LOS ANGELES (AP) Are there any other real cowboys? Neil Young sang Saturday night at the Hollywood Bowl on a rare night when he was neither the headliner nor, at 77, even close to the oldest performer on the bill.
Provide instant response, willie nelsonwearing a cowboy hat and a red, white and blue guitar strap, slowly strode onto the stage on his 90th birthday, bringing the crowd of more than 17,000 to his feet .
Nelson sat in a chair, one of the few onstage concessions he made to getting older, and joined Young for the rest of their 1985 duet, Are There Any More Real Cowboys?
I want to thank all the artists who came out tonight to help celebrate what we are celebrating, Nelson said, feigning senility and causing laughter.
The time has come three hours after the start of a two night celebration of the country legend at the Los Angeles outdoor amphitheater, where generations of stars have performed his tribute songs.
As a kid growing up in Texas, it seemed like there was nothing bigger than Willie Nelson, said Owen Wilson, one of the hosts for the evening with Helen Mirren, Ethan Hawke and Jennifer Garner. And watching the Hollywood Bowl tonight, it always feels like there’s nothing bigger than Willie Nelson.
After Young, Nelson released George Straita next generation country superstar, for their self-referential duet, Sing One With Willie, followed by the everlasting Willie, Pancho and Lefty, with Strait singing the part once played by late Merle Haggard.
Nelson then shouted, Come and roll one with me Snoop!
Strutting came the rapper Snoop Doggseated next to Nelson as they launched into their stoner anthem, Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die.” Perhaps rightly so, each seemed to forget the words at times. The two friends seemed too happy to s worry about it.
Someone make some noise for the legend Mr. Willie Nelson! Snoop shouted in the middle of the song.
The parade of partners illustrated one of the themes of the evening: Willie brings people together.
All of a sudden it didn’t matter if you were a hillbilly or a hippie, everybody was a Willie Nelson fan,” Wilson said of Nelson’s late emergence as a singing superstar when he left Nashville, Tennessee, and returned to his native Texas in the 1970s. Even the Dalai Lama is a Willie Nelson fan. That’s right.”
The crowd, which ranged from small children to the elderly, illustrated this point. The stands were strewn with cowboy hats as hippies danced through the aisles and weed smoke wafted through the air.
Miranda Lambert delighted them with a rousing, sung version of Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys, Nelson’s 1978 hit with Waylon Jennings. Chicks swept through 1970s Bloody Mary Morning at the same blistering pace that Willie and his Family Band played it live in their heyday.
Nelson outlived nearly every member of that band, who sustained him through decades of constant touring and recording. His little sister and pianist, Bobbie Nelson, who died last year. She received her own tribute from Norah Jones, who pounded the keys on young Nelson’s saloon-style solo song, Down Yonder, from Willie Nelson’s 1975 definitive album Red Headed Stranger.
While many of the women who took the stage played upbeat rockers, most of the men leaned towards quiet emotion.
Chris Stapleton kept his guitar by his side through a smooth and thoughtful rendition of Always on My Mind, “Nelson’s biggest solo hit of the 1980s. Nelson’s son, Lukas, sang Angel Flying Too Close to The Ground alone with his acoustic guitar, his voice a look-alike for his father’s.
Another surviving member of the Family Band, harmonica master Mickey Raphael, was part of the weekend house band, led by Don Was, who supported almost everyone.
Nelson also outlived most of his classical collaborators. But a must, Kris Kristofferson, his 86-year-old Highwaymen teammate, took the stage to join Rosanne Cash, the daughter of another Highwayman: Johnny Cash.
Rosanne Cash was singing Nelson’s Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I’ll Ever Do Again) when Kristofferson, who wrote the song, came out and harmonized with her on the choruses.
Nelson’s musical diversity was another theme of the evening.
He mixes and bends genres,” Mirren said from the stage. Its timing and categories are its own.
Leon Bridges’ nightlife showed Nelson’s affinity for the blues, as did Jones’ jazzy journey through Funny How Time Slips Away from 1961, when Nelson was known primarily as a songwriter of hits for others. .
Ziggy Marley sang Still Is Still Moving To Me, which Nelson recorded in 1993 and later sang with Toots and the Maytals in one of his occasional forays into reggae. Marley shouted Wee-lay! in his Jamaican accent during the song.
Sunday night’s show will feature a whole different lineup of acts, including Dave Matthews, Sheryl Crow and Emmylou Harris.
Young first took the stage with his first collaborator Stephen Stills. The duo played an enhanced version of For What It’s Worth, trading guitar solos to the classic hit they made as members of Buffalo Springfield in 1966.
Nelson invited all the artists of the evening to join him for the Carter family’s 1935 song, Will the Circle Be Unbroken? one of his longtime live favorites and the classic closing song of all country music.
It was clearly meant to be the end, as Hawke took the mic and started thanking everyone for coming.
But the 90-year-old wasn’t ready to stop. He interrupted and burst into Mac Davis’ Its Hard to Be Humble, which Nelson and his sons recorded in 2019.
It was a fun choice for an ending song, but its chorus was a perfect comedic coda for a man who had been drowning in adoration all night:
To know me is to love me, I must be a hell of a man. Oh lord, it’s hard to be humble. But I’m doing the best I can.”
