Bobbie Nelson, the original member of her younger brother Willie Nelson’s family band, has died. She was 91 years old.
Nelson, whose traditional but graceful piano playing was a key component of Nelson’s live performance, died Thursday morning surrounded by family, according to a statement from Nelson’s family. “Her elegance, grace, beauty and talent made this world a better place. She was the first member of Willy’s band, as his pianist and singer. Our hearts are broken and we will miss her dearly. But we are so lucky to have her in our lives,” it said. “Please keep her family in your thoughts and give them the privacy they need at this time.”
Born January 1, 1931 in Abbott, Texas, Bobbie Lee Nelson was two years older than Willie, but that didn’t stop him from calling her “Bobby’s little sister” on stage. When she was still a teenager, Bobbie married aspiring musician Bud Fletcher, who formed a band with his young wife and her brother. After Fletcher’s death in a car accident, Bobbie gave up music for a secretarial job, but the keys she learned to play as a child were always within reach: she worked in an office at the Hammond Organ Company.
She eventually returned to performing and in 1973 reunited with her brother, who had just signed to Atlantic Records. Bobbi has appeared on many of Willie’s studio albums, from 1973’s Shotgun Willie and 1975’s masterpiece Red Headed Stranger to 2021’s The Willie Nelson Family, but it’s her role on stage behind the piano that has left an indelible mark.
Willy’s inconspicuous presence at concerts – in later years only the top of her hat peeked out from behind the piano – it was impossible not to notice her playing. She added graceful accents to Willie’s “Crazy” and helped set the rhythm of “On the Road Again,” and her solo composition “Down Yonder” became the cornerstone of the free gigs that made the Family Band popular with cowboys, rednecks, college students. kids and hippies. “We just played the same music we always played,” Bobbie told Rolling Stone magazine in 2014. “It was just a different audience.”
Bobbi spent nearly 50 years with the Family Band, enjoying playing a supporting role for her brother. But in 2008 – at the age of 76 – she decided to release her solo debut. Entitled Audiobiography, the mostly instrumental album (Willie sang two songs) included ragtime standards like Willie’s “12 Street Rag” and Willie’s “Crazy” reimagined as a lounge number.
Other albums that featured Bobby prominently included 1996’s How Great Thou Art and the following year’s Hill Country Christmas, both with Willie. In 2014, the siblings released a December Day recording inspired by their free jam sessions on the bus that arrived with the siblings’ music video for the song “Laws of Nature”. Last year, she joined Willie, nephews Lucas and Micah Nelson, and nieces Paula and Amy on The Willie Nelson Family, another LP with gospel numbers.
Bobbie was a private figure in Nelson’s universe. She rarely gave interviews and preferred to let her performance speak for her on stage. But in 2020, she wrote at length about her childhood with Willie in their book Me and Sister Bobby: True Stories of a Family Group. According to Willie, “Bobbie told the best story in our entire family.”
He also credited her with his success.
“If I were the sky, Bobby’s sister would be the Earth. She grounded me,” Willy wrote. “There is no stronger and more stable relationship in my life anymore.”