Willie Nelson's daughter Lana Nelson recalls making of hit song

Willie Nelson’s daughter, Lana Nelson can remember, Red Headed Stranger was one of her favorite songs.

And then, of course, some twenty years later, it became a song the whole world wanted to hear Willie Nelson to sing, when he grew it into a concept album that changed American music and made him a star.

“I guess I was probably about three when I first heard the song, and dad was a disc jockey in Portland, Oregon, and actually the radio station was KVAN, so it was across the river, in Vancouver,” his daughter recalled at her recent appearance in the Texas Monthly podcast.

Lana continued, “And then eventually it did make a wonderful album. He did the album before the movie, and the album was basically the premise of the movie and the story in the movie.”

After the host asked who was the first person to listen to the now-hit track, she revealed it was none other than Nelson’s daughter herself.

“He came in and played the demo basically, and the demo became the record, because I don’t think they put anything else on it,” she recalled.

Willie Nelson’s song Red Headed Stranger is the title track of his 1975 album. His 18th studio album ranked number on the 40 Greatest Albums in Country Music list.