“WE WERE OUTLAWS, BUT GEORGE WAS THE LAW.” Willie Nelson strummed the weathered strings of Trigger. Beside him stood the memorial portraits of Waylon Jennings and George Jones. The three of them had been hell-raisers, drinking whiskey like water and living like there was no tomorrow. Willie smiled—the wrinkled smile of an old man who has seen it all. “George could sing a phone book and make you cry.” He began to play a song the three of them wrote together during a drunken night, a track that was never released. The melody was rustic, the lyrics raw with mistakes and forgiveness. It wasn’t polished like music today. It smelled of cigarette smoke and regret. When Willie finished, he placed his bandana on the empty chair beside him. And a breeze seemed to make it flutter gently…
They say you die twice. Once when the breath leaves your body, and again when your name is spoken for…