[music]

Alison Stewart: This is All Of It. I'm Alison Stewart live from the WNYC studios in Soho. Thanks for spending part of your day with us. You want to spend part of your day with us in real life, in person? You want to see the radio magic being made? This time next week, we are going to be in the Greene Space. Join us in WNYC Greene Space on Friday, February 10th for a live version of our show, in front of the audience, you can be part of it. We have special guests, including Yo La Tengo. For tickets, and for more information, go to wnyc.org/the greenespace.

[music]

With the Grammy Awards just days away, we wrap up our coverage with a nominee who just received another accolade. Willie Nelson was just named to the shortlist for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Nelson is nominated in four Grammy categories, Best Country Solo Performance, Best Country song, Best Country Album, and Best Roots Gospel album. Here's the wild thing those four nominations come from three different projects. Nelson, who turns 90 this year, is not slowing down.

This April there's going to be a huge birthday concert bash at the Hollywood Bowl. The lineup so far includes Bob Weir, The Chicks, Margo Price, Beck, Miranda Lambert, Neil Young, among others, including Willie Nelson. You can learn a lot about him in his recent book, Willie Nelson's Letters to America. It combines stories from Willie's early life and career with messages addressed to family, fans, childhood heroes, his guitar, mother Earth, and more also mixed in are song lyrics and a whole lot of jokes. Willie Nelson joined me from his adopted home in Maui to talk about the book in his very mellow Willie Nelson way. I asked him if he likes to tell jokes in real life.

Willie Nelson: Do you remember a magazine called Readers Digest?

Alison Stewart: Sure.

Willie Nelson: In the middle pages, right in the middle of the book, every month I used to read what's called Laughter is the Best Medicine. I still believe that. I still think jokes are important to make people laugh, to [unintelligible 00:02:17] themselves and other people. I think it's healthy, a positive thing.

Alison Stewart: You give some great advice in a letter to all the young songwriters. You said, if it feels right and true to you, it will likely will for others. You also tell young songwriters to keep their eyes open. Did you do that as a young songwriter, or was that something you had to learn?

Willie Nelson: Well, that's something that I learned because if you don't watch your back, that's a problem. You can't do that all the time and you're going to wind up disappointed in a lot of things, in some people. That's just life.

Alison Stewart: Have you learned, or how much have you learned from listening to some newer songwriters that you've collaborated with or you've listened to recently?

Willie Nelson: Well, Buddy Cannon and I write together a lot. In fact, we've written maybe 10 or 12, maybe more albums together. I'll write a verse, send it to him. He'll write one, send it back and then I'll come up with a melody. Or he will go into the studio, call the best musicians in the world who are right there in Nashville and record the songs. He brings them down to my studio in Austin and I put my voice on, and that's it. It's the easiest way that I've ever found to write and record.

Alison Stewart: That sounds like you've got it down to a Willie Nelson science. [chuckles] When is a time you clearly know what you want in a song, and you are had this collaborative process? Have you had a time recently when either a song has surprised you or the writing process has surprised you and you thought, "Wow I did not see that going that way?"

Willie Nelson: Yes, not really. I quit being surprised at anything I did.

Alison Stewart: Nothing. Does anything surprise you anymore, Willie?

Willie Nelson: I don't think so. No. [chuckles]

Alison Stewart: Oh, it's the best answer of the day. My guest is Willie Nelson. The name of the book is Willie Nelson's Letters to America. In the book, you write that Leon Russell taught you about the responsibilities you have as a performer with a big following. What did you learn from him and how has your sense of responsibility either changed over time or anything that you've realized about this sense of responsibility, if you are a big performer with a following?

Willie Nelson: Well, thanks for asking that question about Leon. He's one of my favorite people. We've got a bunch of new songs to be released in an album. Of course, he's not around to be with me to record it or sing it. We've got some good stuff in there that interested in getting out. Leon was maybe the greatest performer I think I've ever seen in public with an audience.

I saw him, I think it was in Arizona, first time 20,000 people, and he had them going and he from one hit to another, and they were on their feet and shouting Leon. He stopped them right in the middle. He said, "Just remember where you are and who got you here, and be careful who you let get you to this state of emotion because you're in a dangerous spot. You'd believe anything I told you."

Alison Stewart: In the book you write letters to some of your heroes, Will Rogers and Gene Autry, and you write about asking Gene Autry to sign your guitar and how much it meant to you at the time. Why was that so meaningful for you?

Willie Nelson: Well, I grew up being a want- to-be cowboy singer like Gene Autry, and Roy Rogers, and Hopalong Cassidy and all those guys. It was great to be able to meet him and say hello and sing a little bit with him and visit and talk about different things. I named it, or we named our son Lucas Autry Nelson after Gene because Gene was one of the first people to hold him when he was born.

Alison Stewart: Oh, what a lovely story. You're a musical hero to many young songwriters now. How does being in that same position as Gene's position? How do you appreciate those moments when a young songwriter is there and just wants to have five minutes of Willie Nelson's time?

Willie Nelson: Well, I know how he feels. I appreciate the way he feels, and if I can help him in any way to think positive about himself, I'll do it in a minute. I'm always there to give my advice. It ain't exactly 100% going to be right because I never have been 100% right about anything, I don't remember it.

Alison Stewart: My guest is Willie Nelson, and his book is called Willie Nelson's Letters to America. I met you, I, gosh, maybe 25 years ago at one of the Farm Aids when I worked for MTV a million and a half years ago. It was always just one of those times when you really saw musicians get together and really try to make a difference in people's lives and really try to touch people's lives. In the book you also, you write about Black Lives Matter and climate change. How do you think about your position when you are talking about these issues and why is it important to you at this point to still talk about these issues?

Willie Nelson: Well, to be perfectly honest, I think my music will say more than what anything else will. I pretty much can put my real feelings in music and when I play and sing or write a new song to the audience, that's me. That's exactly the way I feel at the moment. I like to communicate with the audience and see how they feel at the moment and see what we can find in common. To have a nice hour together out there and then me playing what I like and hoping is what they like.

Alison Stewart: Can you feel an audience?

Willie Nelson: Yes.

Alison Stewart: What does it feel like?

Willie Nelson: I can tell pretty quick. Well, I don't ever remember being playing in front of a bad audience. There's always some better than others and but I've never had an audience that booed me off stage. We've always managed to communicate and I wrote a song called, I Fall in Love with the Front Row Every Night.

Alison Stewart: [chuckles] There were several letters in the book to Abbott, Texas. Being a Texan is a very specific thing and it's a really interesting and intricate history of Texas. I'm curious, how do you feel about Texas these days?

Willie Nelson: Well, Texas is and always will be Texas. It's the old saying, "You can always tell a Texan, but you can't tell him much." [laughter] We've got all kinds down there. I think there's all kinds in every state, but maybe they're more pronounced than is in some ways. That's either good or bad, depending on the way you look at it.

Alison Stewart: Now, I was told that you are now in your new adopted home of Maui. Is that right?

Willie Nelson: Oh, we're in Maui right now looking at the ocean and the palm trees blowing and that ain't bad.

Alison Stewart: A quick bragging, Willie. [laughter]

Willie Nelson: That ain't bad.

Alison Stewart: How has the definition and meaning of home changed for you over the course of your life?

Willie Nelson: Well, I have a song called, Home is Where You're Happy, and that's pretty much the way I look at it. If you're happy somewhere and feel at home there with people around, you can have more than one home.

Alison Stewart: Why do you think you can have more than one home?

Willie Nelson: Well, I have a home here. I have a home in Austin. It's just not a difficult thing for me to live with.

Alison Stewart: Funny you should say Austin. Somebody just tweeted to me a story I did in Austin in 1994, back when Austin was still Keep Austin Weird. It was such an amazing place to see live music back in those days. Do you have any good memories or a particular memory of playing music live in Austin? I feel bad for all the people who didn't get to experience old Austin live shows.

Willie Nelson: Oh my goodness. Yes. Armadillo World Headquarters you remember that place? Played there in Broken Spoke.

Alison Stewart: I love Broken Spoke.

Willie Nelson: Do you remember the Broken Spoke?

Alison Stewart: There's Chewy and there was those barbecue and Barton's-[inaudible 00:12:20]

Willie Nelson: I did my first 4th of July picnic there in Dripping Spring, a thousand years ago. Leon was on the show and Billy Joe and just a lot of good guys. I remember me and Leon stayed up before on the night of the third. We stayed up and partied until daylight and then went out and started singing gospel songs to all those people who were coming in, dragging their suitcases and whatever, and then getting ready in their chairs, getting ready for the 4th of July picnic. We had a wonderful time.

Alison Stewart: Oh man. 4th of July is my birthday. That sounds like it would've been a great birthday. My guest is Willie Nelson. The name of his book is Letters to America. We've been talking about home a lot. We've all been spending a lot of time in our homes. You have a lot of really names for the pandemic. You call it The Pandemic and the Pangdeng it and the Pandemic.

Willie Nelson: God dang it.

Alison Stewart: God dang it. [laughter] What has helped get you through this past year? It's been different for everybody. What's helped you get through the year?

Willie Nelson: I've had some family. I've spent time in Austin with my family there and spending time here with my family here. I've been lucky enough to be able to do that. A lot of people out there aren't that lucky, so I feel for them and being cooped up with somebody that whether you love them or not for a year is a challenge. I saw a sign out in front of this one that said, "Husband for sale," so I can relate to that.

Alison Stewart: Before I let you go, I want to ask you about the song Family Bible, which you mentioned early in the book, and you describe it as, and this is the quote, "First truly good and lasting song I'd ever written." What's special about that song? Family Bible?

Willie Nelson: Well, it pretty much tells a story of the way I was raised and the way I believe things that I believe in, I was taught as a child. I was really taught that everything in that book, in that song, Family Bible is me growing up.

Alison Stewart: The name of the book is Willie Nelson's Letters to America. Willie, are you going back out on the road before? I said that was last question. I lied. Are you going back out on the road?

Willie Nelson: Yes. Also, I got to write some letters to the rest of the world too.

Alison Stewart: Oh, I like that idea.

Willie Nelson: Like it?

Alison Stewart: I like that idea a lot.

Willie Nelson: I want to write a letter to Amsterdam.

[laughter]

Alison Stewart: Oh, Willie, thank you so much for your time today.

Willie Nelson: You're welcome. Thank you. Nice talking to you.

Alison Stewart: Nice talking to you. Let's go out on Family Bible.

[music]

There's a family Bible on the table

Each page is worn and hard to read

But the family Bible on the table

Will ever be my key to memories

Copyright © 2023 New York Public Radio. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use at www.wnyc.org for further information.

New York Public Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline, often by contractors. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of New York Public Radio’s programming is the audio record.