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From Air-Sickness Bag to a Country Music Classic
My continuing series of “songs that matter”
The 1980 drama Honeysuckle Rose, starring Willie Nelson, Dyane Cannon, and Amy Irving, didn’t win any awards. Still, it is an excellent snapshot of a traveling musician navigating the pitfalls of life on the road.
Nelson plays Buck Bonham, the aging country singer on the brink of reaching the next level, juggling his professional and personal life. At the same time, trying to avoid the temptation of an extramarital affair. The road leads to the singer’s undoing as his family and friends must decide whether to forgive or forget him.
The music is the film’s real star, featuring many members of Nelson’s band as well as legendary players like Johnny Gimble, Augie Meyers, and Kenneth Threadgill. Nelson provided much of the soundtrack.
Let’s take a closer look at “On the Road Again” by Willie Nelson.
Nelson wrote the lyrics to “On the Road Again” on an air sickness bag. Shortly after agreeing to be in the film, the executive producer and director asked the singer to compose a song for the movie’s soundtrack.
Nelson recalled in a 2015 Q&A for Uncut magazine: “I was on an airplane with Sydney Pollack and Jerry Schatzberg, who was the director of the movie Honeysuckle…
