“It’s been that way as long as I can remember,” Nelson says of his multi-generational flock. His songs are essentially about time, which makes them about life, which makes them about everything. Even when they’re light, Nelson’s songs pull us deeper into ourselves, with Nelson singing about the weight of yesterday and the uncertainty of tomorrow with the easiness of right now. A Willie Nelson concert won’t allow that. In many ways, Las Vegas is a luminescent fantasyland designed to provide its visitors with an opportunity to escape their own heads. “Here I am at 81, and everything is cool,” Nelson says.Īnd here he is in Vegas, for a gig like any other, only maybe not. But the road from turbulence to tranquility was long and formidable. He was once a hot-tempered songwriting ace prone to burning bridges before learning that burning marijuana could calm his screeching mind. There were times when he didn’t, of course. They have the obligation to set an example. “It’s not a responsibility that’s just mine,” he says. Sitting on his tour bus before the show, salt-and-cinnamon braids dangling to his belly, Nelson radiates a serene warmth when he says that he embraces these responsibilities without much fuss. His buddy Kinky Friedman proudly calls him “the Hillbilly Dalai Lama.” His most devout fans think of him as a messenger, or even a manifestation, of God. For Nelson, the road seems more like a spiritual path - an asphalt Mobius strip, the long way to enlightenment or both. When most veteran musicians tour this hard toward the sunset, they’re usually fattening their fortunes, paying down their debts, polishing their legacies, nourishing their egos or simply keeping their loyal employees employed. And if they all blend together, that’s okay, as long as he’s learning more than he’s forgetting, which he thinks he is, which is all that really matters.
After tonight, roughly a hundred more to go.
He’s come to Las Vegas for his seventh gig of the new year. He’s talking about life on the road at 81, when wisdom makes the totality of life feel intensely connected to the present - but also when age makes the details feel slippery. “Honestly, nothing is distinct after a while,” Willie Nelson confesses. LAS VEGAS - Another Saturday night on Earth. After touring hard for decades, Willie Nelson says life is still teaching him new lessons: “You can never learn it all.” (Stavros Damos/For The Washington Post)