Willie Nelson Turns 90; Old Pal Don Mischer Pays Tribute To Iconic Singer-Songwriter — Guest Column
deadline.comEditor’s Note: Decorated live event TV director-producer Don Mischer, a fifteen-time Emmy Award winner, has worked frequently with country legend Willie Nelson, who turns 90 today.
The following is a chapter from Mischer’s forthcoming book,10 Seconds To Air: A Life in the Director’s Chair, written by him and Sara Lukinson. On the Road With Willie Nelson: The Bus, The Rattlesnakes, Roadside Joints and Always The Music Maybe it’s because we both came out of the same Texas soil, or maybe it’s because when I was in junior high school, I played a double-neck fender steel guitar with country bands and Willie was my idol and inspiration.
But Willie Nelson has always had a special place in my heart. Then, after my career got going and we started working together, I realized something else about him: he is always the same Willie, whether we are traveling around the back roads of Texas or at Carnegie Hall, an Olympic Stadium, a national park, or the White House.
Unpretentious, courteous, honest, and never deceptive, unless he is playing cards or dominos in a truck stop along I-35. Willie is easy going, never pushes his weight around, or puffs up his importance.
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