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Willie Nelson turned 93 on Wednesday – and has no plans of slowing down. Just three days later, on Saturday, May 2nd, the Red Headed Stranger headlines a concert at the Whitewater Amphitheater in New Braunfels, Texas. This will be followed by several shows in the southeast of the USA, before the 2026 edition of the Outlaw Music Festival Tour begins on July 3rd.
Nelson plays these gigs even though his touring band – the Family Band – has suffered a losing streak in recent years. Guitarist Jody Payne died in 2008, bassist Bee Spears in 2011, and Nelson’s long-time drummer and sparring partner Paul English left in 2020. And then there was “Sister Bobbie”: Nelson’s piano-playing older sister Bobbie Nelson left a gaping hole in the Willie universe with her death in 2022.
John Spong, host of the One by Willie podcast and contributor to Texas Monthly, has his own theory on how Nelson continues despite all these losses. Speaking to the ROLLING STONE podcast Nashville Now, Spong says Nelson’s persistence is a “spiritual” thing – especially when it comes to Bobbie.
Bobbie always there
“I can’t imagine how much he misses her. But I also can’t imagine that he doesn’t feel her with him when he’s on stage,” says Spong.
Spong, a proven Willie connoisseur who has interviewed the country legend countless times and worked on album rankings for Texas Monthly, gets emotional when he thinks about the deceased members of the family band.
“I don’t want to sound too gushing, but I don’t think so [Willie] it for she does. I think he does it in a real sense with them,” he says. “Still.”
Crossover episode with depth
Spong’s performance is part of a special crossover episode between “One by Willie” and “Nashville Now” that examines Nelson’s albums and song catalog – while also spotlighting “My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys,” Nelson’s fifth number one single and the title track to the 1979 Robert Redford film “The Electric Horseman.” Watch the full episode below.
ROLLING STONE’s weekly country music podcast, Nashville Now, hosted by Senior Music Editor Joseph Hudak, is available to download and subscribe to on Apple Podcasts or Spotify (or wherever you listen to your podcasts). New episodes appear every Wednesday with interviews from artists such as Vince Gill, Lainey Wilson, Hardy, Charley Crockett, Kings of Leon, The Black Crowes, Carly Pearce, Brandon Lake, Breland, Bryan Andrews, Noeline Hofmann, Devon Gilfillian, Gavin Adcock, Amanda Shires, Shooter Jennings, Margo Price, Ink, Ne-Yo, Rival Sons’ Jay Buchanan, Halestorm, Dusty Slay, Lukas Nelson, Ashley Monroe, Old Crow Medicine Shows Ketch Secor, Clever and authors Marissa R. Moss, Josh Crutchmer, Mark Gray and Jonathan Bernstein.
