One by Willie

Episodes

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  Ziggy Marley on "Still Is Still Moving to Me" 12.08.2026 43m

  Nine-time Grammy-winner and bona fide reggae royalty Ziggy Marley talks about the closing track on Willie’s 1993 masterpiece, Across the Borderline, “Still Is Still Moving to Me.” It’s a song to be dug on multiple levels, from the hard-driving melody, to the koan-like lyrics, to Trigger’s stunning runs, and Ziggy gets into all that. But his focus is on the song’s message, which he calls “transcendent”—just like his friend, Willie. So even though reggae and country music aren’t all that different in Ziggy’s mind, neither are they relevant. Because to him, Willie is one of those artists—like his dad, Bob—who rises above genre to create a music that’s universal. Note that Ziggy also gets into one of those things that you can’t transcend, and that’s the rules at Willie’s poker table…as he found out the hard way.
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  I'm With Her on "Wake Me When It's Over" 29.07.2026 45m

  Three-time Grammy-winning, supergroup folk trio I’m With Her—whose individual members Aoife O’Donovan, Sara Watkins, and Sarah Jarosz also have an additional four Grammy wins outside the band—discuss the one Willie song they’ve covered together, “Wake Me When It’s Over.” It’s one Willie’s cut repeatedly over the years, but the version that caught the trio’s ear was off his seldom cited, 1972 album The Willie Way, which points at what’s special in this episode. It’s all about discovery, about the way that brilliant singers and pickers like Aoife, Sara, and Sarah, who happen also to be millennials, come to Willie’s music and what they find when they get there. All that, plus their excitement at playing this year’s Farm Aid in September—with brief cameos by Emmylou Harris, Bill Monroe, and George Clinton.
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  Taj Mahal on "Bloody Mary Morning" - Live from Luck! 15.07.2026 43m

  In a special episode taped on Willie Nelson’s ranch at last year’s Luck Reunion, Taj Mahal—a true genius of the blues and roots music from all over the world—talks about the first song on Side 2 of Willie’s 1974 masterpiece Phases and Stages, “Bloody Mary Morning.” That song and album were among the earliest, best examples of what Willie would accomplish once he broke free from Nashville, a fight for creative control mirrored by Taj’s own battles with the music industry in the late 60s. From there Taj walks us through rich memories of the fabled scene at the Armadillo World Headquarters, where both he and Willie would find a home, with extra insight coming from guest co-host Mickey Raphael, who calls Taj one of his all-time favorite harmonica players and a huge influence on his own playing—and thus a pivotal element in the revolutionary sound of Willie’s Family Band.
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  Dave Stewart on "Energy Follows Thought" 01.07.2026 36m

  Eurythmic Dave Stewart, who along with his bandmate Annie Lennox—and, of course, Willie Nelson—is a member of both the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, discusses one of Willie’s most beloved songs of recent vintage, “Energy Follows Thought.” The song was the standout off Willie’s great 2022 album A Beautiful Time, and one Dave loves in part for the freedom he hears in Willie’s guitar-playing, but also for its deep, spiritual message, which conjures the near-death experience that fundamentally changed Dave’s life and set his career with Eurythmics in motion. From there he hits on the paramount importance of ignoring record execs, living in the moment, and Willie’s brilliant guitar-and-vocal-only collection from 1991, The IRS Tapes.
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  Bill Anderson on "Funny How Time Slips Away" 17.06.2026 57m

  Whisperin’ Bill Anderson, a multimillion-selling Country Music Hall of Famer, 65-year Grand Ole Opry regular, and almost certainly the only living songwriter who got to Nashville before Willie did, talks about one of Willie’s earliest entries into the Great American Songbook, “Funny How Time Slips Away.” It’s a song Willie actually pitched to Bill back in 1961, when the two were part of the generation of young songwriters—think Harlan Howard, Hank Cochran, Roger Miller, Loretta Lynn, etc.—that moved to Nashville and turned it into Music City, USA., and it prompts Bill to use Willie’s example as a masterclass in not just how to write a great song, but in country music history and Willie’s singular place in it.
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  Ali Siddiq on "Midnight Rider" 03.06.2026 47m

  Comedian Ali Siddiq zooms in on Willie Nelson’s 1979 cover of the Allman Brother’s tale of a desperate outlaw’s life on the lamb, “Midnight Rider.” It’s a song Ali used to blast in his Monte Carlo during his days as what he calls “street pharmaceutical rep” in Houston’s Third Ward, as detailed in his groundbreaking 4-part comedy special Domino Effect, and it gets him thinking aloud on American culture’s enduring fascination with gangsters and outlaws…plus such Willie-adjacent lessons as the significance of working every angle to control your destiny, and the importance of taking the gifts that save you--like comedy and music--and paying them forward to save others.  With cameo appearances by Aretha Franklin, Martin Lawrence, and Willie’s old drummer Paul English—who Ali can tell, just from looking at one photo, was an actual outlaw.
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  George Saunders on "Pancho and Lefty" 20.05.2026 1h

  Celebrated author George Saunders digs deep into one of the best-loved songs not just in Willie Nelson’s catalog, but in all of American music, Townes Van Zandt’s legendary tale of betrayal, “Pancho and Lefty.” It is, in many ways, a song full of mystery, and George, who also teaches Russian short fiction at Syracuse University’s acclaimed creative writing program, walks us through it verse-by-verse, unlocking the secrets in the song’s story; the way Townes, Willie, and Merle Haggard made us care so much; and what the song tells us about what it means to be human. All that, plus the way hearing “Hello Walls” as a little kid crawling around under his parents’ poker table awakened him to the importance of elegance in art—with cameos by Dostoevsky, Chekov, Jeff Tweedy, and Ernie Banks. 
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  Tami Neilson on "I Thought About You, Lord" 06.05.2026 46m

  Americana star Tami Neilson—a New Zealand-based singer-songwriter and, essentially, adopted member of Willie Nelson’s family—talks about a deep cut off his sublime 1996 album Spirit, “I Thought About You, Lord.” It’s a hugely important song to Tami, who first came to Willie through his gospel side as a young girl barnstorming the US and Canada with her country-gospel family band, The Neilsons. And ‘family’ is the strong undercurrent running through this episode, as Tami talks about sharing the Luck Reunion stage with Willie just a week after Sister Bobbie died; the sisterly bond she’s formed with his wife, Annie; and the way Willie subbed in for her late father, Ron Neilson, on their beautiful 2022 duet, “Beyond the Stars.”
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  One by Willie x Nashville Now: Happy Birthday, Willie Nelson! 29.04.2026 55m

  With Willie Nelson turning 93 today, One by Willie hooks up with Rolling Stone’s Nashville Now and its host, RS Head of Country Joseph Hudak, for a special birthday collab episode. We’ll open with a look at how OBW host John Spong managed to turn listening to Willie Nelson records into a full-time job, plus the unique, almost metaphysical way that individual songs connect fans not just to Willie, but to people in their own lives. And then, proving that point, we pivot to Hudak’s favorite Willie song, “My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys,” which takes Joe back to being a kid in rural Pennsylvania watching The Electric Horseman on bootleg HBO with his mom.
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  Emmylou Harris on "Till I Gain Control Again" (special Willie's birthday episode) 22.04.2026 42m

  In another of our annual, Icon-on-Icon birthday tributes to Willie, 14-time Grammy winner and Country Hall of Famer Emmylou Harris talks about a song she sang every night with him when they toured together in the 70s, “Till I Gain Control Again.” It was, of course, written by one of her and Willie’s all-time favorite songwriters, Rodney Crowell, and it gets Emmy thinking about being a young artist watching the deep, almost spiritual connection Willie forms with his fans—plus the way she and Willie had to swim against the Nashville tide to pull country music back to its roots, the day Elvis died, the making of Teatro…and the death-defying, high-wire act of trying to sing harmony with Willie Nelson.
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  Matt Berninger on "All of Me" 08.04.2026 47m

  Matt Berninger, lead singer and lyricist of beloved Brooklyn rock band The National, talks about Willie’s 1978 cover of “All of Me.” It was the third single off his dad’s favorite Willie record, Stardust, an album Matt loves so much that, when he went to record his first solo album, Serpentine Prison, he enlisted Stardust producer Booker T. Jones to produce, and Willie’s harmonica player, Mickey Raphael, to play harp. We’ll get into all that, plus the pre-Willie history of “All of Me,” the decidedly unorthodox sessions in which Willie and Booker recorded it, and the healing power of music…with brief cameos by Roberta Flack, Billie Holiday, and Lester Young, and a full-on co-star role for Mickey, who sat in on the interview and provided his own detailed memories of creating Stardust.
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  Jamey Johnson on "It Always Will Be" 25.03.2026 51m

  Million-selling country star Jamey Johnson, one of the finest singer-songwriters alive and a man generally considered the walking embodiment of Outlaw Country, talks on the title-cut to Willie’s 2004 album, It Always Will Be. The song’s a simple, hymn-like ballad, and maybe not the first thing you’d think of when Outlaw comes up, but that will change when Jamey explains what the term—and this wonderful song—mean to him. From there he describes poker, chess, and domino games; huge figures in Willie’s life, like longtime stage manager Poodie Locke and legendary songwriter Hank Cochran; and what Willie means to him, both as a friend…and as an example of how to live your life. 
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  Kenny Chesney on "That Lucky Old Sun" 11.03.2026 41m

  Kenny Chesney, a Country Music Hall of Famer and longtime Willie friend, fan, and collaborator, talks about Willie’s 1976 cover of “That Lucky Old Sun.” That beautiful, hushed track, which opened the album The Sound in Your Mind, was one of Willie’s first covers from the Great American Songbook, setting the stage for his Stardust triumph two years later...and hearing it now takes Kenny back to an old tour bus, when he was a young artist studying Willie’s singing. From there he gets into the duet the two cut on the song in the mid-2000s—which ended up being a pivotal record for Willie—plus what it was like to produce Willie's 2008 album, Moment of Forever, and the way Willie helped inspire the artistic change that grew Kenny into Billboard’s Top Country Artist of the 21st Century.
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  Introducing One by Willie, Season 7 04.03.2026 3m

  Music writer John Spong talks each episode to one notable Willie fan about one Willie song they love--then runs down the kinds of rabbit holes that open up when the subject is Willie Nelson. Starting March 11, fifteen new episodes featuring Kenny Chesney, Taj Mahal, George Saunders, Tami Neilson, Dave Stewart, Jamey Johnson, Ali Siddiq, Matt Berninger, and so on…each giving a uniquely personal take on the life and art of a genuine American folk hero.
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  Wesley Schultz on "Pretty Paper" (special holiday reboot) 09.12.2025 29m

  With the holiday season in full effect, we’re reaching back to OBW’s earliest days to re-up this Nov 2020 episode with Lumineer Wesley Schultz on Willie’s initial contribution to the holiday canon, “Pretty Paper.” Wes was a little kid growing up in the New Jersey suburbs when he first fell for "Pretty Paper," which his folks played in the car as they drove their neighborhood checking out Xmas lights. We talk about that, the surreal story from Willie’s own childhood that prompted him to write it--and the way only Willie could write a Christmas song you want to hear all year long.
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  Bonnie Raitt on "Getting Over You" (special Willie's birthday episode) 29.04.2025 48m

  In a special, icon-on-icon birthday tribute, 13-time Grammy winner and longtime Willie friend, fan, and collaborator Bonnie Raitt talks about their sublime 1993 duet, “Getting Over You.” It was a cornerstone of one of the most important albums of Willie’s career, Across the Borderline, and produced by the brilliant Don Was—who also produced Bonnie’s own masterpieces Nick of Time and Luck of the Draw. Bonnie gets into all that, likening Willie in the studio to both the Cheshire Cat and Yoda, before talking about covering “Night Life” with B.B. King at Willie’s legendary 60th birthday concert, why she thinks Willie is the most unique guitar player alive, and then sending him the most gracious birthday wish you will hear all year.
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  Conor Oberst on "Undo the Right" 26.03.2025 40m

  Brilliant indie rock-pop-and-folk singer-songwriter Conor Oberst, of Bright Eyes and Monsters of Folk fame, talks about another of Willie’s famous Pamper Demos, “Undo the Right.” It was one of Willie’s earliest efforts for the Pamper Publishing Company, a co-write with Hank Cochran, the legendary songwriter who first championed him when he moved to Nashville. That gets Conor thinking about the craft of songwriting, about how sneaking contradictory or counterintuitive ideas into songs helps them to better reflect what he calls the "big mess” of real life, and how nobody writes a bridge like Willie does…before we listen to another old Willie song, “The Storm Has Just Begun,” which was the B-side to his first single in 1959—and that Willie wrote when he was just twelve years old.
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  Mark Seliger on "Stardust" 19.03.2025 37m

  Revered photographer Mark Seliger—who’s taken iconic images of everyone from Barack Obama and the Dali Lama to Kurt Cobain and Ice T—talks about the song that he says has informed almost every photo he’s taken of his friend Willie Nelson, 1978’s “Stardust.” Mark was a college freshman on a long, lonely road trip the first time he heard it, and he describes channeling that experience, plus the work of Edward Curtis, into his first great Willie portrait nearly twenty years later. From there he gets into what you learn about Willie from a close look at Trigger, plus the wonders of playing a Fourth of July Picnic with his own country band, Rusty Truck.
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  Larry Gatlin on "She's Not for You" 12.03.2025 45m

  Larry Gatlin, a card-carrying member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame (“All the Gold in California,” “Broken Lady,” etc.), focuses on “She’s Not for You,” off Willie’s game-changing 1973 album, Shotgun Willie. Well-read Willie nerds know that record, cut in New York for Atlantic Records, was the closest Willie had yet come to creative control of a project, and Larry, who played guitar and sang backup in the sessions, describes just how different that was from the Nashville process in which Willie'd been struggling. But he also explains another, lesser-known key to the record’s success…before sharing memories of the legendary picking parties Willie co-hosted with University of Texas football coach Darrell Royal, and the joy of just being around longtime Willie consort Roger Miller.
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  Adrian Quesada on "I Never Cared for You" 05.03.2025 43m

  Black Puma Adrian Quesada, the Austin-based guitarist, producer, and songwriter who also co-founded Grammy-winning Latin funk orchestra Grupo Fantasma, looks at the centerpiece of Willie’s 1998 album Teatro, “I Never Cared for You.” That album, produced in a small movie house by Daniel Lanois as a showcase for Willie’s guitar-picking over a bouncing bedrock of Afro-Cuban rhythms, is considered a masterpiece by Willie World insiders. A close listen by Adrian leaves him marveling at the surreal world Lanois created for the recording…but also leads to a deep examination of the Latin elements in the music of one of country’s greatest heroes—and why that makes Willie “the most American thing we have.”