A friend of Austin-based visual artist William Stidham was hounding him to paint Willie Nelson, but he wouldn’t relent – until she surprised him with a copy of The Tao of Willie. He read the book that weekend and promptly changed his mind. His watercolor portrait of Nelson ultimately became the first in his Sacred Heart series.

“What I really wanted to symbolize in that initial painting was all the heart that Willie brings to his life and the world he touches,” Stidham says.

He painted Nelson in four colors: red, black, the white of the watercolor paper and gold gauche. And after the painting was complete, he felt inspired to throw water on it. “When I finished that Sacred Heart of Willie, I nearly had an out of body experience. I mean, I was literally shaking. I knew I had done something different and very important to me,” he says. “The next day I was so excited that I took the painting to work. One of my co-workers started crying. I knew that I had touched something much deeper with this painting, and with this idea.”

Two years later, the Sacred Heart series now features Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings and Hank Williams, along with numerous rock ‘n’ roll and religious figures. He’s now exhibiting at music festivals, restaurants and a gallery in Santa Fe, N.M. Still, because Stidham grew up in a family that loved Willie Nelson’s music, that first portrait still resonates. Because he works at the Austin radio station KGSR, Stidham had the opportunity to present Nelson with the first reproduction of the painting face-to-face.

“I learned something very important that moment: Willie Nelson is the most centered, in-the-moment person I have ever met. When he looks at you, he looks directly into you, and that particular moment is the only moment that matters to him. Very deep. Very touching. Very present,” Stidham recalls.

“Before I showed it to him, I told him the whole story of where I was, how I did it, what it had meant to me, where it was leading me. I then showed it to him,” he continues. “His eyes teared up. It was a very powerful moment. Just look at me in that picture. I look like I’m floating out of my body.”

More than any other time of the year, the holidays are about tradition. Many country stars also have at least one thing they revisit every season that makes the holidays special — a food, a song, a visit to a special friend, you name it.
 
Jack Ingram has a classic gift-giving tradition: “On Christmas Eve, I listen to ‘Pretty Paper’ by Willie Nelson and wrap all the presents that should have been wrapped before Christmas Eve but aren’t,” he says. “Then I wait up all night to see if Santa Claus will come down the chimney. Then I wake up all the kids at 5 in the morning and ask, ‘Is it time yet?’”
 
Blake Shelton shares his holiday with a longtime country favorite. “About 15 years ago, I moved to Nashville and worked for Anne Murray’s publishing company,” he remembers. “While I was there I ‘borrowed’ one of her Christmas albums. It has become a Christmas tradition that I play the album every year. I don’t listen to a lot of Christmas albums, but Anne Murray tops my list every year.”

Sunny Sweeney remembers learning about giving during the Christmas seasons of her childhood. “When I was little, Momma and I would go deliver meals on wheels to people who couldn’t leave their houses,” she says. “We did that for years when it was just the two of us.”
 
Friends are a big part of the holidays for some artists. “It’s a tradition back home in North Carolina that, on every Christmas Eve, my family and I go to a close friend’s house, have dinner, and gather up all the kids — even the young ones — and play a game of hide-and-go-seek,” says Jimmy Wayne. “Sometimes it last for a few hours.”
 
Says singer-songwriter Lori McKenna, “My husband and the kids and I walk to my neighbors house every year for New Year’s. We like staying home on New Years Eve — and this is perfect because it’s a party where the kids are welcome and it is within walking distance, even in the snow.”
 
“When I get home to Georgia for Christmas and Thanksgiving, I go see a lot of buddies,” says Luke Bryan. “My dad has some land, and we’ll get a jeep and ride around and quail-hunt and talk and visit and hang out. It’s more of a social thing than hunting.”
 
That’s nice — just don’t shoot any reindeer!