When singer-songwriter Shakey Graves—who answers to Alejandro Rose-Garcia when he’s not onstage—was growing up in Austin in the ’90s, “Always on My Mind” was one of those iconic Willie songs that seemed always to be playing somewhere. As a child actor who appeared in the Spy Kids films and Friday Night Lights, he’d hear it on film sets. And in the 2010s, when he built a name for his one-man band in the Austin music scene, the song was a frequent reminder that Willie was the key artist who’d made that scene happen.

Now Alejandro’s a major figure in the Americana genre, and on this episode of One by Willie, he looks back at “Always on My Mind.” It was considered one of Elvis Presley’s signature songs of the ’70s, before Willie covered it in 1982 and turned it into his biggest pop crossover hit. Alejandro explains how Willie managed to pull off the impossible—stealing a song from Elvis—then goes on to describe the undying appeal of a good power ballad and that surreal time he signed Willie’s guitar.

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