A family affair
THE country icon Willie Nelson and his sister Bobbie have announced that their joint memoir, Me And Sister Bobbie: True Tales Of The Family Band, will arrive on Sept 15. The book chronicles the close relationship between the two siblings, who found their love of music almost immediately after being abandoned by their parents as toddlers and entrusted to the care of their grandparents in Texas.
Written in collaboration with music biographer David Ritz, Me And Sister Bobbie: True Tales Of The Family Band weaves together both their stories in alternating chapters.
“The Nelsons share powerful, emotional moments from growing up, playing music in public for the first time, and facing trials in adulthood, as Willie pursued songwriting and Bobbie faced a series of challenging relationships and a musical career that took off only when attitudes about women began to change in Texas,” publisher Random House teases in the book’s description.
Bobbie Nelson joined her brother’s Family band on the piano during their recording sessions with Atlantic Records in the early 1970s, which notably produced the albums The Troublemaker, Shotgun Willie and Phases And Stages.
She later joined Willie Nelson and Family full-time and began touring with her brother, with her rendition of the instrumental Under The Double Eagle remaining a staple of Willie’s concerts to this day.
While Me And Sister Bobbie: True Tales Of The Family Band marks Bobbie’s first literary endeavour, the family book will arrive five years after Nelson and Ritz collaborated for his second memoir, It’s A Long Story: My Life.
In addition to the dual memoir, Willie and Bobbie are reportedly working on an accompanying picture book, which is set for publication at a yet-unannounced date in fall 2021.
Earlier this June, Snoop Dogg also told Beats 1’s Ebro Darden that he will soon release a new collaboration with Willie Nelson.
Details about the song are still scarce to this date, although the Long Beach rapper commented that “the reason we’re gonna make this record is because black and white matters right now. The love we have for each other.”