Words by Randy Fox Image by Getty
Willie Nelson was an unlikely rebel. After arriving in Nashville in 1960, he built a reputation as a gifted and prolific songwriter, mixing honkytonk, Western swing and pop sophistication. RCA made attempts to promote him as a hillbilly Sinatra, but Nelson’s musical idiosyncrasies ran deep. He’d record an LP full of classic honky-tonk songs and then write a complex, philosophical concept album on the meaning of life. While Nelson was in Nashville, he began hanging out with fellow RCA misfits Waylon Jennings and Tompall Glaser. Glaser had built a studio on 19th Avenue South, a few blocks from the heart of Music Row, that he dubbed ‘Hillbilly Central’. The studio progressively became a clubhouse, of sorts, for songwriters and musicians who saw themselves as slightly outside of the Nashville mainstream.
In May 1975, Nelson released the concept album, Red Headed Stranger, recorded at a small studio in Garland, Texas. The album seemed to break all the rules about country records while remaining steeped in country and western iconography. Although Columbia hesitated about releasing the album, it decided to court the rock press with advance listening parties, which paid off with universal praise. While the success of Red Headed Stranger took many by surprise in the Nashville music business, top record man Jerry Bradley wasted no time in seeking ways for RCA to cash in on Nelson’s breakthrough success.