Willie Nelson - Me and Paul: Untold Stories of a Fabled Friendship

Me and Paul shaking hands like we did at the end, every single time we sang our song.

PHOTO BY JANIS TILLERSON

Its been rough and rocky travelin

But Im finally standin upright on the ground

After takin several readings

Im surprised to find my minds still fairly sound

ME AND PAUL,

written by Willie in 1971

Im coming up on my fiftieth year as a ghostwriter. Its a beautiful gig. Ive loved collaborating with everyone from Marvin Gaye to Val Kilmer to Cornel West to Janet Jackson to Ray Charles. Each time Ive relished the role of being the invisible author.

On this occasion, Ive chosen to step forward before turning the story over to Willie. Im doing so to explain that, unlike Its a Long Story: My Life, a previous book I wrote with Willie, Me and Paul is not a straight autobiography.

This is something different, a collection of talessome short, some talltold by Willie Nelson and his best friend, Paul English. Being in Willies world for decades, Ive spent long hours with both men. In eliciting the essence of their characters, Ive taken the poetic license to adorn their stories. As extravagant storytellers themselves, by the way, Paul and Willie freely took that same license.

Novelist Philip Roth argued that one of literatures great lies is that autobiography is built on fact. To paraphrase a quote often attributed to him: memories lie, while fiction should tell the truth. That mixtureof memory and imagination, of fiction and factis the key to enduring stories. Leslie Fiedler, a critic of American literature and a personal mentor, once told me, Fabulous narratives are all built on the mythic expansion of reality.

I view Willie and Paul as larger-than-life characters who generously and enthusiastically provided me with the stories that constitute this memoir.

Have I embellished those stories?

Yes.

Have I, for the sake of drama, expanded the reality on which those stories were based?

Yes.

Have I tried to give this book a mythic reality of its own? Yes.

Am I humbled to have been entrusted to work whatever magic great storytelling requires?

Yes.

Have I tried to tap into the extravagant imaginations of Willie Nelson and Paul English?

Yes.

Do I hope that you, our beloved reader, will go along for the ride?

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Your ghost,

DAVID RITZ

SITTING ON A BEAT-UP LEATHER couch in the study of my ranch outside Austin, listening to my rescue horses whining and feeling the relief of an evening breeze, I find myself lost in thought. In 2020, my closest friend left me. Into the infinite abyss. The mission of this book is to bring him back.

Dont get me wrong. I dont confuse myself with God. I cant resurrect the dead any more than I can turn water to wine. Im in pretty good shape for someone pushing ninety. Im at the age when Ive long stopped fussing around and started focusing on stuff that matters. Remembering Paul matters. If anyone, Paul must be immortalized. An unlikely drummer. An unlikely angel. If anyone is qualified to tell his story, its me.

Storytelling is beautiful because it brings people joy. Re-creates life. Turns old reality to new reality. Storytelling reimagines a world from way back when and carries that world into the present day. The people in stories, long dead, get to breathe and speak and laugh and cry all over again. I get to be with those people. I get to hear all that laughing and crying. I get to relive and share those adventures with you.

Why were Paul and I so devoted to each other? Good question. Thats another reason I wrote this bookto show the mystical connection between me and Paul. How many people have I met in my life? Hundreds of thousands. Maybe even a million. Preachers, presidents, the rich, the poor, and everyone in between. Yet of those countless folks, this one guy understood me like no one else. He understood me on the deepest level imaginable. Likewise, I understood him. How is it we could communicate without even talking? One look was all we needed. In my case, my only sibling is my sister, Bobbie. Paul became the brother I never had. In Pauls case, he had siblingswonderfully talented peopleand yet our bond felt deeper than blood. It was unbreakable. It defied understanding. It was like I knew him before we ever met. And now that hes gone, hes still here. He still knows me. He still lives in my heart and in the hearts of everyone whose lives he touched.

Another thing about Paul: I owe him big time. The man saved my life more times than I can remember. He did so out of brotherhood. He became my drummer and made a decent living, but hell, if he had stuck to the life hed been living before he bumped into me, hed have been a billionaire. Some of the characters Paul knew in his youth, criminal masterminds like Benny Binion, are legendary. Matter of fact, Paul arranged for us to play at Binions eighty-third birthday party. Binion, who wasnt nearly as crafty as Paul, wound up owning half of Las Vegas and earned status as an iconic gangster.

The purpose of this book is to ensure Pauls iconic status. Im out to honor himnot because he was perfect but because he was loved. Its been said that a good friend knows all your best stories, but a best friend has lived them with you. Well, that was us.