Willie Nelson Won't Have to Sing in Court to Avoid Jail

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As it turns out, Willie Nelson will not have to sing his song "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain" in a Texas court to resolve his marijuana possession charges. Judge Becky Dean-Walker told the Associated Press that the idea – presented by Hudspeth County Attorney Kit Bramblett – was just a joke and "it got out of hand." Nelson will be able to plead guilty and pay a small fine without appearing in court.

The 100 Greatest Singers of All Time: Willie Nelson

Nelson was busted for possession on November 26th when a Border Patrol agent smelled pot smoke coming from his tour bus. "I had been in California hanging out for a while and my bus had come out to pick me up because we had a couple of tour dates to do and I had forgotten that there was this little bag of weed on the bus that had been in the back there for weeks when I had been gone," Nelson told Rolling Stone at the time. "Naturally when they stopped us there the dogs came on and the first thing they went to was that little bag of pot back there."

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Song Stories

“Baby Got Back”

Sir Mix-a-Lot | 1992

While watching a Budweiser commercial during the Super Bowl, Sir Mix-a-Lot thought the skinny female models in the ad didn’t represent reality. So he wrote this ode to ample bottoms, featuring its famous to-the-point lyric: “I like big butts and I cannot lie.” MTV banished the video, featuring shaking booties and sexually suggestive fruit, to 9 p.m. or later. “I thought my career was over,” he told Rolling Stone. “Then I called Rick Rubin, and I told him the video was banned, and he was like, 'Great!' We sold another 2 million records.”

More Song Stories entries »

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