Willie Nelson is a simple man, really.
He always has been, and he always will be. Ever since he got his big break in the country music business in the early 1970s, he’s carried himself as one of the most laid-back, easy-going artists on the entire planet – despite being one of the most influential figures in the history of country music.
And sure, he’s gotten himself in trouble from time to time. Like when he burned down a billboard so people didn’t know where he lived, or when he got arrested for marijuana possession in 2010 and was offered to get out of it scot-free if he sang “Blues Eyes Crying In The Rain” to the courtroom.
But for the most part, the Red-Headed Stranger has gotten through life not needing or wanting a whole lot. That might be in part because he grew up in during The Great Depression on a cotton farm in Texas, and he and his family didn’t have much of their own.
Believe it or not, the Willie Nelson we all know and love has been considered “dirt poor” many times in his life. And as he said in a 1992 interview with Monica Kaufman, not having a lot of money or possessions has never bothered him. When he was asked if he was scared of being poor again, Nelson said that he didn’t think having money – either too much or too little – made that big of a difference:
“No, I’ve been dirt poor and I wasn’t that unhappy. Of course, back then, being dirt poor is different than being dirt poor today. We had a garden in the back of the house where we grew our own food and we raised our own meat.”
And just to clarify, when he says “today,” he’s saying the days of 1992. So it probably wouldn’t hurt to get an update from Willie about what dirt poor is in the modern day. If I had to guess, Nelson would still stick with his “money can’t buy happiness” perspective.
You can watch the full Willie Nelson interview from 1992 below:
