5 Things We Learned from Willie Nelson’s New Book ‘Energy Follows Thought’

[MarkRhodes]

The link originally posted here did not work. Sorry about that. It was to a story from American Songwriter magazine about Willie's new book.

>>>>With his latest book, Willie Nelson offers fans an unfiltered look at the stories behind some of his most beloved songs. Released today (October 31), Energy Follows Thought: The Stories Behind My Songs offers firsthand reflections on 160 tracks from his extensive career.<<<<<

Here is another article about the same book. I hope this link works!

Willie Nelson Announces New Book 'Energy Follows Thought'

[ruger9]

Something wrong with that webpage, it just keeps reloading.

He wrote ANOTHER book? He's written quite a few I believe. I read his first autobiography, then I read "Roll Me Up And Smoke Me When I Die", and it was very similar.... Then he had a more recent one "Tao of Willie", which put me to sleep.

I love the guy, he's one of my favorites. But as an author... eh... I'll have to look and see if one of his books was his "definitive" autobiography; I'd read that. This new one does sound interesting, since I know most of the songs he's talking about already, could be interesting...

[MarkRhodes]

Something wrong with that webpage, it just keeps reloading.

He wrote ANOTHER book? He's written quite a few I believe. I read his first autobiography, then I read "Roll Me Up And Smoke Me When I Die", and it was very similar.... Then he had a more recent one "Tao of Willie", which put me to sleep.

I love the guy, he's one of my favorites. But as an author... eh... I'll have to look and see if one of his books was his "definitive" autobiography; I'd read that. This new one does sound interesting, since I know most of the songs he's talking about already, could be interesting...

I think his best book is "It's A Long Story," his autobiography. (I think several "Willie" books were someone else's idea and are a hodgepodge of quotes and stories.)

Like you, this one interests me because it's about his songs and boy, has Willie written a lot of good ones.
What intrigued me most about the article from American Songwriter (---sorry the link doesn't work; I'd fix that if I knew how) is that Willie said he wrote the lyrics first. And all of them. He doesn't think about melody or backing until he has the whole lyric done. I have never once in my life (and I'm 65) worked that way. It's a mystery to me how anyone could. Works like gangbusters for Willie, though.

This is the song with the same title as the book.