Country singer Willie Nelson is frequently the target of death hoaxes that sweep the internet. A recent hoax spread on Facebook that claimed the legendary singer had died. Distraught fans took to Google to find out if the singer had really died only to find out that it is a hoax.
Willie Nelson has reportedly responded to the latest rumor of his death with laughter, according to Hollywood Life.
“Willie is so used to being killed off by the internet that he just laughs it off now,” the publication reports “It seems like every other week another death hoax pops up, and he takes it all in stride. His family is more hurt by the rumors, but it’s like water off a duck’s back to Willie. He has a wicked sense of humor, and he’s still very much alive and kicking.”
Not only is Willie Nelson alive and well, he is also on tour with his social media accounts frequently letting fans know where they can watch him perform.
The “Always On My Mind” singer even made a catchy song responding to the hoaxes that spread across the internet. The song titled “Still Not Dead” has over a million views on YouTube and is accompanied by a hilarious video of the 84-year old singer enjoying a smoke. The lyrics to the song directly responds with the following.
“I run up and down the road and makin’ music as I go They say my pace would kill a normal man But I’ve never been accused of bein’ normal anyway And I woke up still not dead again today”
Don’t miss the @willienelson at Battery Park on Jun 10! ? https://t.co/uqEF0oSLw3 pic.twitter.com/BMvAYX0doP
— NYC concerts (@NewYorkConcert) May 20, 2017
The death hoax was first reported by Snopes , which states that the rumor was created by a fake news site that has a domain name similar to real news site MSNBC .
“The fake MSMBC.co article unfortunately fooled many readers as it made the rounds of social media again, even though it was completely false and was just a recycled version of the very same prank the site released months earlier. The latter part of the article’s statement that the ‘story is still developing and all information is not yet officially verified,’ is technically correct, as nothing about the story has been ‘officially verified” because none of it is even remotely true.’”
https://www.instagram.com/p/BThpFxcjC3z/
Willie Nelson has sold more than 40 million records in the United States alone and his career has spanned many decades as the prolific country singer still tours the country. Nelson still performs his classics, such as “Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain,” and “On The Road Again.”
Nelson joins a list of many celebrities that are victims of death hoaxes, such as Jaden Smith, Angelina Jolie, Sylvester Stallone and John Cena. The motive for these death hoaxes seems to involve driving traffic to phony websites in order to infect the unsuspecting users’ computers with viruses.
Some of the hoaxes try to entice users to click the spammy link by promising to show a death photo, which is usually doctored. Most of the hoaxes seem to originate from Facebook, and it is unclear what the social media network is doing to combat spam. One of the most popular hoaxes involved Will Smith’s son Jaden and the death hoax was one of the most popular searches on Google trends last year, amounting to millions of searches.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BMnI4NYDu1M/
While many social media users search Google to verify whether it is a hoax or not, some users share the fake news on their feed. This leads to friends of the user to see the hoax as more legitimate and share it themselves.
Willie Nelson is not dead, the country singer is alive and well. Where did you first come across the death hoax?
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[Featured Image by Rick Diamond/Getty Images]