Willie Nelson Asked His Wife to 'Let Me Die' During 2022 COVID Battle

Willie Nelson asked his wife, Annie D'Angelo, to let him die during a 2022 case of COVID-19. The 91-year-old country musician recounts the episode in his new book, "The Last Leaf: Reflections on Late-Life Creativity — and My Longest Love Affair," which hit shelves Tuesday. An excerpt was published by People.

Because Nelson remembers little of the illness, he quotes his wife's account directly in the book.

What happened on the bus?

"I had the nebulizer on you, and a Q-tip up your nose to test for COVID-19," D'Angelo wrote. "I got the oxygen going to keep you breathing, but it wasn't working. You still couldn't breathe. The COVID-19 test came up positive. I knew not to panic, but I also knew this was bad."

Nelson isolated in the back of the band's bus and grew sicker. D'Angelo alerted Dr. Greenwood and asked for a mobile monoclonal antibody provider to meet them at the couple's cabin.

"You got sicker with every passing hour," she continued. "Every labored breath caused you incredible pain. I wanted to do more, but I'd done all I could. I just had to sit there and watch you suffer. It was the worst thing I've ever had to do."

Nelson's own memory of the ordeal is sparse and physical. "All I can remember is feeling excruciating pain in every cell of my body," he wrote. He then asked his wife, on the page: "Am I right in remembering that I said, 'Annie, you need to let me go'?"

"That's just what you said," D'Angelo responded.

Why no hospital?

A hospital, D'Angelo wrote, was "not an option" because Nelson would have had "no chance of privacy." Instead, he received Paxlovid in an IV infusion, which helped. D'Angelo described the episode as "two weeks of utter hell."

The exchange closes with a stark confirmation. "Did I ask you to let me die?" Nelson asked. "Yup, twice," D'Angelo answered. "The whole thing was a nightmare."

Who is the book about?

Nelson and D'Angelo married in 1991 and share two sons, Lukas and Micah. The memoir's subtitle signals its twin subjects: creativity in old age and what Nelson calls his "longest love affair."

The book arrived in stores Tuesday. Its account of a near-fatal illness, survived at home rather than in a hospital bed, adds a sobering chapter to the story of one of country music's longest-running careers.