Willie Nelson - Cotton Quotes

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I started learning my lessons in Abbot Texas, where I was born in 1933. My sister Bobbie and I were raised by our grandparents [...] We never had enough money, and Bobbie and I started working at an early age to help the family get by. That hard work included picking cotton. [...] Picking cotton is hard and painful work, and the most lasting lesson I learned in the fields was that I didn't want to spend my life picking cotton.

Willie Nelson
I was raised in the cotton fields around Abbott, Texas. There were African Americans and Mexican Americans and we listened to their music all the time.

Willie Nelson
In church I was told that if I so much as smoked a cigarette or tasted alcohol, I'd be damned in hell for all eternity[...]it didn't take long for me to start thinking that sounded all wrong [...]I didn't cotton to the idea that your religion should be flaunted to other people. Your religion is for you, and is best kept close to your heart.

Willie Nelson
Well, there was a guy, a blacksmith, in Abbott, and he and my granddad both had blacksmith's jobs. I hung around there a lot. And he had a family band. He just let me play because he knew I wanted to work and needed the work. So, I played a guitar in a big polka band with a lot of horns and everything. So, fortunately, no one ever heard me, because I wasn't that great. But I was nine or 10 years old and making eight to 10 dollars a night. So, it was easier than picking cotton.

Willie Nelson