Willie Nelson Turns 90; Old Pal Don Mischer Pays Tribute To Iconic Singer-Songwriter — Guest Column
29.04.2023 - 20:27
/ deadline.com
Editor’s Note: Decorated live event TV director-producer Don Mischer, a fifteen-time Emmy Award winner, has worked frequently with country legend Willie Nelson, who turns 90 today. The following is a chapter from Mischer’s forthcoming book,10 Seconds To Air: A Life in the Director’s Chair, written by him and Sara Lukinson.
On the Road With Willie Nelson: The Bus, The Rattlesnakes, Roadside Joints and Always The Music
Maybe it’s because we both came out of the same Texas soil, or maybe it’s because when I was in junior high school, I played a double-neck fender steel guitar with country bands and Willie was my idol and inspiration. But Willie Nelson has always had a special place in my heart.
Then, after my career got going and we started working together, I realized something else about him: he is always the same Willie, whether we are traveling around the back roads of Texas or at Carnegie Hall, an Olympic Stadium, a national park, or the White House. Unpretentious, courteous, honest, and never deceptive, unless he is playing cards or dominos in a truck stop along I-35.
Willie is easy going, never pushes his weight around, or puffs up his importance. Yet he is a prolific songwriter, and one of the most naturally gifted artists I’ve ever known. He once said to me, “Good or bad, I just have to keep writing songs.” He’s written 337 of them and 25 were number one hits. He could sing on any stage and with anyone. He never made a fuss, as long as he had his bus, the Honeysuckle Rose, his weed, and his music.
Willie and I did dozens of shows together, but I had the chance to really get to know him when we did a special called Willie Nelson: Texas Style for CBS in the mid-1980s. Willie and I decided to build the show