5 Willie Nelson Classics That He Wrote While on the Road (Or in the Sky)

Willie Nelson is one of the most iconic country artists of all time, thanks both to the classics he wrote and recorded himself and for the chart-topping hits other people made famous first, like Patsy Cline’s rendition of “Crazy.” He is as prolific of a writer as he is a musician, and, true to his rambling outlaw spirit, most of his best work in either regard comes from when he’s away from home.

Here are five Willie Nelson classics that he wrote while on the road (or in the sky). And yes, we’ll start with the one you’re probably thinking of.

“On the Road Again”

One of the most famous country songs about loving to travel is Willie Nelson’s 1980 track, “On the Road Again,” which he ironically wrote on an airplane. Nelson penned the hit song after the producer for his film, Honeysuckle Rose, asked the songwriter if he could write a song for the movie soundtrack.

Being on an airplane, Nelson grabbed the closest thing he could find: an airsickness bag. He scrawled down the lyrics, On the road again, I just can’t wait to get on the road again, while imagining a train beat in his head. The spur-of-the-moment song garnered Nelson a Grammy Award for Best Country Song.

“Shotgun Willie”

Never one to miss the opportunity to utilize his surroundings for stationery, Willie Nelson wrote “Shotgun Willie” on a sanitary napkin wrapper that was in his hotel bathroom. Nelson was out of town recording a new album, which would later take the name of the song he wrote in a matter of minutes while sitting on the toilet.

Nelson would later describe this track and the rest of the album as him “clearing his throat.” Kris Kristofferson, on the other hand, called it brain farts. In either case, the title track is one of the grooviest Willie Nelson classics in his catalogue.

Willie Nelson Wrote These 3 Classics In The Same Week

“Prolific” might be hyperbolic in describing some artists, but for Willie Nelson, it’s spot on. The country icon wrote three hit singles while commuting from his home in Pasadena, Texas, to Nashville, Tennessee, where he worked as a DJ. The hefty 12-hour commute gave Nelson ample time to brainstorm melodies and lyrics, from which he wrote “Crazy,” “Night Life,” and “Funny How Time Slips Away” all in a matter of days.

In a 2019 interview with Howard Stern, Nelson said getting in the car was still a go-to writing technique. “If I really need and want to write a song today, I’ll get in the car and take off driving down the highway in any direction. It doesn’t matter. And I’ll write a song.”