John Spong
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Host of One by Willie podcast + longtime staff writer/unofficial Willie Nelson editor at Texas Monthly. It lives here: onebywillie.com
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Articles by John Spong
John Shelby Spong: Rescuing Jesus From Religion | Interview
John Shelby Spong: Rescuing Jesus From Religion | Interview by Candace Chellew in Books [This interview posted on 3/1/2008 is availalble on the Internet, https://whosoever.org/bishop-john-shelby-spong-rescuing-jesus-from-religion-interview/.] Do you believe in the virgin birth of Jesus? Do you believe Jesus literally rose from the grave? Do you believe the Bible is the inerrant word of God and must be read literally?
Larry Gatlin on the Wisdom of Letting Willie Nelson Be Lead Dog
When Larry Gatlin first moved to Nashville, in 1971, he was fresh off a job waiting tables at a Steak and Ale outside Houston, a young unknown songwriter thrilled just be in the presence of heroes like Roger Miller, Mickey Newbury, and Willie Nelson. But as big as his dreams were, his clear, rich tenor voice was even bigger.
Adrian Quesada on the Flamenco Heart of Willie Nelson’s ‘Teatro’
Adrian Quesada is one of those people who doesn’t much like to sit still, at least not artistically. When he encounters something he digs, be it a song or a musical style, he likes to take it apart, to find out how its pieces fit, to learn about its influences and antecedents. When he was growing up in Laredo, traditional Mexican music was everywhere, and when he started playing guitar in his early teens, he initially studied flamenco.
Amanda Petrusich on Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, and the Outlaw’s Conundrum
Last November, New Yorker pop-music critic Amanda Petrusich posted a photo of her dog-eared vinyl copy of Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard’s 1983 album, Pancho & Lefty, on her religiously followed Instagram account. In the accompanying text, she tipped her hat to the flea market where she bought it, for a buck, and the black leather jacket she likes to wear when she plays it—plus to Townes Van Zandt, San Quentin prison, freight trains, and potato trucks.
Charlie Sexton on Willie Nelson’s Real-Deal, Steel-Driven, Jukebox Country Music
Charlie Sexton’s been a fixture of the Austin music scene for almost as long as Willie.
Charlie Sexton on Willie Nelson’s Real-Deal, Steel-Driven, Jukebox Country Music
2 hours ago I Went Without Internet for a Day. Here’s What Happened Commentary: No text messages. No Google Maps. No security cam alerts. It was both delightful and intimidating.
John Mellencamp Believes Willie Nelson Deserves a Nobel Peace Prize
The first time John Mellencamp ever talked to Willie Nelson was in mid-August of 1985, when Willie called Mellencamp’s Bloomington, Indiana, home after finishing a round of golf at a nearby course.
Paul Begala on Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, and the Lost Art of Empathy
Long before Paul Begala made his career in politics—before his multiple stints as an analyst on CNN, before he served as an adviser to President Bill Clinton in the White House—he was a Willie nerd. It started when he was ten years old, after his dad moved the family from New Jersey to Missouri City, Texas, to take an oil patch sales job.
Billy Strings on What It’s Like to Play Willie Nelson’s Guitar
In early 2023, bluegrass phenom Billy Strings paid Willie Nelson a visit at the latter’s Pedernales Studio. The two were going to cut a duet of a song Strings had just written, “California Sober,” about a topic they’d discussed a few times on Willie’s bus: the virtues of weed over whiskey. After a quick false start, things took off. Willie nailed the vocals on his verse. He invited Strings, an absolute savant on guitar, to pick for a little bit on Trigger.
Miranda Lambert on Willie Nelson and the Enduring Primacy of the Pickin’ Party
Miranda Lambert can’t remember a time when she didn’t know the song “Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys.” The Willie and Waylon duet, a Grammy-winning, number one country hit in 1978, was already an outlaw anthem well before Lambert was even born. But when she was a little girl growing up in tiny Lindale, money was tight and life precarious.
Love, Death, and a Bleating Goat: Inside Willie's Strange and Beautiful New Album
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to walk through a dream with Willie Nelson? To encounter old ghosts and regrets, to peek in on long-ago moments of joy and pain, some seemingly ever-present and others deeply buried, and to have Willie at your side? Not as a tour guide but as a translator, the reassuring, 91-year-old shaman who keeps pulling your focus back to the big picture Truth—that the journey is not a straight line, it’s a circle.
On His 152nd Album, Willie’s Still Dropping Once-in-a-Generation Songs
Down near the bottom of the track list of Willie Nelson’s latest album, his 152nd, is a new song that should join what I think of as his personal canon. These songs are not necessarily his biggest hits nor his best-sellers, though entries like “Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground,” which he wrote, and “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain,” which he did not, certainly qualify as such. Rather, these are the songs that have come to matter most to his fans.
On His 152nd Album, Willie’s Still Dropping Once-in-a-Generation Songs
Down near the bottom of the track list of Willie Nelson’s latest album, his 152nd, is a new song that should join what I think of as his personal canon. These songs are not necessarily his biggest hits nor his best-sellers, though entries like “Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground,” which he wrote, and “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain,” which he did not, certainly qualify as such. Rather, these are the songs that have come to matter most to his fans.
Lucinda Williams on the Pure Poetry of Willie Nelson’s “Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground”
Lucinda Williams was just another no-name singer-songwriter when she moved to Austin the second time, in 1981, and rented a dirt-cheap apartment in a sketchy complex on South Congress that residents jokingly called “the Willie Hilton.” In its heyday in the sixties, the fourteen-acre property had been billed as the state’s largest motor court lodge, though its fortunes had fallen mightily by the time Willie Nelson bought it in 1978, its accommodations converted to month-to-month bungalows and...
Lucinda Williams on the Pure Poetry of Willie Nelson’s “Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground”
Lucinda Williams was just another no-name singer-songwriter when she moved to Austin the second time, in 1981, and rented a dirt-cheap apartment in a sketchy complex on South Congress that residents jokingly called “the Willie Hilton.” In its heyday in the sixties, the fourteen-acre property had been billed as the state’s largest motor court lodge, though its fortunes had fallen mightily by the time Willie Nelson bought it in 1978, its accommodations converted to month-to-month bungalows and...
Willie Nelson’s Daughter Lana on Lullabies, Landlords, and Townes Van Zandt
For as long as Lana Nelson can remember, “Red Headed Stranger” was one of her favorite songs. When she was a little girl in the late fifties, and her dad a radio DJ, she’d call the stations where he worked to request its original 1954 recording by Arthur “Guitar Boogie” Smith and his Cracker-Jacks—provided, that is, it happened to be a period in which the family could afford a phone. Then, when her dad got home each night, she’d beg him to play her to sleep with it on his guitar.
Willie Nelson’s Daughter Lana on Lullabies, Landlords, and Townes Van Zandt
For as long as Lana Nelson can remember, “Red Headed Stranger” was one of her favorite songs. When she was a little girl in the late fifties, and her dad a radio DJ, she’d call the stations where he worked to request its original 1954 recording by Arthur “Guitar Boogie” Smith and his Cracker-Jacks—provided, that is, it happened to be a period in which the family could afford a phone. Then, when her dad got home each night, she’d beg him to play her to sleep with it on his guitar.
Wade Bowen on Willie Nelson’s Road Anthem “Me and Paul” . . . From a Tour Bus Broke Down in Iowa
It may be the most apropos interview ever featured on One by Willie.
Wade Bowen on Willie Nelson’s Road Anthem “Me and Paul” . . . From a Tour Bus Broke Down in Iowa - Dfwliving.com
It may be the most apropos interview ever featured on One by Willie.
The Groove
THE MOON HUNG FULL, bright and high over the Chihuahuan Desert floor like a bare light bulb illuminating a small-town sheriff’s drunk tank, an observation I would have been smart to consider at the time. I was one of three dudes in a beat up old Land Cruiser, barreling up a West Texas byway at 3:00 A.M. after a long day spent satisfying Texan rites of passage.
John Leventhal on Willie Nelson’s Tight Grip on Timelessness
John Leventhal is one of the most important record producers working in Americana music today. But the eloquent New Yorker, who’s also a hit songwriter and virtuoso guitarist, readily acknowledges that placing his collaborations in that catch-all genre doesn’t tell you much about how they actually sound. To make that determination, you’ve just got to listen.
John Leventhal on Willie Nelson’s Tight Grip on Timelessness
John Leventhal is one of the most important record producers working in Americana music today. But the eloquent New Yorker, who’s also a hit songwriter and virtuoso guitarist, readily acknowledges that placing his collaborations in that catch-all genre doesn’t tell you much about how they actually sound. To make that determination, you’ve just got to listen.
Susan Tedeschi on Willie Nelson and the Singular Joy of Playing in a Family Band
Susan Tedeschi knows family bands. For fourteen years she and her husband, slide guitar virtuoso Derek Trucks, have led the Tedeschi Trucks Band, the Grammy-winning groove-and-blues collective the two formed in 2010, after nearly a decade of sharing bills with their individual bands. Many of those shows also featured Derek’s other group, the Allman Brothers Band, which he’d been playing with since the mid-nineties—and which his uncle, drummer Butch Trucks, had cofounded himself.
Susan Tedeschi on Willie Nelson and the Singular Joy of Playing in a Family Band
Susan Tedeschi knows family bands. For fourteen years she and her husband, slide guitar virtuoso Derek Trucks, have led the Tedeschi Trucks Band, the Grammy-winning groove-and-blues collective the two formed in 2010, after nearly a decade of sharing bills with their individual bands.
Bruce Robison on What Willie Nelson’s Saddest Songs Taught Him About Songwriting, Love, and Life
Texas singer-songwriter Bruce Robison is famous for writing highly intelligent, richly detailed country songs—that happen also to be incredibly sad, like “Angry All the Time,” which was a number one hit for Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, and “Travelin’ Soldier,” which scaled the same heights for the Chicks.
Bruce Robison on What Willie Nelson’s Saddest Songs Taught Him About Songwriting, Love, and Life
Texas singer-songwriter Bruce Robison is famous for writing highly intelligent, richly detailed country songs—that happen also to be incredibly sad, like “Angry All the Time,” which was a number one hit for Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, and “Travelin’ Soldier,” which scaled the same heights for the Chicks.
Pulitzer Prize Winner Lawrence Wright on the Existential Quality of Watching Willie Nelson and Trigger Grow Old Together
When Willie released “Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die” as a single on, of course, April 20, 2012, it became an instant fan favorite, and there are a host of reasons why. For one, it’s a great mix of three Willie hallmarks, namely a catchy melody, his insouciant wit, and weed, and concertgoers have been waving joints overhead when he plays it ever since.
Pulitzer Prize Winner Lawrence Wright on the Existential Quality of Watching Willie Nelson and Trigger Grow Old Together
When Willie released “Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die” as a single on, of course, April 20, 2012, it became an instant fan favorite, and there are a host of reasons why. For one, it’s a great mix of three Willie hallmarks, namely a catchy melody, his insouciant wit, and weed, and concertgoers have been waving joints overhead when he plays it ever since.
Booker T. Jones on Why He Recorded Willie Nelson’s ‘Stardust’ in Emmylou Harris’s Living Room
To many Willie fans, both the casual and hardcore, his 1978 album Stardust is the best he ever made, and the reverence is well-earned. It’s the biggest-selling record of his career, spending a full ten years on Billboard’s country albums chart. It’s also an undeniably beautiful collection of songs and performances, quiet and contemplative and marked by Willie’s unmistakable affection for the music and his band. Simply put, it’s a perfect record.
Booker T. Jones on Why He Recorded Willie Nelson’s ‘Stardust’ in Emmylou Harris’s Living Room
To many Willie fans, both the casual and hardcore, his 1978 album Stardust is the best he ever made, and the reverence is well-earned. It’s the biggest-selling record of his career, spending a full ten years on Billboard’s country albums chart. It’s also an undeniably beautiful collection of songs and performances, quiet and contemplative and marked by Willie’s unmistakable affection for the music and his band. Simply put, it’s a perfect record.
Whoopi Goldberg Wants to Have Willie Nelson Over to Her Place for Dinner
To hear Whoopi Goldberg tell the story, there is no way a person could grow up the way she did, as a little girl listening to AM radio in New York City in the sixties and seventies, and not become a musical omnivore. Still, the breadth of the artists she cites as formative finds for her young ears—the list ranges from Glen Campbell to the Four Tops to English song-and-dance man Anthony Newley to Willie and Waylon—is impressive, not to mention well-informed.
Whoopi Goldberg Wants to Have Willie Nelson Over to Her Place for Dinner
To hear Whoopi Goldberg tell the story, there is no way a person could grow up the way she did, as a little girl listening to AM radio in New York City in the sixties and seventies, and not become a musical omnivore. Still, the breadth of the artists she cites as formative finds for her young ears—the list ranges from Glen Campbell to the Four Tops to English song-and-dance man Anthony Newley to Willie and Waylon—is impressive, not to mention well-informed.
Nick Offerman Believes Willie Nelson Is One of the Finest Americans
The Parks and Recreation star on “Buddy,” Farm Aid, and how a hippie like Willie became Ron Swanson’s favorite poet. Nick Offerman is a distinctly unique figure in contemporary popular culture. In and of itself, the fact that he wears a lot of hats—screen actor, touring comedian, author, activist, outdoorsman, philosophizer—does not set him apart. But the way he achieved that status, and what he does with it now, is singular.
Nick Offerman Believes Willie Nelson Is One of the Finest Americans Who Ever Lived
The Parks and Recreation star on “Buddy,” Farm Aid, and how a hippie like Willie became Ron Swanson’s favorite poet.Nick Offerman is a distinctly unique figure in contemporary popular culture. In and of itself, the fact that he wears a lot of hats—screen actor, touring comedian, author, activist, outdoorsman, philosophizer—does not set him apart. But the way he achieved that status, and what he does with it now, is singular.
Remembering Charlie Robison, Always the Coolest Dude in the Room
Charlie Robison could talk your dumb ass into just about anything, or at least he always could mine.
Remembering Charlie Robison, Always the Coolest Dude in the Room
Charlie Robison could talk your dumb ass into just about anything, or at least he always could mine.
For Willie Nelson’s 151st Album, He Takes On a Whole New Genre: Bluegrass
At this point, Willie seems to have outgrown the ability to surprise people. Is he really, at the age of ninety, still touring and playing nearly a hundred shows this year? Will he really release three albums in 2023, an unheard-of pace for an artist even a quarter his age? And is his new record—his 151st, by Texas Monthly’s math—really his first-ever album of bluegrass, a style he’s scarcely even flirted with up until now?
For Willie Nelson’s 151st Album, He Takes On a Whole New Genre: Bluegrass
At this point, Willie seems to have outgrown the ability to surprise people. Is he really, at the age of ninety, still touring and playing nearly a hundred shows this year? Will he really release three albums in 2023, an unheard-of pace for an artist even a quarter his age? And is his new record—his 151st, by Texas Monthly’s math—really his first-ever album of bluegrass, a style he’s scarcely even flirted with up until now?
Dave Cobb on the Beautiful, Barren Landscape of Willie Nelson’s ‘Red Headed Stranger’
One the most important figures in modern country music, superproducer Dave Cobb has earned nine Grammys through his work with iconic artists such as Chris Stapleton, Brandi Carlile, and Jason Isbell. He’s based out of Nashville’s famed RCA Studio A, where Willie recorded in the late sixties, and he’s serious about keeping things old-school.
Dave Cobb on the Beautiful, Barren Landscape of Willie Nelson’s ‘Red Headed Stranger’
One the most important figures in modern country music, superproducer Dave Cobb has earned nine Grammys through his work with iconic artists such as Chris Stapleton, Brandi Carlile, and Jason Isbell. He’s based out of Nashville’s famed RCA Studio A, where Willie recorded in the late sixties, and he’s serious about keeping things old-school.
The Story Behind Sinéad O’Connor’s Duet with Willie Nelson
When Irish singer-songwriter Sinéad O’Connor died in London earlier this week, fans of her 25-year-plus recording career mourned the silencing of a singularly evocative and steadfast voice. For more casual listeners, the memories were simpler and likely confined to two long-ago moments when she’d dominated pop culture worldwide. In 1990, her cover of Prince’s “Nothing Compares 2 U” made her a global phenomenon, topping the charts in 22 countries.
The Story Behind Sinéad O’Connor’s Duet with Willie Nelson
When Irish singer-songwriter Sinéad O’Connor died in London earlier this week, fans of her 25-year-plus recording career mourned the silencing of a singularly evocative and steadfast voice. For more casual listeners, the memories were simpler and likely confined to two long-ago moments when she’d dominated pop culture worldwide.In 1990, her cover of Prince’s “Nothing Compares 2 U” made her a global phenomenon, topping the charts in 22 countries.
Waylon Payne on the Multiple Times He Credits Willie Nelson With Saving His Life
Waylon Payne grew up uniquely immersed in the music of Willie Nelson. His mother, singer Sammi Smith, revolutionized country music with her 1971 recording of Kris Kristofferson’s “Help Me Make It Through the Night,” going on to become a frequent touring partner of Willie’s and the most significant female voice in the nascent outlaw movement. Around that same time, Waylon’s father, Jody Payne, began his nearly forty-year run as Willie’s lead guitarist.
Waylon Payne on the Multiple Times He Credits Willie Nelson With Saving His Life
Waylon Payne grew up uniquely immersed in the music of Willie Nelson. His mother, singer Sammi Smith, revolutionized country music with her 1971 recording of Kris Kristofferson’s “Help Me Make It Through the Night,” going on to become a frequent touring partner of Willie’s and the most significant female voice in the nascent outlaw movement. Around that same time, Waylon’s father, Jody Payne, began his nearly forty-year run as Willie’s lead guitarist.
Foo Fighter Chris Shiflett on the Unlikely Intersection of Willie, Waylon Jennings, “Good Hearted Woman,” and Kiss’s ‘Alive II’
Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Chris Shiflett took a circuitous route to his love for outlaw country. He grew up in the eighties, a Southern California kid raised on a steady diet of metal and classic rock, before starting to play guitar in a series of punk bands. With the early nineties emergence of Americana music, he got into artists like Son Volt and Lucinda Williams, then worked his way back to the renegade country acts who’d inspired them.
Foo Fighter Chris Shiflett on the Unlikely Intersection of Willie, Waylon Jennings, “Good Hearted Woman,” and Kiss’s ‘Alive II’
Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Chris Shiflett took a circuitous route to his love for outlaw country. He grew up in the eighties, a Southern California kid raised on a steady diet of metal and classic rock, before starting to play guitar in a series of punk bands. With the early nineties emergence of Americana music, he got into artists like Son Volt and Lucinda Williams, then worked his way back to the renegade country acts who’d inspired them.
Ray Benson on Bob Wills, Cindy Walker, and Willie Nelson’s Version of “Going Away Party”
John Spong: Because western swing is such a big part of your life, and because you are such a big part of it, what is it in Willie’s life, especially when he is a kid and coming up? He didn’t stay within the genre like you have, but it’s always been something he goes back to. He revisits, but it also seems to kinda color everything he does, to an extent. Ray Benson: Yeah. And that’s because it’s built on—all crafts are built on basic tools.
Ray Benson on Bob Wills, Cindy Walker, and Willie Nelson’s Version of “Going Away Party”
Ray Benson was the gangly leader of an unlikely band of long-haired, western swing revivalists based, of all places, in the California Bay Area when he met Willie Nelson in the early seventies. In those years, big band country-jazz fusion was an all-but-forgotten style to much of America, though not to Willie.Like Benson, he’d grown up idolizing and emulating the sound’s founding father, Bob Wills, albeit twenty years earlier, in the thirties and forties.
Amanda Shires Pays Tribute to Her Hero and Friend Bobbie Nelson
Transcript John Spong (voice-over): Hey there, I’m John Spong with Texas Monthly magazine, and this is One by Willie, a podcast in which I talk each week to one notable Willie Nelson fan about one Willie song that they really love. The show is brought to you by Still Austin craft whiskey. This week, we do something a little bit different and a whole lot special. Amanda Shires is big deal singer-songwriter and a hot s— country fiddle player.
Amanda Shires Pays Tribute to Her Hero and Friend Bobbie Nelson
Amanda Shires considered Bobbie Nelson one of her heroes long before they became friends and started work on their new album of duets, Loving You, back in 2021. While much of the world thinks of Bobbie as Willie’s sister and longtime piano player, Shires saw Bobbie as a North Star guiding light in her own right. She was a musician who managed to shine as a side player in a band, just as Shires started doing when she joined the Texas Playboys at the age of fifteen.
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