‘The Devil’ Paul English dies at 87

PAUL English, Willie Nelson’s best friend, drummer and formidable enforcer, has died Wednesday night, Nelson’s publicist, Elaine Schock, confirmed to The Washington Post on Wednesday night.

Schock said she did not know the exact cause, but knew from close family friends that English had been battling pneumonia.

It was 1955 when English, transitioning between roles as a gang leader and a Fort Worth pimp, met Nelson on a smalltime country radio show.

One of the most storied friendships in country-music history began that afternoon by accident, really.

English had tagged along to the station with his older brother, who scored a gig playing steel guitar on Nelson’s Western Express radio program.

But Nelson’s drummer didn’t show, and so he looked to English to fill in.

He had never beat a drum in his life.

“They just told me to keep patting my foot,” English told Oxford American in 2015.

From that day forward, English never stopped tapping his foot for Nelson.

He would go on to become Nelson’s best friend, bodyguard, accountant, road manager and one of the most formidable gun-toting drummers country music.

Nicknamed ‘The Devil’ for his famous black-satin cape and matching hat, English toured with Nelson and Family right up until the end.

The two friends’ escapades, immortalized in Nelson’s “Me and Paul,” would take them from the underbelly of Fort Worth honky-tonks to some of the world’s biggest stages. — The Washington Post in