Bob Dylan has offered a unique description of his friend Willie Nelson for an article on the country legend, describing him as an “Ancient Viking Soul” among other things.
A New Yorker profile, titled How Willie Nelson Sees America, asked the folk legend to describe the veteran artist, whom he worked with on the 1993 song ‘Heartland’ and recently coheadlined the 2025 Outlaw Music Festival tour.
“How can you make sense of him?” Dylan replied. “How would you define the indefinable or the unfathomable? What is there to say? Ancient Viking Soul? Master Builder of the Impossible? Patron poet of people who never quite fit in and don’t much care to? Moonshine Philosopher? Tumbleweed singer with a PhD? Red Bandana troubadour, braids like twin ropes lassoing eternity? What do you say about a guy who plays an old, battered guitar that he treats like it’s the last loyal dog in the universe?”
He continued: “Cowboy apparition, writes songs with holes that you can crawl through to escape from something. Voice like a warm porchlight left on for wanderers who kissed goodbye too soon or stayed too long. I guess you can say all that. But it really doesn’t tell you a lot or explain anything about Willie. Personally, speaking I’ve always known him to be kind, generous, tolerant and understanding of human feebleness, a benefactor, a father and a friend. He’s like the invisible air. He’s high and low. He’s in harmony with nature. And that’s what makes him Willie.”
In April, just before his 92nd birthday, Willie Nelson released ‘Oh What A Beautiful World’, his 154th studio album in total, and his 77th solo effort.
During this summer’s Outlaw Music Festival tour, which was founded by Nelson, Bob Dylan covered The Pogues’ ‘A Rainy Night in Soho’ for the first time, and broke out the first live rendition of ‘Mr. Tambourine Man’ in 15 years.