The expression, “What’s there to say about so-and-so?” is one thing we use when phrases can’t do justice to an individual’s legend. However when requested to explain Willie Nelson for a profile in The New Yorker, Bob Dylan dug deep for some selection phrases — as poetic and touching as you may anticipate from The Bard speaking about The Purple-Headed Stranger.
Dylan did, nevertheless, open his response with what author Alex Abramovich known as “a warning”: “It’s onerous to speak about Willie with out saying one thing silly or irrelevant, he’s a lot of every thing.” As Dylan went on, he proved himself proper, labeling Nelson every thing from an “Historic Viking Soul” to a “Moonshine Thinker” to a “Cowboy apparition [who] writes songs with holes that you could crawl via to flee from one thing.”
Right here’s Dylan’s full description of Nelson:
“How are you going to make sense of him? How would you outline the indefinable or the unfathomable? What’s there to say? Historic Viking Soul? Grasp Builder of the Not possible? Patron poet of people that by no means fairly slot in and don’t a lot care to? Moonshine Thinker? Tumbleweed singer with a PhD? Purple Bandana troubadour, braids like twin ropes lassoing eternity? What do you say a couple of man who performs an previous, battered guitar that he treats prefer it’s the final loyal canine within the universe? Cowboy apparition, writes songs with holes that you could crawl via to flee from one thing. Voice like a heat porchlight left on for wanderers who kissed goodbye too quickly or stayed too lengthy. I assume you may say all that. Nevertheless it actually doesn’t inform you a large number or clarify something about Willie. Personally talking I’ve at all times recognized him to be form, beneficiant, tolerant and understanding of human feebleness, a benefactor, a father and a good friend. He’s just like the invisible air. He’s excessive and low. He’s in concord with nature. And that’s what makes him Willie.”
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The total profile options insights from various Nelson’s collaborators and household, together with Jeff Tweedy (“Willie means extra to me than the Liberty Bell”), Norah Jones, members of his band, his son Lukas, and his spouse, Annie. Learn it at The New Yorker.
The 92-year-old Nelson and 84-year-old Dylan toured collectively this yr on the “Outlaw Music Competition Tour.” Nelson just lately launched his one hundred and fifty fifth album, Workin’ Man: Willie Sings Merle, whereas Dylan will head out on a brand new leg of his “Tough and Rowdy Methods” tour in spring 2026. Get tickets to these dates right here.