Willie Nelson’s memoir recounts COVID illness and plea to die

Willie Nelson’s memoir recounts that he contracted COVID-19 in 2022, struggled to breathe and asked his wife, Annie D’Angelo, to let him die twice during the illness. The account, drawn from the couple’s recollections in the book, describes D’Angelo arranging care as Nelson’s condition worsened.

Nelson writes that he became ill while he and D’Angelo were on a bus. In the memoir, she recalls testing him for COVID-19 and trying to help him breathe with oxygen and a nebulizer. The test was positive, and Nelson could barely breathe, according to her account.

D’Angelo recounts that the couple’s drivers drove them back to Austin while Nelson remained isolated in the back of the bus and grew sicker. She contacted his doctor and arranged for a mobile monoclonal antibody specialist to meet them at a cabin. She also wrote that she had prepared for the possibility Nelson would contract the virus.

The memoir says D’Angelo obtained Paxlovid through musician Mickey Raphael. She expected it to take another day to work and wrote that they would have to wait until morning for monoclonal antibodies. Nelson’s breathing remained labored, and D’Angelo described watching him suffer as the worst thing...