-Congrats. This past weekend, you just kicked off
the Outlaw Music Festival. And this thing is
going all over the country now. You have June, July, September. I saw you -- You parked your
tour bus outside on 49th Street. -Yeah. -And there's like thousands
of fans out there waiting to say hi to you. -Yeah. It's cool.
-Yeah. Do you like the touring life?
Do you like the -- -Yeah, I enjoy, you know,
living on the bus. -Yeah. You do -- 'Cause if you
haven't seen Willie's bus -- There's probably photos
of it somewhere. It is nicer than my first -- many of my apartments
in New York City. It's better than my home now. But it's, like, the most --
It's beautiful. And it feels like home, right? -Yeah, it's kind of like,
you know, my home 2. -Yeah. You've got
a good group of people on the lineup with you here. I know you've been playing
with your family, Willie Nelson and Family.
Your sons are there. Alison Krauss, Avett Brothers, Nathaniel Rateliff
& The Night Sweats. -Fantastic.
-Oh, man. -They're great.
-They are bad ass. That's fantastic. I listen to "Willie's Roadhouse"
all of the time on SiriusXM. -Oh, do you? Cool.
-Dallas Wayne is fantastic. -He's great.
-I love that guy. But if he's watching or
if you see him, he's the best. And so I listen to
the station all the time. So I know you have
this big tour coming up. And I know if you go to
willienelson.com, you can check out
all the stuff you can do. Go check him out on tour,
if you can, because it's the one-and-only
Willie Nelson. I've got to
talk about this, too, because you're on the cover of
a magazine, "Rolling Stone." And it's -- Yeah, I love it.
This is the weed issue. And this is --
[ Cheers and applause ] [ Both laugh ] That is a great photo.
-That's all you got to say. -That's all you got to say.
It is a great photo. And there's
a quote from you here. It says,
"Marijuana saved my life." -Yeah.
-Is that true? -I used to smoke two or three
packs of cigarettes a day and drink whatever there was
there to drink, you know? And I had pneumonia
four or five times. My lung collapsed.
I almost died. So I said, "Wait a minute. You know, I ain't
getting that high off them Chesterfields." -Yeah. Yeah.
Chesterfields. Wow. Geez. -So I throwed out the
cigarettes, rolled up 20 joints, stuck it in there, and I haven't
smoked a cigarette since. -You haven't had
a cigarette since. Wow. Good for you.
Now, do -- [ Cheers and applause ]
-Thank you. -Was that always
the way it is now or have you seen just the world
kind of just totally change in the past couple years
with it being legalized? -Well, yeah. You know, people are kind
of getting another look at it, and one of the main looks
they're getting is -- there's money in there,
you know, so -- -Yeah. Once that's involved...
-Yeah, yeah. -Well, you have your own --
Is it -- -Willie Reserve.
-Willie Reserve. -Yeah. -Now, I was lucky enough
to be gifted this. -You what?
-Yeah. -Yeah.
-And it changed my life. [ Laughter ] Wow! And I really apprec--
Thank you very much... -Yeah, my pleasure.
-...for that gift. Yeah, I was -- Yeah.
Oh, I was floating for weeks. I've got to say -- No. And just to see that
and to see the business that it's become, but it's
the quality that goes into it. And you have
assigned yourself CTO. Is that correct?
-Chief tester. -Yeah.
So chief testing officer. Yeah, so you get to see if it's
the real deal or not. -Absolutely.
-Yeah. -I haven't run across
any that I didn't like. -Oh, that's unbelievable.
-Yeah. -Talk to me about
your new album here. "Ride Me Back Home." There's you
and a horse right there. -That's me and old Blue.
-That is your horse? -Well, it's my neighbor's horse, and I borrow it
every now and then. -And does your neighbor know
that you borrowed his horse? -Well, I'm not sure.
-Yep. Sorry. If you're looking for old Blue,
Willie has him. Don't worry about it.
It's all good. And why did you kind of dedicate
this one to the horses? -Well, me and some more folks,
Habitat For Horses, a group, rescued a bunch of horses that were scheduled
to be slaughtered. And I already had
maybe 15 or so of my own. -Wow. -And then I bought
50 of these horses. So then I got a few horses.
-To save them, yeah. But yet -- Yeah, still...
[ Applause ] It's still not enough
to borrow old Blue. I'm just saying.
I think you have enough there. It's a beautiful record. And it's new some songs
that you co-wrote, but also some covers. I've got to say, your cover of "Just the Way You Are,"
Billy Joel -- -Great song.
-It is a great song. But you do
a great version of that. I'm just like --
Wait till you hear it. This is -- And I know you
probably can't say if you have any favorites,
because it's like -- -Well, I do have favorites. Of course,
"Ride Me Back Home" is, but, also, there's a song
in there that Guy Clark wrote. In fact, there's a couple of
Guy Clark songs in there, but one of them
is "My Favorite Picture." And that song
is just kind of infectious. You hear it
and you want to hear it again. -Yeah.
-At least I do. -Do you ever hear songs
that aren't you, but country classics
where you go like, "Oh, yeah, that's a good one. I forgot about that one."
-Oh, yes, yes. -You do. And I heard that when you go on
tour, that, sometimes, you go, "I don't really know
what I'm going to play. I'm just going to do -- I start with this song,
end with this song. We'll just have fun."
-Well, I do. And I kind of go with the crowd. And I know there's, you know,
a few songs that they've come to hear
that I will do before the night is over. "On the Road Again,"
for instance, and "Always On My Mind." -Oh, yeah. -But other than that,
I just kind of let it happen. -Yeah. And I think that's what's
fun about seeing you live. If you've never seen
Willie Nelson in concert, I can't even recommend it more. He's on tour now.
And it is unbelievable. It's exciting, and you don't
know what you're going to get. And I just love you for that. And, yeah, you know
I'm the biggest fan of you. So thank you for being here and thanks for playing later
on in the show. -My pleasure.
-We love you, buddy. Willie Nelson.
[ Cheers and applause ]
