There are a lot of wild stories about Willie Nelson. But this one’s sweet, literally. A woman we’ll call Sandy grew up around Willie Nelson–her mother and father were musicians who toured with Nelson and Sandy sometimes got to go along. It was like one big party for a little kid (for the adults too, no doubt) but even as an adult Sandy remembered the one rotten moment when it changed. Everybody was usually so nice, but one afternoon 8-year-old Sandy went to grab a treat from a backstage table and a big bearded man grabbed her arm–hard. “Little lady, you leave those alone. Those are Willie’s brownies,” he said. The mean man with the beard thrust her aside.
Sandy ran from the table, hid in a corner and cried. She never felt comfortable again at a show. All during her subsequent childhood, she believed that Willie Nelson was the most selfish person she’d ever heard of. That tray of brownies was full to bursting, plenty for everyone, and Willie Nelson wouldn’t share a one. It was only much later, one night long after Sandy was an adult that it dawned on her, as she told the story, that the bearded man had done her a favor. “Willie’s brownies,” of course, were not the type to be consumed by 8-year-old girls.
