FILE – Willie Nelson performs on the Producers & Engineers Wing twelfth Annual Grammy Week Celebration on the Village Studio in Los Angeles, on Feb. 6, 2019.

Richard Shotwell/Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP

conceal caption

toggle caption

Richard Shotwell/Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP

FILE – Willie Nelson performs on the Producers & Engineers Wing twelfth Annual Grammy Week Celebration on the Village Studio in Los Angeles, on Feb. 6, 2019.

Richard Shotwell/Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP

LOS ANGELES — “Are there any more real cowboys?” Neil Young sang Saturday night time on the Hollywood Bowl on a uncommon night when he was neither the headliner nor, at age 77, even near the oldest artist on the invoice.

Providing an immediate reply, Willie Nelson, sporting a cowboy hat and red-white-and-blue guitar strap, slowly strolled on to the stage on his ninetieth birthday, bringing the group of greater than 17,000 to its toes.

Nelson sat in a chair — one of many few onstage concessions he is made to age — and joined Young for the remainder of their 1985 duet, “Are There Any More Real Cowboys?”

“I want to thank all the artists who came out tonight to help celebrate whatever it is we’re celebrating,” stated Nelson, feigning senility and getting amusing.

The second got here three hours into the primary of a two-night celebration of the nation legend on the open-air Los Angeles amphitheater, the place generations of stars sang his songs in tribute.

“As a kid growing up in Texas, it seemed like there was nothing bigger than Willie Nelson,” stated Owen Wilson, one of many night’s emcees together with Helen Mirren, Ethan Hawke and Jennifer Garner. “And looking out at the Hollywood Bowl tonight, it still feels like there’s nothing bigger than Willie Nelson.”

After Young, Nelson introduced out George Strait, a rustic famous person of the next technology, for his or her self-referential duet, “Sing One With Willie,” adopted by the Willie perennial, “Pancho and Lefty,” with Strait singing the half as soon as performed by the late Merle Haggard.

Nelson then shouted, “Come out and roll one with me Snoop!”

Strutting out got here rapper Snoop Dogg, sitting subsequent to Nelson as they launched into their stoner anthem, “Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die.” Perhaps fittingly, every appeared to neglect the phrases at instances. The two pals regarded too pleased to care.

“Somebody make some noise for the legend Mr. Willie Nelson!” Snoop shouted mid-song.

The parade of companions illustrated one of many night time’s themes: Willie brings folks collectively.

“All of the sudden, it didn’t matter if you were a hillbilly or a hippie, everyone was a Willie Nelson fan,” Wilson stated of Nelson’s late-blooming emergence as a singing famous person when he left Nashville, Tennessee, and returned to his native Texas within the Seventies. “Even the Dalai Lama is a Willie Nelson fan. It’s true.”

The crowd, which ranged from young children to seniors, illustrated the purpose. The stands have been dotted with cowboy hats whereas hippies danced within the aisles and weed smoke wafted within the air.

Miranda Lambert thrilled them with a rousing, sing-along model of “Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys,” Nelson’s 1978 hit with Waylon Jennings. The Chicks blazed by way of 1970’s “Bloody Mary Morning” on the identical break-neck tempo that Willie and his Family Band performed it reside of their prime.

Nelson has outlived almost each member of that band, which backed him for many years of fixed touring and recording. His little sister and piano participant, Bobbie Nelson, died final 12 months. She acquired her personal tribute from Norah Jones, who banged the keys by way of the youthful Nelson’s saloon-style solo track, “Down Yonder,” from Willie Nelson’s definitive 1975 album, “Red Headed Stranger.”

While most of the ladies who took the stage performed rousing rockers, many of the males went in for quiet emotion.

Chris Stapleton stored his guitar at his aspect by way of a gentle, reflective rendition of “Always on My Mind,” Nelson’s greatest solo hit of the Eighties. Nelson’s son Lukas sang “Angel Flying Too Close to The Ground” alone together with his acoustic guitar, his voice a lifeless ringer for his dad’s.

Another surviving member of the Family Band, harmonica grasp Mickey Raphael, was a part of the weekend’s home band, led by Don Was, which backed virtually everybody.

Nelson additionally has outlived most of his basic collaborators. But a vital one, his 86-year-old Highwaymen bandmate Kris Kristofferson, made it to the stage to affix Rosanne Cash, the daughter of one other Highwayman: Johnny Cash.

Rosanne Cash was singing Nelson’s “Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I’ll Ever Do Again)” when Kristofferson, who wrote the track, got here out and harmonized together with her on the choruses.

Nelson’s musical variety was one other night theme.

“He blends and bends genres,” Mirren stated from the stage. “His timing and categories are his own.”

Leon Bridges’ “Night Life” confirmed off Nelson’s affinity for the blues, as did Jones’ jazzy journey by way of “Funny How Time Slips Away” from 1961, when Nelson was recognized primarily as a songwriter of hits for others.

Ziggy Marley sang “Still Is Still Moving To Me,” which Nelson recorded in 1993 and later sang with Toots and the Maytals in considered one of his occasional forays into reggae. Marley shouted “Wee-lay!” in his Jamaican accent in the course of the track.

Sunday’s night time present will function a complete completely different vary of acts together with Dave Matthews, Sheryl Crow and Emmylou Harris.

Young first took the stage together with his early collaborator Stephen Stills. The pair performed a revved up model of “For What It’s Worth,” swapping guitar solos on the basic hit they made as members of Buffalo Springfield in 1966.

Nelson introduced out all of the night’s artists to affix him for the Carter Family’s 1935 track, “Will the Circle Be Unbroken?” a longtime reside favourite of his and the basic closing track for all of nation music.

It was clearly supposed to be the top, as Hawke took the mic and began to thank everybody for coming.

But the 90-year-old wasn’t able to cease. He interrupted and broke into Mac Davis’ “It’s Hard to Be Humble,” which Nelson and his sons recorded in 2019.

It was a humorous selection for a ultimate track, however its refrain was an ideal comedian coda for a person who had been drowned in adoration all night time:

“To know me is to love me, I must be a hell of a man. Oh lord, it’s hard to be humble. But I’m doing the best that I can.”