In Willie’s early years, he drank a lot, a really lot. He beat his wife regularly, One night he came home raving drunk and passe out in his bed. She sewed him up in the sheets and beat him to a pulp with a baseball bat. He was lucky to survive. A decided pot was a better alternative. Later he got into tax issues, guess the pot made him forget to pay, so the IRS helped him to remember. He got his friends to hold concerts for him to pay off his debts. He also sold a golf course for a buck to a friend to keep it from the IRS and later got it back. Not much of an American Idol, but did have a pretty good twang in his prime.
His tax issues were thanks to Reagan era Democrats. When they agreed to his first round of tax cuts they insisted that investments that gave tax breaks of almost 10 to 1 for each dollar invested be made illegal....retroactively. Willie was making a good buck and his accountants and investment advisors told him Limited Partnerships could help him with the 80 - 90% tax rates he was hitting. They were right...until Democrats screwed him. Willie blamed....Republicans.