It’s a Long Story by Willie Nelson | Summary & Analysis: My Life

By IRB Media

Inside this Instaread Summary & Analysis of It’s a Long Story

• Summary of book

• Introduction to the Important People in the book

• Analysis of the Themes and Author’s Style

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Jun 8, 2015
• ISBN: 9781943427208

IRB Media

With IRB books, you can get the key takeaways and analysis of a book in 15 minutes. We read every chapter, identify the key takeaways and analyze them for your convenience.

Book preview

SUMMARY

It’s a Long Story: My Life is country singer Willie Nelson’s memoir. The book chronicles his life as a musician, songwriter, and social activist and delves into his turbulent personal life and internal emotional struggles.

On April 29, 1933 in Abbott, Texas, Willie Nelson was born to Ira and Myrle Nelson, a fiddler and singer respectively, two years after his sister, Bobbie. Willie’s parents divorced when Willie was six months old. They left he and Bobbie, or as Willie refers to her, Sister Bobbie, in the care of their grandparents, called Mama and Daddy Nelson. They raised Willie and his sister in a loving and supportive home surrounded by faith and music. This immersion into music at a young age inspired Willie and Bobbie to become musicians.

In 1939, Daddy Nelson passed away. This event caused Willie, at six, to experience his first bout of depression, what he referred to as the blues, a state of mind that would sometimes become disabling in his adult life.

Willie sang in his church choir, like his grandparents and sister before him, but he soon branched out to make money playing music in clubs. Mama Nelson did not approve until she saw the amount of money Willie could make from a single performance. The family needed the financial help. The preacher at Willie’s church did not approve of him playing in the clubs and asked him to no longer teach Sunday school. Willie chose to leave the church.

Willie developed a love of storytelling as a boy, writing poems and songs at a