Willie Nelson busy writing new music in lockdown

Willie Nelson won’t let the coronavirus pandemic stop him working on music.

The 87-year-old music legend has just released his 70th studio album, ‘First Rose of Spring’, and the prolific star has revealed he’s keeping busy writing and playing music whilst he’s holed up at home and unable to hit the road.

Appearing via video chat on the ‘TODAY’ show, he said: ”I enjoy making records. Just getting in the studio playing and singing, and I enjoy writing.”

Co-host Jenna Bush Hager said to him: ”A pandemic won’t stop Willie Nelson writing music”, to which he replied: ”No, no way.”

As well as his new record – the follow-up to 2019’s ‘Ride Me Back Home’ – the ‘On The Road Again’ hitmaker is hosting the first-ever virtual 4th of July Picnic, which will see performances from the likes of Sheryl Crow, Ziggy Marley, Margo Price, Steve Earle, Kurt Vile, plus the Lukas Nelson Promise of the Real band, his son’s group.

Lukas, 31, and Nelson’s late son Billy – who died in 1991 – took after their dad and he’s hailed them as ”really good musicians”.

He said: ”I knew it from the beginning. We didn’t push it or anything but we left some drums, guitars and a piano, a lot of things laid around the living room.

”And we watched them get interested in the drums and through the years, you could see it evolve and I watched both of them become really good musicians.”

Meanwhile, Nelson – who shows no signs of slowing down – and his sister Bobbie are poised to release a co-written memoir.

The Grammy-winner and his 89-year-old sibling will release ‘Me and Sister Bobbie: True Tales of the Family Band’ on September 15, with the tome set to reveal details of their relationship and musical collaborations.

A statement explained that the book will weave together Willie and Bobbie’s journeys ”as they experienced them both side-by-side and apart, with powerful, emotional never-before-told recollections from their personal lives and careers”.

The memoir is being published by Random House and Ben Greenberg is serving as the executive editor of the memoir.

The pair have also announced plans to release a picture book in 2021, with the project having been handed a tentative title of ‘Sister, Brother, Family: Our Childhood in Music’.

Article source: https://www.contactmusic.com/willie-nelson/news/willie-nelson-busy-writing-new-music-in-lockdown_6316223