Willie Nelson: Highs and Lows

Willie Nelson wrote some of country music’s most iconic songs, including “Funny How Time Slips Away”, “Crazy” and “On the Road Again”, but the music establishment failed to embrace his wildly unorthodox approach to performing. Even after penning some of Nashville’s best-known hits, his record label’s cookie-cutter approach to creating music made Nelson contemplate selling vacuum cleaners. Distraught and on the verge of personal and financial collapse, Nelson heads back to Texas. There, he brazenly threw out the entire country music playbook and invented his own musical rules. The consummate outlaw in country music, Nelson became a literal outlaw when he was arrested for a $17 million tax debt. Through all of the epic highs and career-threatening lows he remains a pop culture figure and legend of country music. Willie Nelson: Highs and Lows features personal stories from Country Music Hall of Fame artist Ronnie Dunn, Shooter Jennings, Jerry Lee Lewis, Kinky Friedman, radio host Blair Garner along with Austin City Limits Executive Producer, Terry Lickona and Joe Nick Patoski, author of “Willie Nelson: An Epic Life.”

Produced for Reelz.