Willie Nelson

Up on the big screen, these fearless cowboys were my first heroes. Their moral lessons, like the lessons of the Methodist church, were clear. You live life based on loyalty. You stay on the right side. You protect your own. And when the going gets rough and the day grows dark, you pick up your guitar and soothe your soul by singing the pain away.

I was always writing songs. Some were okay, some awful, but good or bad made no difference. I didn’t judge them. I just let ’em happen.

It meant facing a fact that, as a young man, became more and more apparent to me:

A hard dick has no conscience

judge-not-and-be-not-judged policy