WFAA had a very unique opportunity to sit down and talk with country music legend Willie Nelson. The 85-year-old country star was touring in Biloxi, Mississippi when we caught up with him.
We were many many miles away from the town he was born in Abbott, Texas. The town has no stoplight but does have a train that comes through every hour.
"We didn't do much but fight, f---, and throw rocks. That's all we knew how to do," Willie said.
We asked the country legend just about everything and he's never been shy. Lately he has been vocal about politics and about his support for Democrat Beto O'Rourke.
"He could be our next President. He's smart enough, sharp enough," he said.
He says his fans are across all spectrum. But there is no denying there is a strong number of fans who do not think like him.
"Do you ever feel like you're alienating your audience? If they don't want me to have an opinion, F--- It! I got an opinion like they do," he said.
It's also his opinion that Texas will legalize marijuana in his lifetime. He has his own brand of weed, called Willie's Reserves, selling in states where it's legal.
"I'll have to quit. I may be too old to smoke by the time Texas legalizes it," Willie laughed.
His shows still sell out. At his show in Biloxi three generations of one family came to hear him sing "On the Road Again," which was their family song.
"My grandmother's cremated ashes are in our hotel room. We brought her to be here with Willie," Alisha Pierce said.
Nelson says there are no secrets to his longevity but positive thinking. "After every tour, I say I quit. I'm not going no more. I'm going home and play with my horses and have a big time," he said. But the music and the fans keep him coming back.
"What do they say? Beauty is skin deep and ugly goes all the way to the bone," Nelson laughed.
His childhood home is still in Abbott. What is not is the Willie Nelson Road sign that people keep stealing. "Willie Watchers" is what poeple in town call them: the fans who drive through for a peek.
Willie Nelson is not just a product of small-town Abbott, Texas. He is Texas.
