  While a thorough study of the artist, it is also a frank examination of his times and provides an informative history of the development of country music, from the Nashville sound to the Texas "outlaws" and references to Buck Owens and the Bakersfield sounds as well. 

The devotion to his own music, his way, was one of the compelling reasons for leaving Nashville behind and returning to his Texas roots.  "I began to change my life so that I could emphasize the positive things," he told a Los Angeles Times reporter.  "There were positive things in Nashville, but there were also all the negative ones.  I figured there'd be less negative influences in Texas.  I'd be among friends and in familiar territory.  The rest was up to me."

Part of what has made Willie Nelson's music so fascinating through the years is the inability to pigeonhole it.  To illustrate this point, Patoski describes the night of August 12, 1971, when Willie played for a crowd of 450 on the stage of the Armadillo World Headquarters.  "Pantsuits mixed with bell-bottoms.  Beehive hairdos contrasted with long and stringy hairdon'ts.  . . .  [Willie] was thirty-nine years old.  He'd been a scrapper for ten years, a Nashville recording star for ten years after that, and he still felt like he was getting his first wind.  He was clean-shaven and his hair barely covered his ears.  But as he scanned the audience, making eye contact, the expression on his face telegraphed to the crowd that he might look like an old redneck shit-kicker, but deep inside he was one of them." 

It wasn't long after that night that Willie's appearance began to change, growing the long hair he is now known for, sporting an earring.  His father had to ask, "What's happened to you?  The last time I saw you, your hair was short and you had on a suit?"  Willie answered, "That's right, Pop, and the last time you saw me, I was poor and hungry, and now I'm fat and happy."

The change in appearance wasn't the only way Willie connected with the people.  His songs have crossed all lines, bringing together country, rock, blues and jazz.  His "Crazy," made a top hit by Patsy Cline, remains one of the most popular songs of all time. 

When playing in Law Vegas and breaking Frank Sinatra's attendance record, the hotel owners expressed amazement that Willie stayed to sign autographs until the last fan left.  He explained, "I've worked 35 years to have people ask me for autographs and I'm not about to turn them down now."            

Patoski follows the numerous Willie Nelson Fourth of July picnics where he brought stellar casts together for a huge, affordable event (that often fell into nights of drugs and violence), and his work with Farm Aid, and his status as a movie star.

Along the way, Patoski frankly writes of Willie's four marriages, his redneck/hillbilly lifestyle that often had his mother and her new husband, his father and his new wife and some number of ex-wives and Willie's children all together on the premises.  Perhaps it is to his credit that everyone seemed to get along; he has been quoted as saying "There's no such thing as an ex-wife." 

While Willie and a certain controlled substance are linked forever in popular folklore (note Toby Keith's song, 'I'll Never Smoke Weed with Willie No More,"), he drew the line when band members took up cocaine.  "I didn't want to be around people who were doing it, even my band.  I didn't want in on that vibe.  I could see all the negativity in the speed."

As thorough as the research is, I was disappointed not to see mention of the frequent references to Willie Nelson which led to a guest appearance on the television series Monk, nor is there any discussion of the rather controversial comments Willie made following the September 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center.  The latter omission seems glaring when the rest of the book is so detailed. 

However, this is a very satisfying read and an educational one as well.  The story of Willie Nelson's career has to tell the stories of other careers as well, and there are many references to Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Merle Haggard, and Roger Miller, to name just a few.  One of the most telling stories of life in the music business came from Waylon Jennings:  While Jennings and Tommy Allsup were playing backup for Buddy Holly, they gave up their seats with Buddy on a private plane to the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens.  That was the fateful "day the music died," and when Jennings and Allsup reached the next tour gig on the bus and found the others hadn't arrived, they knew something had happened.  They received word of the plane crash, but "[t]he promoter talked us into doing the gig anyway.  We just wanted to go home.  But we did the show.  After the gig, the promoter said he wouldn't pay us, and the reason he gave for not paying us was that Buddy wasn't there. . . .  That's what you need to know about the music business."