Nelson, Willie

Born in Abbott, Texas, on April 29, 1933, American country music singer and songwriter Willie Nelson, along with his sister Bobbie, was abandoned shortly after his birth, first by his mother and shortly after that by his father when he remarried. His grandparents raised them, teaching them both a love of music. Willie wrote his first song before he was in third grade, and he and Bobbie sang gospel at their church. He joined he Air Force right after he left school and married his first wife, Martha Matthews. That marriage was a violent one, and Willie assaulted her numerous times. Eventually, she says she had enough and sewed a sheet around him as he slept and beat him with a broomstick. They divorced after ten years. He was married three more times and has seven children. His son Billy committed suicide in 1991. He studied agriculture at Baylor but left after two years to perform him music. He is commonly considered an outlaw country music star, as are Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, David Allan Coe, Merle Haggard, Hank Williams Jr., and Kris Kristofferson. In 1990, the Internal Revenue Service seized his assets after determining that he owed more than $32 million. Eventually, most of his assets were bought at auction by friends, some of whom donated them back to him and others who rented them to him for next to nothing. He eventually sued Price Waterhouse for getting him into the troubles in the first place by investing in illegal tax shelters and won and undisclosed amount.

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