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Ahead of local shows, Lukas Nelson – son of Willie – continues to prove he’s his own man
Nelson — at Newport Folk Fest on Saturday — talks getting sober, learning to fly, and flying solo.
After talking with Lukas Nelson, Bob Dylan lines popped into my head.
A passage from Dylan’s gut-punch of a spoken-word epic, “Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie.”
“And there’s something on yer mind you wanna be saying/That somebody someplace oughta be hearin’/ But it’s trapped on yer tongue and sealed in yer head/ And it bothers you badly when you’re layin’ in bed.”
Because only an artist with a burning singular vision — one hitting a near-desperate need to get his creations out of his brain and into the world — would get the urge for going solo while rocking with Neil Young.
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“I love playing other people’s songs, but I’ve got a lot of my own music. Most of the time when I’m bursting with ideas, it’s with ideas to write my own music,” Nelson, 36, tells me in our recent phone interview.
Around 2014, Young recruited Nelson’s band Promise of the Real for touring and recording. And they’ve melted faces.
POTR is now “on hiatus.” The decision wasn’t contentious. Nelson still lives with one POTR bandmate, and tours with another, he tells me.
“It’s not like we broke up or anything — I just wanted to keep just playing my music. Those guys, them playing Neil’s music, for some of those guys, that’s the top. And I respect that. But for me, I’m forging my own path.”
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His first solo album “American Romance”— overall vibe: Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road” as interpreted by Townes Van Zandt — dropped in June.
Life on the road — first with his dad Willie, later his own career — inspired “American Romance,” a love letter to the country he’s always driving through. Nelson sees the album as a Steinbeck-esque novel of life on the American road.
Nelson’s writing is sharp, his voice, as always, a taut, wavy twang smacking of, well, a young Willie Nelson. Must-listen: the Tom Petty-esque “Born Running Out of Time.”
A songwriter since age 11, Nelson is one of Willie’s guitar-genius sons — brother Micah blew me away last year, as a bonafide member of Young’s Crazy Horse in Mansfield. Lukas was also the inspiration for Bradley Cooper’s character in the Oscar-winning “A Star is Born.”
But if you’ve never seen him live, check his incendiary cover of Willie Dixon’s “Hoochie Coochie Man,” from Farm Aid 2010. Actually, I need you to watch it now. Fast forward to 2:32 when a barefoot Nelson puts guitar to face, playing with his teeth. I’ll wait….
… Yeah. To say he’s an act best seen live is an understatement. He feeds off live energy. In the 15 years since that clip, he’s only grown more proficient.
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“The live shows, I’ve been dialing in now for the last 15 years. That’s where my strength lies,” Nelson tells me. “It’s hard to capture that energy in a studio. Mainly the studio is there to put down songs that hopefully people want to come see and hear live.”
Ahead of shows at Newport Folk Fest July 26 and in Deerfield July 28, I called Nelson — he was, of course, on the road — to talk about getting sober, learning to fly, flying solo, Steinbeck, Bob Dylan, paragliding, his dad’s legacy and more.
Boston.com: Tell me about “American Romance.”
Lukas Nelson: This is like my version of a novel: growing up and traveling and loving and losing love in the American landscape. I don’t know if you’ve ever read John Steinbeck.
Sure.
I read a lot of him when I was growing up. And Cormac McCarthy.
Oh, Cormac is one of my all-time favorites.
So I wanted to write a book with songs. A novel about being raised by this country.
I was born in Austin, raised partly in Hawaii, but was never anywhere longer than two or three months because we were on the road with Dad.
[Later] I dropped out of college, got a van, put in 250 shows a year. So it’s hard to say where I was brought up. The title song, the first line is “Mobile home along the river.” I envision this song on the Hudson River on the Jersey side, I had my bus parked there.
Any songs sparked by New England?
Well, it’s all an amalgamation. That song talks about coming from the heartland out to the East Coast. Other songs are focused on the West, the South — just the great American landscape. Amber waves of grain, and grain silos, and Walmart parking lots, and fluorescent lights — I tried to capture all of it, not just the romantic part.
Promise of the Real is on hiatus, but there was no drama, you said.
It wasn’t a big thing. It was just, they’re out with Neil a lot, and I wanted to play my own music. I’ve always been a songwriter, I’ve always written the songs for Promise of the Real. Before Neil came into the picture, we were out playing my songs and I didn’t want to stop doing that. There were a lot of times where there was a [schedule] conflict. Those guys were fine playing with him — we all look up to him, and he’s our mentor. But I think for me, it wasn’t about that. I wanted to play my own music and be my own artist.
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The bass player from Promise of the Real, Corey McCormick, is out with me now. Tato Melgar, the percussionist, lives at my house with his wife and family. Actually, they live in my main house; I live in the cottage. We’re family.
That’s awesome. So any plans for Newport Folk? I know they sometimes have certain artists duet.
Stephen Wilson Jr. will be there; hopefully we’ll play something together. We wrote a song for my album called “Disappearing Light.” Jesse Welles and I will do a song together, I think. There’s a lot of people there I’m looking forward to seeing. And that Deerfield show is going to be great. I hear it’s a great spot.
Also, Outlaw Fest — with your dad and Bob Dylan — is coming to Mansfield in September. You’re sporadically doing those shows when you can. Will you be here in September?
It’s possible. I’m going to go see my parents in Maui in August. My mom’s birthday is at the end of August. So we’ll see. I’d love to meet them in Massachusetts if I can.
Speaking of birthdays, your dad’s 90th was such an epic show. What did that feel like, to witness the impact your dad has had over 90 years?
I mean, what a beautiful thing to be able to celebrate him while he’s still here in such a beautiful, powerful way. That was one of my favorite shows.
Some kids might say, “My dad’s a singer. I’m not going to get into that.” But it sounds like he’s your influence and hero.
He is. Very much so. I’m grateful for him as a human. And for showing me a way of life that’s win-win: You go play music, you make people happy, it makes you happy. If you invest in music, it pays back in dividends.
You’ve been writing songs since you were 11.
Yeah. In fact, my first song I ever wrote at age 11, “You Were It,” is on this new album. I wrote it on the school bus. I remember hearing it play in my head, and writing it down, and showing my dad. He said, “This is really good writing,” and I could tell he meant it. He covered it on his 2004 album, “It Always Will Be.” But I never actually put it out myself until now. So it’s full circle.
I love that. And you’ve also talked about your journey with sobriety.
I stopped smoking weed, I stopped drinking. I quit doing anything habitually. People have different definitions of sober. There’s AA sober, which I don’t think I would qualify for, because for example, once a year, I’ll do a psychedelic check-in and I’ll do mushrooms. But it’s not a habit — I do that as a medicine once a year to shed layers of bulls—. I couple it with my meditation practice and my therapy.
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But yeah, I got myself sober and became a pilot around the same time. It was all part of a new journey I’m taking to be the best I can be.
So getting sober and learning to fly was linked?
Yeah, once I quit drinking and smoking, I figured it would be a good time to do something that I should only do sober — like flying airplanes. [laughs]
[laughs] Do you fly often?
I got my pilot’s license in March after about a year-and-a-half of work. That was hard because I had to study on the road, between soundchecks. I quit golf and started studying for my pilot’s license. I haven’t flown a lot because I’ve been on the road. But I wanted to do it to know that I could. To prove to myself I had the academic wherewithal.
That’s great. Was there any specific reason that triggered you to want to stop smoking and drinking?
I want to cultivate good habits. I want to not just live a long time, but be healthy for a long time. I read “Outlive,” by Dr Peter Attia and that helped me put into perspective what it takes to age gracefully and healthily. I’m 36 now, so I figured, why not try, while I’m young, to cultivate the right habits.
Has this journey triggered you to get into anything else besides flying?
I started paragliding for a second, but realized I’d rather fly. I like having the airplane around me; wheels I can land on. I can go up with an instructor. It’s safer to fly every once in a while, than to paraglide every once in a while. You want to be able to paraglide a lot if you get into it. It’s easy to break a leg or twist an ankle or do something that will just completely ruin every other plan you have in your life.
I’m a huge Dylan fan, and have to ask: What’s it like working with him?
I’ve played with him a few times, and I’m a fan of his songwriting, but I don’t see him often. He’s hung out with my dad a lot, and I’ve hung out with him a couple of times. But he keeps to himself.
You’re on the road all the time. But where do you live now?
I own a home in Hawaii — I was able to afford it after “A Star is Born.” It’s about 20 minutes from where my parents live. And I rent a place in Nashville.
Married? Pets?
I have two puppies. Not married. I don’t even have a girlfriend right now. I’m kind of enjoying being solo at the moment.
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Lauren Daley can be reached at [email protected]. She tweets @laurendaley1, and Instagrams at @laurendaley1. Read more stories on Facebook here.
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