WILLIE NELSON ON POLITICS, DIVISION, AND WHY AMERICA NEEDS MUSIC MORE THAN EVER
For more than half a century, Willie Nelson has been America’s conscience with a guitar. At 84 at the time of this interview, he was still doing what he has always done best: cutting through noise, ego, and anger with humor, honesty, and hard-earned perspective.
The conversation opens with a joke — one that only Willie could deliver so casually. Asked about people writing in his name for president, he laughs it off. He admits he was once approached about running, but quickly shut it down with a punchline: the first thing he’d do as president would be to make a certain curse word “one word.” It’s classic Willie — disarming, irreverent, and instantly human.
But beneath the humor lies something deeper.
As someone who covers politics for a living tells him, America feels more divided than ever — and Willie’s voice feels especially needed now. Asked how the country can come together, Willie doesn’t pretend to have easy answers. “There’s a few people out there that really don’t get it,” he says. “I don’t know how you ever communicate with everybody.”
Still, he believes most Americans already know something is wrong. The problem, he says, isn’t just politics — it’s tone. “In the way we talk to each other,” he notes, and “in the way we vote.” Everyone thinks they’re right, Willie observes, but “we’re not all right.”
Having lived through countless administrations and political eras, Willie reflects that partisan fighting has always existed — Democrats, Republicans, independents — but today feels more bitter. People have chosen sides and are willing to fight to the end for what they believe in. And while he respects conviction, he brings it back to a simple question: What can you do?
His answer is straightforward: vote. If something is broken, he believes the voting booth is where change begins.
Willie also talks about his song “Delete and Fast Forward,” which he describes as a reflection of the moment America is in. You can’t fix yesterday. You can’t control tomorrow. “The only way we can do anything is right now,” he says — a philosophy that has guided both his life and his music.
The interview takes a lighter turn when Willie discusses Willie’s Reserve, his cannabis brand, and the country’s shifting attitude toward marijuana. When told that some politicians compare marijuana to heroin, Willie responds with characteristic bluntness: try both, then call him back and explain how they’re the same. For him, it’s not ideology — it’s education.
Then comes one of the most Willie Nelson moments of all: being asked about constant online rumors of his death. He laughs, saying people are always glad to see him when he shows up. He’s been “dying” in headlines for decades, ever since “On the Road Again.” It’s become a running joke — one he clearly enjoys.
The conversation closes on a powerful note. Shown The Washington Post’s slogan, “Democracy Dies in Darkness,” Willie immediately turns it into a song idea. “You gotta have a light so you can see,” he says. Music, like democracy, needs illumination.
In the end, Willie Nelson doesn’t claim to have solutions for everything. What he offers instead is perspective — earned through time, travel, loss, and love. He reminds us that fighting for what you believe in matters, but so does listening. That humor can soften truth. And that sometimes, the clearest wisdom comes from someone who’s been “gone” a hundred times — and is still very much here.
As always, Willie doesn’t lecture America.
He just sings to it — and trusts it to listen.