Legendary musician Willie Nelson is the subject of a New Yorker profile, but what has everyone talking is Bob Dylan‘s contribution to the piece, where he had quite a few things to say about the 92-year-old Rock & Roll Hall of Famer.
Dylan has spent the last two summers on Nelson’s Outlaw Music Festival, and when asked by the New Yorker journalist to describe Nelson, Dylan replied with, “It’s hard to talk about Willie without saying something stupid or irrelevant, he is so much of everything.”
But apparently he somehow found the words.
“How can you make sense of him? How would you define the indefinable or the unfathomable?” Dylan shared. “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?”
He added, “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? Cowboy apparition, writes songs with holes that you can crawl through to escape from something. Voice like a warm porch light left on for wanderers who kissed goodbye too soon or stayed too long,” noting, “I guess you can say all that. But it really doesn’t tell you a lot or explain anything about Willie.”
Getting personal, Dylan explained, “I’ve always known him to be kind, generous, tolerant and understanding of human feebleness, a benefactor, a father and a friend,” adding, “He’s like the invisible air. He’s high and low. He’s in harmony with nature. And that’s what makes him Willie.”
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