voice changed, so i went from a high singer to a low and then back and forth and it would break for about two years. larry: you ve collaborated with many different artists, you ve tried your hand in a lot of musical genres. does the country music establishment, if there such a thing, get angry when you perform with julio, snoop dogg, and so on? does country music say is willie leaving us? i don t think any of them get angry. the ones that get angry, that makes it all worthwhile. but i don t think there s any of them out there that really think i don t know what i m doing, because larry: you re beyond that. do you still play nashville? sure. absolutely. enjoy playing nashville, and the band that we re we used on this new record, these are all nashville pickers and we played
he s passed now. and some of those guys are just, you know, unbeatable. larry: willie nelson, he s got something to say about sarah palin, the tea party movement, his offer to president obama, all ahead. we re covering everything tonight. it s the night with willie. stay with us. mama, don t let your babies grow up to be cowboys i remember when a dime bag cost a dime. you know what i mean? [ male announcer ] fact when doctors are in pain, the medicine in advil is their #1 choice for pain relief. more than the medicines in tylenol or aleve. use the medicine doctors use for themselves. one more reason to make advil your #1 choice. use for themselves. challenge that with olay. in an independent study of 50,000 consumers presented by better homes and gardens, olay was voted best
songs like house of gold and satisfied mind, which to me are really country music standards, this is the star dust of country music. and these songs in their time were just as famous and just as good and soul like stardust and larry: so they re all famous. country fans would all know man with the blues, my baby is gone, satisfied wind, pistol packing mama, we all know that. lay your pistol down, baby drinking champagne and house of gold. all favorite songs. i m a pilgrim. an ocean of diamonds. i m a pilgrim is an old mel travis song. dark as a dujen is another earl travis song about the miner which is is very appropriate for these days. so there s a lot of great music in there. larry: you sing everything. you have great albums of pop songs. the other night, the other day,
terrific major country songs. 15 of them recorded by the master himself, willie nelson. and the on the road again tour is in progress. look for it definitely he ll be in a city near you. singer/songwriter john mellencamp has worked with you on farm aid. what do you make of the effort to get him to run for the u.s. senate up in indiana? he s a great american, and i know he probably will do a great job. larry: you think he s got a shot? yeah, i think so. he s well liked. well known. larry: how good a singer is he? i like his singing. he s rock n roll all the way. i like to larry: you mentioned johnny cash, who appeared in that seat quite a few times. where do you rank him? did you see the movie? yes, i did. fantastic. larry: that guy was unbelievable. yeah. he did a great job, yeah. no. john and i were brothers. he used to call me a lot, you know, whenever because i m always telling him dirty jokes.
hal david, a great song writer, told me that you are the best singer living. thank you, hal. larry: you sell a song. and when you hear willie nelson, you know it s willie nelson. that s great. larry: is it as much fun to sing pop as country? sure. it s more of a challenge to do those pop classics and standards, because i grew up singing your cheating heart and the hank williams songs. and it s second nature to me. to do star dust and moonlight in vermont and stuff like that, you really have to be on your game a little bit. larry: but you still give it that same willie no one sings it like willie nelson. it still sounds country. larry: because you re country. because i am, yeah. larry: where do you live if you live on a bus? i live on the bus mostly, but i also have a home in texas. and i have an apartment in l.a. and the home in maui.