Shotgun Willie (VMP Gunsmoke)

It's not until his 16th album, Shotgun Willie that Outlaw Willie emerges: cocoon-like, ready to break every rule of country stardom. He was fed up, and done doing things like he had been told to do them, done playing by Nashville's rules and done being forced into the Countrypolitan sound as dictated by his producers at RCA. He absconded to Austin, Texas, bro'd out with a new generation of country songwriters trying to get back to what's real and pondered his next move.

At 39, he considered retiring, saying to hell with it and heading off into the sunset. What he'd do next would change country music forever, and help launch an entire movement. It'd make him a star, and into the Willie Nelson we all now know and love. And it started with Shotgun Willie.