Shotgun Willie

Willie wrote this song after one of his sessions. Pacing in his hotel room, he went to the bathroom, where he sat on the toilet and took the empty envelope from a sanitary napkin from the sink, and penned the song on that. The title of the song refers to the nickname Nelson received after his daughter, Susie, warned him of the domestic abuse suffered by her sister Lana. Nelson drove to Lana's house, where he fought with her husband Steve Warren, and threatened to kill him if he repeated the assault. Soon after Nelson returned home, Warren arrived in his truck with his brothers. The men shot at the house with .22 caliber rifles. In response, Nelson and Paul English shot at the aggressors that retreated. When they returned later, Nelson took English's M1 Garand and shot the truck, causing them to surrender. He completed the rest of the song with a reference to John T. Floore, owner of the honky-tonk Floore's Country Store. After hearing the completed song, Wexler decided that the album was to be named after it.

Shotgun Willie sits around in his underwear
Biting on a bullet and pulling out all of his hair
Shotgun Willie's got all of his family there
Well, you can't make a record if you ain't got nothing to say
You can't make a record if you ain't got nothing to say
You can't play music if you don't know nothing to play
Shotgun Willie sits around in his underwear
Biting on a bullet and pulling out all of his hair
Shotgun Willie's got all of his family there
Now, John T. Floores was a-working for the Ku Klux Klan
At six foot five, John T. was a hell of a man
Made a lot of money selling sheets on the family plan
Shotgun Willie sits around in his underwear
Biting on a bullet and pulling out all of his hair
Shotgun Willie's got all of his family there