-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 ]