The Last Leaf - by Willie Nelson (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Willie Nelson is 93, and he has not been slowing down. In the past twelve years, he has recorded twenty-one new studio albums, written more than fifty new songs and seven books, and headlined over eight hundred live shows. What has been going on? He's not going to get mawkish about it, but he does have some thoughts. With his trademark down-home wit, he opens up wide and brings us in touch with the same inexhaustible, vital stream of energy he has learned how to stay tapped into.

"Looking to the future as I look to the past," Nelson writes, "I stay in the present." That captures the spirt of The Last Leaf Forging ahead, it also flashes back to life-altering moments, including facing almost-certain death during COVID and what he gained from that.

Woven into recollections of his own life as an artist is the beautiful and often hilarious account of how the fiery spirit of Annie, his wife and best friend for four decades, has matched his own. Much has been written about the early spark of romance, the thrill of first falling in love. In The Last Leaf we get, beautifully, the other end of the story--the abiding of that love, even its deepening, into the pure harmony of sustained partnership.

In every great book, at least ideally, the last chapter is the best chapter. The Last Leaf shows how true that can be.

Review Quotes

"This book is for Willie Nelson fans, sure, but it's also for lovers and friends, artists and ranchers, parents and poker players. It's for anybody who wants to see a better Texas, better country, better world. And it's a love letter to Annie, who, it seems, we all owe a big thank you." --Jessi Cape, Austin Chronicle

"Leave it to the tireless singer-songwriter and ganja connoisseur to give his new book such a punny title . . . Nelson claims he's slowing down in his old age, but given his prolific touring and recording, plenty of young musicians want what he's having. His focus on living in the present, his decades-long marriage to wife Annie, and memories of true friends all show Nelson's wisdom." --Bethanne Patrick, Los Angeles Times

"The red-headed stranger delivers well-considered remarks on music, life, death, creativity, ganja, and much else. . . . A treat for Willie Nelson fans, which is just about everyone in the known universe." --Kirkus

"[As] full of personality as a good outlaw country tune, this offers plenty of pleasures for Nelson's fans." --Publishers Weekly

"How can you make sense of [Willie Nelson]? How would you define the indefinable or the unfathomable? What is there to say? Ancient Viking Soul? Master Builder of the Impossible? Patron poet of people who never fit in and don't much care to? Moonshine Philosopher? Tumbleweed singer with a PhD? Red Bandana troubadour, braids like twin ropes lassoing eternity? What do you say about a guy who plays an old, battered guitar that he treats like it's the last loyal dog in the universe? Cowboy apparition, writes songs with holes that you can crawl through to escape from something. Voice like a warm porchlight left on for wanderers who kissed goodbye too soon or stayed too long. I guess you can say all that. But it really doesn't tell you a lot or explain anything about Willie. Personally speaking I've always known him to be kind, generous, tolerant and understanding of human feebleness, a benefactor, a father and a friend. He's like the invisible air. He's high and low. He's in harmony with nature. And that's what makes him Willie." --Bob Dylan

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