Willie Nelson has certainly set the bar high when it comes to being a true trailblazer for country music, and being a living country music legend that’s showing no signs of slowing down at the age of 92. If you were to ask anyone else in the country music world, they’d probably tell you that Nelson is one of the most critical components to the success of the genre.

If you were to ask Willie Nelson though, he’d tell you that it was an artist outside of country that’s done more for country music than anyone else.

Kinds of seems like a brain teaser, does it not? How could Willie Nelson – a man who has released over 150 albums and won multiple Grammy awards – think that he’s not one of the most important figures in the history of country? Better yet, how could the “Blues Eyes Crying In The Rain” singer believe that one of the genre’s most influential figures isn’t even a country music artist?

Well, Nelson described his thought process in his book Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die: Musings From The Road, which he released in 2012. In his mind, there was singular artist that helped usher country music into the mainstream. In fact, Willie believes one album in particular helped introduce the masses (who weren’t interested in the genre) to country music for the first time.

Here’s who Willie Nelson believes helped country music tremendously, and the album that the artist did that through:

“Ray Charles did more for country music than anyone else. When he recorded the album ‘Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music,’ with all the great country classics, millions of Ray Charles fans were introduced to country music. I had been a Ray Charles fan all the way back to ‘What’d I Say.’ To be able to record and sing with him was a dream come true.”

Could Willie Nelson have a valid point in saying Ray Charles was pivotal to the success of country going more mainstream?

Charles, a musical legend in his own right, moved out of his regular R&B genre with his Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music, which was released in 1962. Fans of Ray Charles were able to hear his take on the western sound, and many were introduced to country stylings for the first time. The project’s single, “I Can’t Stop Loving You,” won Ray Charles a Grammy, and the album’s historical significance is still a major talking point in the progression of the country music genre.

It clearly struck a chord with Willie Nelson, who boldly thinks that it was quite possibly the most important project in the country genre’s existence. Coming from anyone else, it might be hard to agree that Ray Charles did more for country music than anyone else. But if the Red-Headed Stranger is saying it… that’s adds a layer of credibility.

Nelson wasn’t just complimenting an idol when he said that. He was speaking highly of a friend, and a person who he collaborated with on plenty of occasions before Ray Charles died in 2004. The pair most famously teamed up for the hit song Seven Spanish Angels, which is considered to one of the most successful country hits for both artists.

Take a listen while you digest the fact that country music might not look like it does today if it weren’t for Ray Charles shining a spotlight on the genre in the early 1960s:

“Seven Spanish Angels”