“They wanted to keep some fairness, not lean too heavily on one person, and not have anyone feel slighted,” says Raphael, “so Chips mainly brought the songs. That debut album, titled Highwayman after the lead track, features primarily cover songs. On some songs they would each take a verse on others, one would sing.”
“They had their egos, sure, but they were all fans of each other’s and that was apparent,” he says. The foursome that became known as The Highwaymen were different, says Raphael, because at the heart of the project lay deep-rooted friendships. I hope you can pull it off.’ Apparently, they got Willie’s blessing, because pretty soon we were going to Nashville to record.”Įffortlessly assembling four established talents is almost unimaginable in any genre, what with schedules, tours, ‘have your people call my people,’ and, quite frankly, heaping amounts of hubris that permeate the music industry. You’ll never get the four guys to agree to this. They were going to pitch the idea to Willie, and I’m going, ‘Wishful thinking. We were packed into this two-door car, going to dinner, and they were talking about the four guys making this record. “I was driving Chips and Willie’s manager, Mark Rothbaum, around L.A. “Chips Moman was Willie’s producer at the time,” he says.
Mickey Raphael, Nelson’s harmonica player since 1973, remembers when he first heard about plans to make an album, following that Christmas concert.
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