LAS VEGAS Another Saturday night on Earth. How is this one different?

Honestly, nothing is distinct after a while, Willie Nelson confesses. Hes talking about life on the road at 81, when wisdom makes the totality of life feel intensely connected to the present but also when age makes the details feel slippery.

Hes come to Las Vegas for his seventh gig of the new year. After tonight, roughly a hundred more to go. And if they all blend together, thats okay, as long as hes learning more than hes forgetting, which he thinks he is, which is all that really matters.

When most veteran musicians tour this hard toward the sunset, theyre usually fattening their fortunes, paying down their debts, polishing their legacies, nourishing their egos or simply keeping their loyal employees employed. For Nelson, the road seems more like a spiritual path an asphalt Mobius strip, the long way to enlightenment or both.

His buddy Kinky Friedman proudly calls him the Hillbilly Dalai Lama. His most devout fans think of him as a messenger, or even a manifestation, of God. Sitting on his tour bus before the show, salt-and-cinnamon braids dangling to his belly, Nelson radiates a serene warmth when he says that he embraces these responsibilities without much fuss.

Its not a responsibility thats just mine, he says. Its everybodys out there. They have the obligation to set an example. Do unto others. The old Golden Rule. Its an easy one to follow. Sometimes.

There were times when he didnt, of course. He was once a hot-tempered songwriting ace prone to burning bridges before learning that burning marijuana could calm his screeching mind. But the road from turbulence to tranquility was long and formidable. As a kid, he couldnt see past 21. At 21, he swore hed be dead by 40. Here I am at 81, and everything is cool, Nelson says.

And here he is in Vegas, for a gig like any other, only maybe not. In many ways, Las Vegas is a luminescent fantasyland designed to provide its visitors with an opportunity to escape their own heads. A Willie Nelson concert wont allow that. Even when theyre light, Nelsons songs pull us deeper into ourselves, with Nelson singing about the weight of yesterday and the uncertainty of tomorrow with the easiness of right now. His songs are essentially about time, which makes them about life, which makes them about everything. Older listeners remember. Younger listeners imagine. Theres a lot going on.

Its been that way as long as I can remember, Nelson says of his multi-generational flock. When you go to church, its young and old. The audience, for me, is very similar to a congregation. Its all ages out there.

Tonight, plenty of congregants bought their tickets simply to genuflect, get drunk and shout out the words to On the Road Again. But many younger fans in the room quietly acknowledge that theyve made this pilgrimage with bittersweet intentions. Theyre here to see Nelson before he leaves this plane, seemingly unaware that their presence is exactly what keeps that from happening.

Link:
Everyday Zen: On the road with Willie Nelson at 81