About the song
Few voices in American music carry the weathered soul of a storyteller quite like **Willie Nelson**. With his unmistakable phrasing and gentle guitar work, he has long been a trusted guide through life’s triumphs, regrets, and quiet heartbreaks. One of the more poignant examples of his ability to turn a simple story into something universally resonant is the song **“Last Thing I Needed First Thing This Morning.”** Featured on his 1982 album *Always on My Mind*, this track captures the kind of morning that most of us—sooner or later—will recognize all too well.
From the very first lines, **Willie Nelson** brings us into a space of quiet despair. The coffee pot’s broken, the phone won’t stop ringing, and to top it all off, she’s gone. It’s a song not about dramatic loss but the kind that sinks in slowly—made worse by the small, everyday irritations that suddenly feel unbearable. That’s the real genius of **“Last Thing I Needed First Thing This Morning”**: it reflects how heartbreak rarely happens in a vacuum. It tends to arrive when we’re already stretched thin, already teetering, and then one more thing—the last thing we need—pushes everything over the edge.
Musically, the song is stripped down and intimate, carried by **Nelson’s** distinctive nylon-string guitar and a subtle steel guitar in the background. The production doesn’t get in the way; it simply lets the emotion breathe. That’s part of what makes this song so enduring. It’s not trying to impress—it’s just telling the truth, plainly and beautifully.
If you’ve ever had one of *those* mornings, where everything seems to go wrong before your feet are even fully on the floor, this song will feel like a conversation with an old friend. And maybe that’s **Willie Nelson’s** greatest gift—reminding us that even in life’s loneliest moments, we’re never truly alone.
Video
Lyrics
The postman delivered
A past due bill notice
The alarm clock rang two hours late
The garbage man left all the trash
On the sidewalk
And the hinges fell off of the gate
And this morning at breakfast
I spilled all the coffee
And I opened the door on my knee
But the last thing I needed
The first thing this morning
Was to have you walk out on me
Last night, you came home late
And I knew you’d been drinking
By that old mellow look on your face
I thought, “It don’t matter
Because it’s the holiday season”
And you fill such a big empty space
But then I laid down beside you
And I wanted your loving
Because your love makes my life complete
But the last thing I needed
The first thing this morning
Was to have you walk out on me
So excuse me for looking
Like my world just ended
And excuse me for looking
Like I just lost my best friend
And excuse me for living
And being forgiving
So just go on if you want to be free
But the last thing I needed
The first thing this morning
Was to have you walk out on me
