The Unfortunate Nickname Willie Nelson Donned Before “Shotgun Willie”

From the Red Headed Stranger to Shotgun Willie, country music icon Willie Nelson has his fair share of memorable nicknames that come from his songs, gun-wielding incidents, and, in one particularly unfortunate nickname’s case, embarrassing childhood moments. Years before Nelson would adopt the monikers above, friends and family had a different name for the aspiring musician: Booger Red. 

While it might not have the same musical ring as the Red-Headed Stranger, Nelson’s hilarious nickname does harken back to the earliest days of his artistic career when he was a child reciting poetry at a church event.

How The Future Country Star Got The Nickname “Booger Red”

In his autobiography It’s a Long Story: My Life, the musician explained that long before he was a musician, he had a keen interest in poetry—a passion his family inspired and fostered. Nelson said his grandparents gave him a poem to read at a “part revival, part picnic” event in Brooking, Texas. 

“Mama Nelson had dressed me up in an all-white sailor suit,” Nelson recalled. “The outfit brought me pride, but the idea of reciting a poem in front of this huge audience gave me jitters. Just before I was set to go on, I started picking my nose. I was nervous and didn’t realize how deeply I had dug into my skin. When I hit the stage, red blood was pouring all over my white suit. Right then and there, I ditched the poem and improvised.”

Bloody nose aside, Nelson’s ability to make up a poem on the spot that was both eloquent and humorous was a testament to his future skills as a songwriter. What are you looking at me for? The young Nelson recited. I got nothing to say. If you don’t like the looks of me, you can look the other way. “That’s how I got the nickname,” Nelson added.

The Tense Story Behind Willie Nelson’s Less Unfortunate Nickname

More often than not, the nicknames that stick are the ones that come from real-life events. Booger Red is one example, albeit a slightly embarrassing one, but Willie Nelson’s other nickname, Shotgun Willie, is another. Although Nelson is usually a good-natured pacifist, he isn’t afraid to get aggressive when the situation calls for it—like when he discovered his son-in-law was physically abusing Nelson’s daughter, Lana.

“I ran for my truck and drove to the place where [my son-in-law] Steve and Lana lived and slapped Steve around,” Nelson later said (via Texas Hill Country). “Thinking Steve would come to Ridgetop to pick me off about dusk, I hid in the truck so he couldn’t tell if I was home. I had my M-1 and a shotgun.” When Steve inevitably drove by, Nelson popped out from his hiding spot in his garage and shot at Steve’s car with his shotgun, blowing out his tire and earning himself his explosive new nickname.

Whether improvising a poem on the spot or defending his family, Willie Nelson’s nicknames are a testament to his ability to think on his feet, making decisions at a moment’s notice that result in monikers that stick around for decades.