The legendary musician Willie Nelson looks back on the incredible highs like platinum and gold-selling albums, international tours, and strong family bonds and difficult lows like affairs, divorce, personal loss, and struggles with money and health he has faced over his 90 years of life in the new four-part documentary series “Willie Nelson & Family,” which is currently available on Paramount+.
“It’s hard to believe it was 60 years ago I wrote a song ‘Funny How Time Slips Away.'” Nelson, a legend in the music business, remarks with a hint of humor about becoming older.
He ends the series by saying, “I really had no idea what I was talking about because I was only 27.”
What does “Willie Nelson & Family” explore?
The documentary was filmed across the nation and features insights from Willie himself as well as from his children, his wife Annie D’Angelo, past loves, his late sister Bobbie Nelson (who passed away at 91 in 2022), fellow musicians, and lifelong friends. It was produced by MTV Entertainment Studios, 101 Studios, Blackbird Presents Films, and Sight Unseen.
The performance explores the biography of the young man from Abbott, Texas, who left small-town life to become one of the most beloved performers in history. It offers poignant moments that highlight different aspects of Willie Nelson’s remarkable journey.
A fight with his first wife resulted in a fork in his side
In 1952, Willie Nelson met Martha Jewel Matthews, his first wife, while she worked at a hamburger restaurant. Willie was nineteen at the time, and Martha was sixteen.
Willie remembers Martha in the series, saying, “She was a dark-haired beauty, a full-blooded Cherokee.” Her name was Martha Jewel, and her eyes lit up my soul.”
Willie asked Martha out on a date a few days after their first meeting, and they agreed to marry without telling Martha’s parents.
Martha, who died of liver failure in 1989, remembers their spontaneous marriage in a voiceover, saying, “My mother didn’t want me to marry because I was as young as I was, so we just ran off.”
Willie Nelson and Martha Jewel Matthews’ daughter Lana remembers her mother comparing their early relationship to “Bonnie and Clyde” when they traveled across America on their own, not worrying too much about money but nevertheless overcoming its obstacles.
The dramatic highs and lows that defined Bonnie and Clyde’s relationship were there in their story as well.
They had a lot of fun together, but they also had their fights and were both heavy drinkers back then, Willie says, looking back on that period of life. He describes a particular instance, saying, “She took a fork and tossed it across the table after we got into a fight one morning. It became lodged in my side. It produced a tuning fork-like sound.”
Willie had multiple suicide attempts in his drinking days
Willie Nelson moved his family—Lana, Susie, and Billy—along with him when he moved from Fort Worth, Texas, to Nashville in the 1960s. The family was struggling financially while Willie was playing gigs for meager pay, so Matthews decided she would have enough.
Willie admits that they were fighting more than ever and that he was drinking too much during a time of intense conflict and drinking. He would consistently get wasted and have new partners every night. Bit by bit, he was ruining himself.
He recalls the difficulties of his days of binge drinking and says that he made a few attempts at suicide during those times. He once sat down in the middle of the road in the hopes that someone would run him over during an especially depressing winter. Sadly, he did not have good fortune on his side. He had to get back up and go to work trying to figure out how to make ends meet.”
