The Hilarious Story Behind Willie Nelson’s ‘On The Road Again’

Totally Unexpected

Willie Nelson’s “On The Road Again” was part of the soundtrack of the 1980 film “Honeysuckle Rose”. The movie wasn’t a success but the song topped the US Adult Contemporary chart and peaked at #20 on the US Billboard Hot 100. Nelson even bagged a Grammy Award for Best Country Song.

Nelson starred in the movie and during a flight, he was approached by executive producer Sydney Pollack to write a track about life on the road. He immediately got the idea for it and wrote the song as he held a barf bag.

“They were looking for songs for the movie and they asked me if I had any idea,” Nelson told Uncut magazine. “I said, ‘What do you want the song to say?’ and Sydney said, ‘Can it be something about being on the road?’ It just started to click. I said ‘You mean like, On the road again, I can’t wait to get on the road again?; They said, ‘That’s great. What’s the melody?’ I said, ‘I don’t know yet.'”

Though he quickly wrote the lyrics, the melody was another matter. It took him a while to lay it down.

“I saw no reason to put a melody to something I wasn’t ready to record,” he wrote in his 1988 autobiography, Willie. “I knew I wouldn’t have any problem pulling the melody out of the air.”