Willie Nelson is a Texas music legend. Fans all over the world know his songs by heart, but how many people know where he got the nickname Shotgun Willie? The Texas troubadour is thought of as a gentle, soft-spoken man of peace. All of which he is, of course. Heck, he’s basically a Texas Buddha. But this wild story also proves that when the occasion demands it, Willie Nelson doesn’t lose his head in a gunfight.
It all started when Willie learned that his daughter Lana was suffering abuse at the hands of her husband Steve. “I ran for my truck and drove to the place where Steve and Lana lived and slapped Steve around,” Willie said. After telling his son-in-law never to lay a hand on Lana again, Willie drove back home. At the time, Willie and his family were living in Ridgetop, Tennessee. Minutes after arriving home, Willie saw Steve come driving up in his car and begin firing at the house with a .22 rifle. Willie was standing in the barn doorway, and a bullet slammed into the wood only two feet from his head. So what did Willie do? Why, he grabbed his M-1 rifle and fired right back, of course. Steve made only a single pass in front of the house, then sped away.
Photo: Facebook/Willie Nelson
At this point, you’re probably thinking, Wait, a minute—an M-1 isn’t a shotgun, so how did that gunfight earn Willie his nickname? Well, that was only the first gunfight. There was a bigger shooting match still to come.
Willie checked in on Lana and learned that her husband had left, taking their young child Nelson Ray with him. Willie came back home and settled in to wait—he knew Steve would be back to pay him another visit. “Thinking Steve would come to Ridgetop to pick me off about dusk,” Willie said, “I hid in the truck so he couldn’t tell if I was home… I had my M-1 and a shotgun.” When Steve drove by, Shotgun Willie came charging out of the garage. Steve took one look and decided to retreat. “That’s when I shot his car and shot out his tire,” Willie said.
Photo: Facebook/Willie Nelson
After Steve called the police, Willie decided that instead of attempting to explain the messy situation, he’d tell them Steve “must have run over the bullet.” Willie would go on to write the song “Shotgun Willie,” the title track of his 1973 album, while sitting on the toilet in a hotel room. The album marked a major change in Willie’s style, introducing the world to the version of Willie Nelson we all know and love today, and he would later refer to it as “clearing my throat.” And that’s the tale of how Willie Nelson earned the nickname Shotgun Willie.
