Willie Nelson Celebrates His 80th Birthday and a New Album in April

It's hard to believe but next month Willie Nelson will turn 80. Yes, that's right he will be 80 years old on April 29th and he's still going strong. He still tours and will have a new album released just ahead of this birthday.On April 16th Willie's new album, "Let's Face the Music & Dance" will be released. This is a follow up to his critically acclaimed album "Heroes". He continues to tour strong in support of the album release as well. In fact, if you look at his touring schedule, he has concerts almost everyday of the month; he takes maybe a week off each month.

Not only has he recorded his own album but he's always doing guest vocals on other artists songs. Most recently he recorded with Randy Rogers Band on the hit single "Trouble Knows My Name".

It's just hard for me to believe that Willie will be 80 years old. I grew up listening to him, which means I'm old too. I remember my dad listening to the Highwaymen which was made up of Willie, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, and Kris Kristofferson.  I also remember my Uncle David having all of Willie's music, well actually all of the 'outlaws' on vinyl. When my Uncle passed away I got those vinyl albums and I cherish them.

I've never had the chance to see Willie live and that is one concert I would love to go to. I'm not a fan of everything that Willie does, personally or musically, but it is who he is and he makes no apologies for it. He's done a lot of good for a lot of people, so I think sometimes that outweighs the bad. I think back to the early '80s, when he put together the Farm Aid events that helped farmers make ends meet when a huge drought had all but put them out of business. By the way, Farm Aid is still going strong and happens to be the longest running benefit concert series in America.

Willie will always be one of my favorites. He's had his fair share of troubles but he's humble and down to earth, there's nothing fake about him. He owns his mistakes and moves on. I'm looking forward to hearing his new music and hoping one day soon I can finally see him in concert.

Happy Birthday Willie!