Banish those visions of Willie Nelson as some old country-music-playin', pot smokin', tax-evadin' rebel crooner. Think of him instead as a living legend -- and a thriving musician. Nelson's live shows still usually last longer than two hours, and after playing for 35 years, he still shakes the hand of every fan he can reach from the stage.
With more than 100 albums to his credit, you might also think Nelson would have run out of ideas. On the contrary, he recently recorded a reggae album [which will be released this summer] and a blues album, and played a Nashville songwriter in "Wag the Dog," the forthcoming Barry Levinson film starring Robert DeNiro and Dustin Hoffman. In other words, nothing but blue skies from now on.
RS.com: Has it gotten harder or easier for you to write songs?
Willie Nelson: I'm more critical of what I write now than I used to be. When I really needed to write a song to pay the rent, I wrote to a tree, and I wasn't that critical of 'em. Maybe you're supposed to get critical of 'em. I don't write as many songs as I used to. But the new album, "Spirit," is all original stuff.
You'll be releasing a reggae album this summer. How did that come about?
Don Was. The producer. He and I have done a couple of things together. He wanted to do something else, and I'm always willing to do whatever Don wants to do. He is, in my opinion, the best producer around these days. He thought a reggae album would be good with me singing my songs with a reggae beat. I would have never thought of it. Not that I wasn't a reggae fan, I just didn't realize that it might work. He was sharp enough to hear it.
So we went into the studio and cut a song called "Undo the Right," and it turned out so good we used all reggae musicians in Los Angeles, with some exceptions for steel guitar and harmonica. And then we flew to Jamaica to see Chris Blackwell of Island Records, because Don thought he might be interested in it. While we were down there, we played him "Undo the Right" and "Spirit." And he took them both.
I understand that you have some Jamaican fans.
Some of the recording musicians in L.A. were from Jamaica -- one guy played drums with Peter Tosh -- and they were telling me that they used to listen to late-night radio in Kingston and other places. And they could pick up a couple of stations from Miami, Atlanta, New Orleans playing country music. Most of the rhythms in country music were just a guitar and maybe a banjo, and a vocal -- maybe a fiddle. So they started putting their own rhythms to the country songs. That's how a whole lot of reggae music got started.
Do you plan to you experiment with other genres?
I just did a blues album [that does not yet have a release date]. That's coming out on Island. I did it with an Austin blues band, some long-time friends of mine.
Are there any young country bands that you've heard recently and like?
I listen to a lot of new stuff. Like Tab Benoit, a blues guitar player on Justice Records. I got a new CD by Pat Benatar, where she's singing a lot of old standards. It's great.
Your fans go absolutely nuts when you play certain songs ...
These songs have fans. Anyone could sing "Stardust" or "Georgia," and if they can carry a tune, they're gonna get accepted well by an audience because these songs sell and sell. I did the "Stardust" album and there were ten songs on it, every one of them a standard; every one had been a million seller before.
How much does the set change from night to night?
There are a few songs that we will do practically every night because we are expected to do 'em and we enjoy doing 'em: "On the Road Again," "Always on My Mind." The others are off the top of my head -- what I feel like playing each night. I do a couple of "Spirit" songs and some reggae now. And a blues song.
Can you tell me about the character you played in the new film with DeNiro and Hoffman?
Well, the president has an affair with a teenager. So Robert DeNiro is the troubleshooter for the president and he's trying to take the heat off. It's all over the papers, so he's trying to change the news that people are getting, so he hires Dustin Hoffman, who's a movie producer to create some diversion -- like they declared war on Albania (laughs). And then they hire me to write war songs. I was supposedly a Nashville songwriter who they got out of the lunatic asylum to come write these songs, so