Me and Sister Bobbie
True Tales of the Family Band
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- £2.99
Publisher Description
The untold story of Willie Nelson and his sister, Bobbie, who, over the course of their lives together, supported each other through personal tragedies and triumphs and forged an unbreakable bond through their shared love of music
“Tender and intimate.”—The New Yorker
“Poignant, beautiful, heartfelt.”—New York Journal of Books
ONE OF THE BEST MUSIC BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Rolling Stone, Kirkus Reviews
Abandoned by their parents as toddlers, Willie and Bobbie Nelson found their love of music almost immediately through their grandparents, who raised them in a small Texas town. Their close relationship was the longest-lasting bond in both their lives.
In alternating chapters, this heartfelt dual memoir weaves together both their stories as they experienced them side by side and apart. 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. This is Bobbie’s only memoir, and in it she candidly shares her life story in full. Her deeply affecting chapters delve into her personal relationships and life as a mother and as a musician with technical skills that even Willie admits surpass his own. In his poignant stories, Willie shares the depth of his bond with his sister, and how that bond carried him through his most troubled moments. Willie and Bobbie supported each other through unthinkable personal heartbreak, and they always shared in each other’s victories. Through dizzying highs and traumatic lows, spanning almost nine decades of life, Willie and Bobbie always had each other’s back.
Their story is an inspiring, lyrical statement of how family always finds the way.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Country music legend Willie Nelson and his sister Bobbie invite fans into their lives in this humorous, nostalgic dual memoir. While Willie has told much of his story before (It's a Long Story: My Life), this is the first time Bobbie has shared her experiences of growing up with Willie. Telling their story in alternating chronological anecdotes, they begin with their childhood in 1930s Abbott, Tex., where they were raised by their grandparents after their parents left them. Willie writes that Mama and Daddy Nelson gave Bobbie and him two gifts that saved their lives: love and music. The siblings performed in their Methodist church (Bobbie played the Hammond organ, with Willie on guitar) as well as at tent meetings. The two worked on farms alongside Black and Latino workers; when they invited their fellow field workers to a church performance, they weren't welcomed (Bobbie says that "the incident did get me to thinking about challenging conventional church dogma"). Bobbie recalls Willie's trouble with the IRS for not paying taxes: "Willie was blindsided by the whole thing. He was told he had to declare bankruptcy. But Brother wouldn't do that because he wasn't about to burn anyone he owed money to." Nelson's many fans will enjoy these cheerful and loving stories.
