Introduction
The world has always known Willie Nelson as the outlaw poet, the eternal drifter with a battered guitar and a voice carved out of Texas dust. But no one expected what came when he took on “Gravedigger,” a song so dark, so haunting, it felt like a conversation with death itself.
This wasn’t the Willie of campfire ballads or freewheeling road songs. This was Willie standing at the edge of eternity, staring into the pit, and daring to sing about what he saw. “Gravedigger” is not a song you listen to casually—it’s a song that grips you by the collar, drags you into the cold earth, and makes you face the silence we spend our whole lives avoiding.
When Willie Nelson sings it, the song transforms. His weathered voice doesn’t just deliver the lyrics—it embodies them. You can hear every mile of the road, every broken heart, every funeral he’s ever stood beside. It is the sound of mortality, of truth stripped of all glitter and romance. For a man who has seen nearly everything life can offer, this performance feels like his reckoning, his confession, his prayer.
Many artists try to flirt with death in their songs, but Willie Nelson doesn’t flirt—he shakes its hand. He makes you feel the dirt, the weight, the finality. And yet, within that shadow, there’s a strange kind of peace. It is shocking, it is unsettling, but it is unforgettable.
“Gravedigger” proved once again why Willie Nelson remains untouchable: he doesn’t just sing songs, he turns them into experiences that change the way we breathe. After this, you’ll never hear the silence of a graveyard the same way again.
Video
Lyrics
Cyrus Jones 1810 to 1913
Made his
Great grandchildren believe
He could live to a 103
A hundred and three is forever
When you’re just a little kid
So, Cyrus Jones lived forever
Gravedigger
When you dig my grave
Could you make it shallow
So that I can feel the rain
Gravedigger
Muriel Stonewall 1903 to 1954
She lost both of her babies
In the second great war
Now, you should never have
To watch your only children
Lowered in the ground
That means
You should never have
To bury your own babies
Gravedigger
When you dig my grave
Could you make it shallow
So that I can feel the rain
Gravedigger
Ring around the rosey
Pocket full o’posey
Ashes to ashes
We all fall down
Gravedigger
When you dig my grave
Could you make it shallow
So that I can feel the rain
Gravedigger
Little Mikey Carson ’67 to ’75
He rode his bike
Like the devil
Until the day he died
When he grows up
He wants to be
Mr. Vertigo
On the flying trapeze
Oh, 1940 to 1992
Gravedigger
When you dig my grave
Could you make it shallow
So that I can feel the rain
Grave digger
When you dig my grave
Could you make it shallow
So that I can feel the rain
I can feel the rain
I can feel the rain
Gravedigger
When you dig my grave
Could you make it shallow
So that I can feel the rain
Gravedigger
Grave digger
