John Spong is a Texas Monthly senior editor who writes primarily about popular culture, and he hosts the magazine’s popular music-history podcast One by Willie. He has been nominated for three National Magazine Awards, most recently in 2021 as coeditor and lead writer on two large Willie Nelson projects: “Willie: Now, More than Ever,” a special issue that was a finalist for best single-topic issue; and “All 146 Willie Nelson Albums, Ranked,” which was nominated for best digital storytelling. He has twice won the Texas Institute of Letters’ O. Henry Award for magazine journalism—for “Holding Garmsir” (January 2009), about a month he spent with a U.S. Marine platoon fighting in Afghanistan, and for “The Good Book and the Bad Book” (September 2006), about a censorship battle at an elite private school in Austin. He is the author of A Book on the Making of Lonesome Dove, and his stories have been collected in The Best American Food Writing and The Best American Sports Writing, among others. He lives in Austin with his wife, Julie Blakeslee, and their two boys, Willie Mo and Leon.
I always knew that the work my dad did as an Episcopal priest and grief counselor was important. But I didn’t understand how important until the birth of my son.
When parents at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School, in Austin—where the Capital City’s moneyed elite have educated their kids for more than fifty years—rebelled against the teaching of ‘Brokeback Mountain,’ it was, you might say, a learning experience for everyone involved.
My best friend from high school is no longer the uncool, baseball-card-collecting goofball he once was. He’s a Navy surgeon and commander, and for two horrific weeks I got to watch him calmly and bravely save lives in wartime—not just Americans’ and not just soldiers’—in one of the most dangerous
He asked me if I was going to be white my whole life. I was, of course. But because of our friendship, I’m no longer the clueless upper-middle-class kid I once was.
Elmo Henderson’s entire life story can be summed up in a single moment: when he stepped into the ring in San Antonio one night in 1972 and knocked out Muhammad Ali. At least that’s the way he tells it. And tells it.
A veteran Hollywood screenwriter couldn’t have come up with a better narrative arc: Seeking redemption, 59-year-old reenrolls at university he was once asked to leave, tries out for football team, makes it, becomes one of oldest-ever players in NCAA history. Or at least that’s how the hero wants it to
The tragedy of the Von Erichs—the state’s first family of pro wrestling—is well known not just to fans of the sport but to the many groupies who oohed and aahed at the matinee-idol athletes over the years. Still, you haven’t really heard the story until it’s told by the sole
As a kid I was the pickiest eater you have ever seen, and family meals gave new meaning to the words “food fight.” But I gritted my teeth and overcame it.
Before his anthems had listeners raising their longnecks and singing along, Charlie took me on road trips and taught me there was more to music than country.
It was October 1992 and the Irish singer, who died earlier this week, was being excoriated in the press following her appearance on ‘Saturday Night Live.’
The Grammy-winning founder of Asleep at the Wheel on fifty years of friendship with Willie, with cameos by George Gershwin, Floyd Tillman, and Robert Duvall.
On this special Father’s Day episode, Micah Nelson describes his dad’s “face-melting” guitar playing, plus his favorite sixties-era Willie song that most fans have forgotten.
The legendary singer-songwriter and longtime Willie buddy discusses a song many consider the national anthem of Texas, plus why drummer Paul English was not a fan of the Eagles.
It’s a song the California-based singer-songwriter has loved since she was a young girl—but she didn’t really get to know it until she heard Willie’s version.
Creating Texas Monthly’s special podcast series ‘One By Willie: Live From Luck!’ showed me that, like Willie himself, the Luck Reunion is all about family.
The three-time Grammy nominee talks to us live from Luck, Texas, about definitive covers, Billie Holiday, and building her family with Willie records playing in the background.
Willie’s longtime producer and writing partner talks about how “Something You Get Through” came together and the way Willie changed country songwriting.
One of America’s greatest songwriters talks Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson, and Willie Nelson . . . and the surprising debt they owe “My Sharona.”
On the 50th anniversary of his eponymous 1972 record, five renowned singer-songwriters—including Jimmy Buffett and Lyle Lovett—celebrate Willis Alan Ramsey.
‘A Beautiful Time’ picks up where his "mortality trilogy" of albums left off, with an especially off-the-wall cover and new songs reflecting on life and death.
On this special birthday episode of ‘One by Willie,’ Paula Nelson talks about “Devil in a Sleepin’ Bag,” a song her dad wrote about his longtime drummer, Paul English—who happens to be her namesake.
With Willie Nelson turning 88 this week, One by Willie celebrates with one of his biggest fans and most frequent duet partners, singer-songwriter Sheryl Crow, who will talk about what may be the single best-known song he ever wrote, “Crazy.” Like the rest of the world, Sheryl initially fell in
In our latest episode of ‘One by Willie,’ Keen tells a whole host of entertaining stories while explaining his connection to Nelson’s “Mr. Record Man.”
