Willie Nelson recently sat down with The Washington Post to share some of his thoughts on American politics, drugs and not being dead yet.
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Journalist Libby Casey opened the piece by explaining how Nelson's music had a big impact on her life growing up on an Alaska farm. She sits down with Nelson on his tour bus to talk more about the current times. Why? "I cover politics for a living, and boy do I need to hear from America's songwriter now more than ever," Casey says.
"Mama, don't let them babies grow up to be president," Nelson jokes when Casey mentions people wrote his name in for president. "The first thing I'm going to do when I get elected is make 'f**k it' one word."
Getting serious, Nelson says the key to coming together is realizing we're not all right all the time. And, for some people, they just won't sit at the table. "There's a few people out there that really don't get it," Nelson says. "You know, that are kind of hung up somewhere." But, Nelson says, the majority of people he talks to at least recognizes there's a problem.
Nelson says there's a problem with the way we vote. But he also notes that voting is one of the best ways to at least start to make a difference. He references his song "Delete And Fast Forward" for his thoughts on letting go of the past and focusing on the present.
They then talk about Nelson's own brand of marijuana, laughing at the name "Stone Age Gardens." He briefly chats about the current administration and attorney general cracking down on drugs and comparing heroin to marijuana. "Send him a message to try heroin and then try marijuana and then call me," Nelson says. "He doesn't know."
The pair also discuss one of Nelson's more lighthearted songs, "Still Not Dead." The tune references all the Willie Nelson death hoaxes throughout the years. "That's been going on so long," he says. "It all got kind of funny."
READ MORE: See Willie Nelson's Hilarious, Tongue-in-Cheek Video for "Still Not Dead"
Then, in one of the coolest moment of the interview, Nelson starts writing a song based of the newspaper's slogan. "That's great, that would be a great song," Nelson says. "Democracy dies in darkness. You gotta have a light so you can see."
This article was originally posted on Aug. 1, 2017.
