Willie Nelson reveals he begged his wife to ‘let me die’ twice during harrowing bout of COVID-19
Willie Nelson at Farm Aid 2026Credit: Gary Miller/GettyKey Points
In his new book, Willie Nelson recalls a brutal bout of COVID-19 and asking his wife, Annie D’Angelo, to let him die.
“I wasn’t sure you would make it,” D’Angelo admits in the book.
The Last Leaf: Reflections on Late-Life Creativity — and My Longest Love Affair is out now.
Willie Nelson is reflecting on a harrowing battle with COVID-19 in 2022.
In his new book The Last Leaf: Reflections on Late-Life Creativity — and My Longest Love Affair, the country singer recalls how his wife of 35 years, Annie D’Angelo, saved his life during an awful bout with the illness despite him telling her to “let me die.”
“The backbone of this book is a love story,” Nelson, 93, told PEOPLE about the book. “The heroine is my wife, Annie, who kept me alive when I was sure I was gone. COVID nearly got me. I was hurting so bad I wanted out. But Annie wouldn’t let me go. The years I’ve lived since then are because of Annie. And so is this book.”
The couple met in 1986 on the set of the TV movie Stagecoach. Five years later, they tied the knot. Nelson and D’Angelo share sons Lukas and Micah.
Annie D’Angelo and Willie Nelson in 2023Credit: SUZANNE CORDEIRO/AFP via Getty
In a book excerpt published by PEOPLE, Nelson recounts a conversation with D’Angelo after waking up one night in May 2022 while on the bus, struggling to breathe.
“I had the nebulizer on you, and a Q-tip up your nose to test for COVID-19,” D’Angelo recalls in the book. “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.”
She continues: “In the back of the bus, you stayed isolated and grew sicker. I wasn’t sure you would make it. I alerted Dr. Greenwood that we were on our way and asked to have a mobile monoclonal antibody guy meet us at the cabin.”
D’Angelo says she’d been “ready” in case Nelson contracted COVID-19 while they were on the road, knowing that going to a hospital wasn’t a wise choice due to privacy and chances of catching another illness. When they got home and waited for Paxlovid to kick in, Nelson got “sicker with every passing hour.”
“Every labored breath caused you incredible pain,” D’Angelo says. “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 adds, “All I can remember is feeling excruciating pain in every cell of my body. Am I right in remembering that I said, ‘Annie, you need to let me go’?”
D’Angelo confirms he did.
“But you wouldn’t let me,” he says.
D’Angelo counters, telling her husband, “What I actually said was, ‘Willie, if you die, I’ll kill you.’ And you said, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll be back in a minute.’ You were thinking about reincarnation, but I didn’t want to hear about reincarnation. I wanted you to understand that I was not about to let you go.”
“And you didn’t,” Nelson says.
‘The Last Leaf: Reflections on Late-Life Creativity — and My Longest Love Affair,’ by Willie NelsonCredit: Pamela Springsteen
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After the music legend got through the night, the doctor came to check on him and offered an IV infusion that would either get him better or kill him. Nelson recalls telling the doctor “either way, give it to me.”
Nelson then experienced “two weeks of utter hell,” says D’Angelo.
“Did I ask you to let me die?” Nelson asks his wife, to which she responds: “Yup, twice. The whole thing was a nightmare.”
The Last Leaf is on shelves now.
Source: Entertainment
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