In an interview with Uncut, Nelson recalled when he was first asked to write a theme song for “Honeysuckle Rose.” He was traveling by plane with the film’s producer, Sydney Pollack, and the director, Jerry Schatzberg. When Pollack and Schatzberg asked the songwriter if he had any ideas, he responded with a question of his own: What was the song supposed to say?
“I think Sydney said, ‘Can it be something about being on the road?’ It just started to click in my head,” Nelson said. “I said, ‘You mean like, ‘On the road again, I can’t wait to get on the road again’? They said, ‘That’s great. What’s the melody?’ I said, ‘I don’t know yet.'”
Nelson scratched down the lyrics of the song that would later win a Grammy Award for Best Country Song, top the Billboard country albums, and earn Nelson’s highest ranking on the Billboard Hot 100 (at the time, at least — “Always On My Mind” would later rank 15 positions higher) on the closest thing he could find while riding high in the sky: a barf bag.
Post source: The List
