On The Road Again

Album

Honeysuckle Rose

Label

Columbia Records

Genre

Stage & Screen

Composer(s)

Willie Nelson

Entered Chart

Sep 6, 1980

Peak Date

Nov 8, 1980

Released

August 1980

Recorded

Fall 1979 Studio Enactron Truck, Hollywood, California

Catalog #

Columbia

B-Side

Jumpin' Cotton Eyed Joe (Johnny Gimble)

This was written on the spur of the moment on an airsickness bag when Nelson was on a plane with Jerry Schatzberg, the director of the movie Honeysuckle Rose and its executive producer Sydney Pollack. He recalled to Uncut magazine: "They were looking for songs for the movie and they asked me if I had any idea. I said, 'What do you want the song to say?' and Sydney said, 'Can it be something about being on the road?' It just started to click. 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.'" This was a #1 Country hit for Willie Nelson, and also one of his biggest crossovers, reaching #20 on the Hot 100, his highest placing at the time. As a writer, Nelson crossed over with the Patsy Cline hit "Crazy," which reached #9 on the Hot 100 in 1961 and even reached the UK singles chart, placing at #14. He had many other hits as a writer, but his biggest hit as an artist is a song he didn't write: "Always On My Mind," which reached #5 in 1982 and sold over a million copies. Nelson starred in the 1980 movie Honeysuckle Rose, for which this was written. The movie was not a big success. A very lame joke for you: Did you hear Willie Nelson got hit by a car? Yeah, he was playing on the road again. Nelson heard variations of this one many times; he said it was funny "for a few years." This was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1980. Willie was bested by Irene Cara's "Fame." Willie did win a Grammy for "On the Road Again" in 1980 for Best Country Song. >> This was #72 in RIAA's Songs of the Century, a list of the top 365 songs of the 20th century with historical significance in mind. This was one of three songs sung by the bird in Jerry Reed's 1982 album The Bird. The other two were "Whiskey River" and "He Stopped Loving Her Today." Nelson put off writing the melody for months until the day before he went to the studio to cut the song. "I saw no reason to put a melody to something I wasn't ready to record," he explained in his 1988 autobiography, Willie. "I knew I wouldn't have any problem pulling the melody out of the air." Willie Nelson appeared in a 2022 Super Bowl commercial for Skechers where this song plays throughout. The tagline: "Hit the road in Skechers."

On the road again
Just can't wait to get on the road again
The life I love is making music with my friends
I can't wait to get on the road again

On the road again
Going places that I've never been
Seeing things that I may never see again
I can't wait to get on the road again

On the road again
Like a band of gypsies we go down the highway
We're the best of friends
Insisting that the world keeps turning our way
And our way

Is on the road again
I just can't wait to get on the road again
The life I love is making music with my friends
I can't wait to get on the road again

On the road again
Like a band of gypsies we go down the highway
We're the best of friends
Insisting that the world keeps turning our way
And our way

Is on the road again
Just can't wait to get on the road again
The life I love is making music with my friends
I can't wait to get on the road again
And I can't wait to get on the road again