Willie Nelson is 90 today! Four years ago, we caught up with the weathered patriarch of American music who will keep on writing and singing for anyone who’ll listen.
. He sings a couple of lines from the title track: “‘I don’t want to be the last man standing, but wait a minute, maybe I do.’” It’s a dark lyric whose depths are belied by an uptempo melody—a trademark yin-yang balancing act for country’s zen master. “But I don’t sing that song on stage because I don’t want to talk about that stuff,” Willie says. “I don’t want to bring up all those people who have passed in the last few years.
“Singing is the best exercise you can get. Your lungs are the biggest muscles you’ve got. When you use ’em to sing, it works really good for you. Clap your hands, that’s good for you.” “Oh, I could eat all day and she’d be glad to feed me,” Willie says. “She can tell you what I eat. What do I eat?”“And a little strychnine,” Willie says with a grin.
Asked what advice he would give young songwriters, he says without hesitation, “I would tell them not to pay any attention at all to what I say. Follow your instincts. Do what you want to do. And don’t let nobody tell you you can’t do it.”“Be honest with yourself. If you think you’re rightI watched the show from the side of the stage. He opened with “Whiskey River,” as ever, and followed with the more recent “Still Is Still Moving to Me” and “Beer for My Horses.
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