In 2025, Sammy Hagar met up with Willie Nelson as part of his AXS series, Rock & Roll Road Trip. The two musicians spoke on Nelson’s tour bus about life on the road, Nelson’s past songs, and, at one point, Hagar asked a question only someone who has been in the industry for decades would be qualified enough to answer truthfully: Who is the greatest songwriter of all time?
Nelson’s career began in the 1950s, and he’s been a constant in the country music world ever since. He has seen countless icons come and go over the years, which would give him as much credibility as anyone to decide who the best of them really were. Unsurprisingly, he started his list with Merle Haggard, the country music icon behind cuts like “Okie From Muskogee”, “Hungry Eyes”, “Mama Tried”, and “The Fightin’ Side Of Me”.
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His next options were respectable, but in this writer’s humble opinion, he stopped too soon. (We’ll write off one of his omissions to his own modesty.)
Who Else Does Willie Nelson Consider the Greatest Songwriter?
Following Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson went on to list Hank Williams. A classic choice to be sure, Williams helped usher country music into the mainstream with hit singles like “Move It On Over”, “Your Cheatin’ Heart”, Hey, Good Lookin’”, and “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry”. Although he died at only 29 years old, the legacy he left behind was formidable.
“Then, you start guessing,” Nelson continued. “You got Kris Kristofferson and Billy Joe Shaver. Then you start running out of names.”
Kristofferson was a fellow member of the outlaw country movement in the 1970s, joining Nelson and other long-haired troublemakers like Waylon Jennings in their unique blend of country music, rock, and blues. Like Nelson, some of Kristofferson’s earliest hits were made famous by other people, like “Me And Bobby McGee”, posthumously made famous by Janis Joplin, and “Sunday Morning Comin’ Down”, which Johnny Cash cut.
Shaver was a major influence on the greats in the 1970s, including Cash, Nelson, Kristofferson, and even Elvis Presley. Songs like “Honky Tonk Heroes” and “Live Forever” became country music standards, earning Shaver a tremendous deal of respect from his fellow musicians, even if he wasn’t necessarily the same kind of crossover artist as those who admired him.
So, Who Did the Red-Headed Stranger Leave Out?
To Willie Nelson’s credit, Sammy Hagar was definitely putting him on the spot when he asked him to list the greatest songwriters of all time. But in this writer’s humble opinion, you could ostensibly keep prattling off plenty of names before you “run out,” as Nelson implied on his tour bus. One would think that songwriters like Dolly Parton or John Prine would be worthy of a list entry.
And, of course, there is Willie Nelson himself—although we can imagine that he wasn’t inclined to list his own name when Hagar asked him for the industry’s best and brightest. Still, his influence and effect on the country music industry are undeniable, thanks to hits like “Crazy”, “Night Life”, and “Funny How Time Slips Away”. (All of which, by the way, he wrote in the same week, which we think is enough in and of itself to dub him one of the greatest.)
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