Willie Nelson Almost Sold His Legendary “Hello Walls” Song for $400

When Willie Nelson first arrived in Nashville he was a struggling songwriter, which the city was full of in 1959. He was sitting alone in a rented room looking at the bare walls and started  talking to them. He was inspired and wrote the song "Hello Walls" about a lonely man doing exactly what Willie himself was doing. The song was picked up by superstar Faron Young in 1961 who recorded it. But Willie was very poor at the time and needed cash so he offered Faron complete rights to the song for $400. Faron said, "Willie, you keep the song and I'll just loan you $400 and you can pay me back when the song is a hit.".  A couple of weeks later Willie got his first royalty check which totaled about $20,000. That night Faron was sitting in Tootsie's Lounge when a big arm came across his neck and somebody french kissed his ear. It was Willie with Faron's $400. Faron said it was a pretty good kiss too! This may have been the originally WET WILLIE!

Here's Willie a few years later playing his old guitar "Trigger", which he has played in hundreds of concerts since 1969.