Latest news with #WillieNelson
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
How Bob Dylan's Live Aid Remark — ‘Pay The Mortgages on Some of the Farms' — Sparked 40 Years of Activism By Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp & More
Forty years ago, at the Live Aid festival in Philadelphia on July 13, 1985, it took Bob Dylan just a few moments to set in motion the music industry's longest-running concert for a cause — Willie Nelson's Farm Aid. Dylan took the stage at JFK Stadium late in the day, just past 10:30 p.m., accompanied by Ronnie Wood and Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones, each with acoustic guitars. (They were preceded by Mick Jagger and Tina Turner's incendiary duet.) More from Billboard 'Been Busy': Tame Impala Teases New Music With Social Media Update Doja Cat, Tems, J Balvin & Coldplay Join Forces for Unifying FIFA Club World Cup Final Halftime Show Performance King Crimson's Manager Warns of 'Premature' Excitement Following New Album Rumors Opening with two seldom-performed songs from 1964, 'Ballad of Hollis Brown' and 'When The Ship Comes In,' Dylan then said, in an off-the-cuff manner: 'I hope that some of the money that's raised for the people in Africa, maybe they can just take a little bit of it — maybe one or two million, maybe — and use it, say, to pay the mortgages on some of the farms that the farmers here owe to the banks.' 'The question hit me like a ton of bricks,' Nelson recalled to his biographer David Ritz in Billboard in 2015. The musician was on the road that day, watching Live Aid on his tour-bus TV. 'Farming was my first job,' he told Billboard. 'I picked cotton. I pulled corn. I knew firsthand what it meant to farm. I knew damn well how tough it was. My farm roots are deep-seated in the soil of my personal story.' So are the roots of Nelson's philanthropy. In his small hometown of Abbott, Texas, where he attended the United Methodist Church, 'we had a collection box, and even though we were struggling financially, I knew there were folks with far greater struggles. As part of a loving community, I was taught the moral responsibility of helping those in need.' Like Dylan, at that time, Nelson also had been following the news of the family farming crisis that was devastating the heartland of the United States. Prices paid for crops had plummeted. Banks were foreclosing on farms, throwing families off land they had worked, often, for generations. Small towns, dependent on spending by local farmers, were reeling. David Senter, a fourth-generation farmer and co-founder of the American Agriculture Movement, recalled that time for 'Against the Grain,' the Farm Aid podcast. 'The farm crisis was a terrible, expanding tragedy for rural America,' said Senter. 'We lost 50 percent of the total family farmers during the crisis. Three-hundred-and-sixty-five farmers a day were going out of business during '85. We brought a couple of thousand farmers to Washington in March of '85 and we had a rally on the steps of the Jefferson [Memorial]. We had 365 white crosses [bearing the names of farmers] who had committed suicide or been foreclosed on. And we drove them on the Mall and made a graveyard in front of U.S.D.A.,' the headquarters of the United States Department of Agriculture. In 1985, Nelson's booking agent was Tony Conway of Buddy Lee Attractions. For a history of Farm Aid published for the organization's 20th anniversary, Lee recalled that, in August of that year, Nelson was playing the Illinois State Fair in Springfield, Ill., when the singer said: 'I want to do a concert for the American farmers. I want to see if we can do it here in Illinois, just someplace where we can get a stadium.' 'Willie asked me, 'Do you think you can get a hold of the governor?,'' he recalled. 'I made a few calls and got a call back saying [then] Governor Jim Thompson was on his way to the bus.' Nelson told his idea to Thompson, Lee said, and the governor made a call to secure availability of the football stadium at the University of Illinois in Champaign, Ill., for the one day open in Nelson's packed autumn touring schedule — Sept. 22, 1985. Nelson recruited Neil Young and John Mellencamp, who later became the first fellow members of the Farm Aid board. (The board expanded in 2001 to include Dave Matthews and again in 2021 to include Margo Price — who had grown up on a farm which her family lost in 1986, during the crisis which led to the creation of Farm Aid.) Farm Aid: A Concert for America was put together with the unthinkably short lead time of six weeks. It raised more than $7 million for the nation's family farmers and featured performers including Billy Joel, Bonnie Raitt, B.B. King, Loretta Lynn, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty — and Bob Dylan. A front-page story in Billboard, under the bylines of Paul Grein and Kip Kirby, reported that the Jam Productions of Chicago, which help mount Farm Aid, used the same 60-foot diameter, circular, two-stage set that had been used at JFK Stadium for Live Aid. The Billboard story reported that Nelson wrote the first check on the Farm Aid account to the National Council of Churches in the amount of $100,000 for food pantries to help feed farm families in seven states: Iowa, Minnesota, Wyoming, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Ohio and Kansas. 'In addition,' Billboard reported, 'Nelson notes that the toll-free 1-800-FARMAID phone lines will remain in operation for one year.' Forty years later, Farm Aid carries on. The organization has raised more than $80 million to support programs that help family farmers thrive. It has earned a four-star rating from Charity Navigator, the widely known assessment organization for philanthropies. Nelson, Young, Mellencamp, Matthew and Price will headline this year's anniversary concert on Sept. 20 at Huntington Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, on a bill with Billy Strings, Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats, Trampled by Turtles, Waxahatchee, Eric Burton of Black Pumas, Jesse Welles and Madeline Edwards. Transcending the crisis which sparked its creation, Farm Aid's mission today is 'to build a vibrant, family farm-centered system of agriculture in America,' the organization states on its website. 'We're best known for our annual music, food and farm festival, but the truth is we work each and every day, year-round to build a system of agriculture that values family farmers, good food, soil and water, and strong communities.' And Dylan, who has been sharing headlining status with Nelson on this summer's Outlaw Music Festival Tour, made a surprise return to the Farm Aid stage in 2023 at the Ruoff Music Center in Noblesville, Indiana. Joined by members of The Heartbreakers — whom he first performed with at Farm Aid in 1985 — Dylan walked onstage without any introduction, and played a short-but-intense set of 'Maggie's Farm,' 'Positively 4th Street' and 'Ballad of a Thin Man' against the stark backdrop of a silhouetted windmill. His connection to Nelson, to Farm Aid and the cause he first highlighted at Live Aid 40 years ago remains unbroken. Best of Billboard Chart Rewind: In 1989, New Kids on the Block Were 'Hangin' Tough' at No. 1 Janet Jackson's Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hits H.E.R. & Chris Brown 'Come Through' to No. 1 on Adult R&B Airplay Chart Solve the daily Crossword
Fast Company
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Fast Company
Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be founders!
I was born and raised in Israel, but my love affair with America began in my early teens when I would wear faded jeans and plaid flannel shirts and play country music on my silver Sony Walkman. One track I always loved listening to was Waylon Jennings' and Willie Nelson's twangy rendition of 'Mamas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys'—a song that captures the loneliness of being a cowboy as well as the challenges that lifestyle poses for their loved ones. Little did I know the longing the song stirred in my adolescent heart would resonate with me decades later: Its depiction of the brutal, lonely life of a cowboy mirrored my own experience as a founder. When listening to the song, I sometimes replace the word 'cowboy' with 'founder' and smile to myself. Try it—it's fun! The entrepreneurial life Just as we mythologize the cowboy on horseback riding into the sunset, people tend to glamorize the entrepreneurial life. The truth is the entrepreneurial journey is not about popping champagne and riding around in limos and having everyone enthusiastically back your big ideas. In reality, it is a high-stress, low-sleep, and often unenjoyable life. Whenever anybody asks me if they should take the leap and start a company, my first response is an emphatic, 'No!' or as Jennings and Nelson liked to sing, 'Let them be lawyers and doctors and such.' There are a hundred reasons to stay far, far away from entrepreneurship, particularly if you want a stable, reliable, fulfilling career—but I would start with loneliness. Like the song says, founders 'are never at home and always alone, even with someone they love.' This is hard on entrepreneurs but equally so on the people who love and live with them. Launching a business is a full-time pre-occupation. It is never just business—it is personal, and all-consuming. You bring your bad work days and the accompanying stress home because your venture is part of you, not something you slip off like an overcoat when you walk in the door. Bottom line: You will be miserable and you will make the people closest to you miserable as well! Subscribe to the Daily newsletter. Fast Company's trending stories delivered to you every day Privacy Policy | Fast Company Newsletters Ninety percent of startups fail. Of the 10% that don't disappear, precious few are wildly successful. These are not attractive odds for a sane person—and the price you and your loved ones will pay is huge. It's an extreme sport So why do I do it? Like the song says: 'He's not wrong—he's just different!' I cannot help it: I am, apparently, a cowboy! I'm also the son of two entrepreneurs, so maybe it's in my blood. I need the adrenaline rush, the chase and sense of risk, the creativity and the total 200% immersion into something I love. Being an entrepreneur is an extreme sport—the most painful, scary, exhilarating ride imaginable. I feed on the nonstop challenge, the thrill of investing and innovating, the relentless stretching to the near-breaking point. I thrive when collaborating with the incredible people on my team, my investors, and clients to create something meaningful, transformational, and near impossible. Being a founder is my road to self-actualization, and that is in itself the incomparable reward at the end of the rainbow. So, if like me, you cannot help yourself and are going to take the plunge into entrepreneurship despite your better judgment, a few words of advice… Prepare for the loneliness, and if you can, build a support system . Seek out other founders who have been in the same place of terror-excitement-isolation-immersion so at least there will be someone in the world who sees you and understands. Surround yourself with people who will keep you honest. . Seek out other founders who have been in the same place of terror-excitement-isolation-immersion so at least there will be someone in the world who sees you and understands. Surround yourself with people who will keep you honest. Be kind and show love and gratitude to your loved ones . Your choices and lifestyle, as well as your physical and emotional absence will be hard enough for your family and friends to deal with. Remember the people you love are probably experiencing a lot of the stress that you're experiencing, without meaningfully participating in the thrill part. . Your choices and lifestyle, as well as your physical and emotional absence will be hard enough for your family and friends to deal with. Remember the people you love are probably experiencing a lot of the stress that you're experiencing, without meaningfully participating in the thrill part. Be communicative. Before you become serious with anyone, be very clear that you are not a person with a job: Your job is who you are, and that will likely never change. Ensure that your kids, partner, and friends know it's not them! It's just that you can't turn off that part of your brain when you're having dinner, playing tennis, or getting into bed at night. Though you may be 'easy to love' you're also 'harder to hold'—an elusiveness that doesn't work for everyone. I will say that seeing my father, and then my mother launch and successfully run their businesses opened my eyes to the possibility that I, too, could carve my own path—and I like to think I modeled that for my kids as well. It's not all bad having a founder in the family after all. Sending love to my fellow entrepreneurs, and empathy to their loved ones. Gil Mandelzis is the founder and CEO of Capitolis.
Forbes
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Beyoncé Charts An Unlikely Hit Alongside A Country Legend
Beyoncé and Dolly Parton's 'Tyrant' debuts at No. 83 on the U.K. Official Singles chart and earns ... More Parton her first placement on the Hip-Hop and R&B ranking. HOUSTON, TEXAS - OCTOBER 25: Beyoncé looks on during a campaign rally with Democratic presidential nominee, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, at Shell Energy Stadium on October 25, 2024 in Houston, Texas. Vice President Kamala Harris is campaigning in Texas holding a rally supporting reproductive rights with recording artists Beyoncé and Willie Nelson. (Photo by) Beyoncé's latest musical era brought her to the country field for the very first time. Cowboy Carter was quite the artistic risk for the superstar, but it paid off. The album was well received by critics and many fans, performed well commercially, and even earned the singer the coveted Album of the Year Grammy — an honor she had been working toward for decades. While Cowboy Carter may feature Beyoncé's signature take on the classic American genre, not every track on the project is categorized specifically as country. The powerhouse earns a new hit in the United Kingdom with one of the collaborations from the full-length… but it doesn't bring her to any country tally. Dolly Parton Joins Beyoncé on the U.K. Charts Dolly Parton is credited on two of the 27 songs featured on Cowboy Carter. One is essentially just a spoken word piece, while 'Tyrant' sees the two musicians teaming up for a proper song. That track debuts on multiple tallies in the U.K. this week, after recently going viral as Beyoncé tours Cowboy Carter around the world. 'Tyrant' launches on the Official Singles chart at No. 83. The tune also reaches the Official Hip-Hop and R&B Singles list, coming in at No. 17. Beyoncé Vs. Dolly Parton Parton has only racked up 11 wins on the top list of the most consumed songs in the U.K., while 'Tyrant' brings her to the Official Hip-Hop and R&B Singles tally for the first time. Beyoncé's list of hit songs is significantly longer than Parton's. She has accrued 74 solo smashes on the Official Singles chart — a number that doesn't include her work with Destiny's Child or The Carters. She has also snagged almost as many appearances on the list of the bestselling hip-hop and R&B tracks, as 'Tyrant' marks her sixty-third career win. 'Tyrant' Lands Ahead of 'Crazy in Love' Beyoncé fills two spaces on the Official Hip-Hop and R&B Singles chart with tracks that couldn't sound less like one another. 'Crazy in Love,' often remembered as her breakout solo smash, lives on the list and even advances this frame. 'Crazy in Love' sits one space behind 'Tyrant,' placing one of her oldest cuts next to one of her newest. Beyoncé and Dolly Parton on the Country Charts Interestingly, both Beyoncé and Parton score hit albums on the country charts in the U.K., but not the same ones. Cowboy Carter rises to No. 8 on the Official Country Artists Albums list while dipping from No. 1 to No. 3 on the Official Americana ranking. Parton, meanwhile, claims four spaces on the Official Country Compilations tally, and her The Very Best Of project returns to the summit.
Daily Mail
15-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Joe Rogan in awe by son of music icon's encounters with orb-shaped UFOs: 'That's crazy'
The son of legendary music star Willie Nelson left Joe Rogan in awe by revealing that he's had multiple encounters with UFOs. Country music singer and songwriter Lukas Nelson revealed on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast that he and several other people have watched as orb-shaped UFOs streaked over Hawaii. 'I've seen some stuff. When I was in Maui, twice I've seen something that I couldn't explain,' Nelson said during the July 10 interview. According to Nelson, the first encounter took place nearly 20 years ago in 2006, when he witnessed an orange orb floating less than 200 yards over Maui which seemed to be observing the onlookers below. 'Then I swear it seemed like as soon as enough people saw it, it went whoosh. And then it went whoosh. And it moved like nothing else I thought possible at the time. It went out of the atmosphere. And it was crazy. Faster than any drone,' the performer said. In a second incident, the country singer added that he and a group of friends were on the Hawaiian island of Lanai when a pulsing and multi-colored craft moved across the entire horizon. Nelson didn't have any proof with him that could confirm what he saw, but the stories were very similar to recent orb incidents, including several involving glowing orange orbs flying over the US. In fact, orb sightings like Nelson's have become incredibly common, with dozens of cases being reported in just the last fives years alone. Nelson added that he's been following the news about government officials disclosing what they know about UFOs and extraterrestrials, telling Rogan that he's not just a believer, he's praying for their arrival on Earth. Hee also cited the famous 1967 incident where a UFO allegedly disarmed 10 nuclear warheads at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana as proof that aliens are trying to save humanity from global destruction. 'My great hope is that there is someone just trying to, you know, not step in but oversee it to the point where we hopefully we can survive to a point of having an interstellar civilization,' Nelson explained. The music star said he's even asked ChatGPT for help trying to filter out which UFO reports are real and which can be easily debunked. 'When I looked at all of the credible UFO reports, the only ones that really had no explanation... And the one that was not, the one that's still sort of outstanding is the USS Nimitz experience,' he revealed. Nelson was talking about the 2004 incident involving a craft that has infamously become known as the 'Tic-Tac' UFO. On November 14, 2004, Commander David Fravor, a Top Gun fighter pilot, was flying a training exercise off the coast of San Diego when he was re-routed to investigate a strange object spotted on radar by warships protecting his aircraft carrier, the USS Nimitz. Fravor spotted a roughly 40-foot white object with no windows or wings, shaped like a Tic-Tac, that mirrored the pilot's movements before flying off at thousands of miles per hour, and then somehow stopping in midair seconds later. 'That seems to be the most compelling,' Nelson declared during the podcast interview. As for his own experience with unexplained phenomena, Nelson's story of the glowing orange orb over Hawaii has been repeated by multiple witnesses in the US, UK, Australia, Brazil, and Mexico. The National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC), a non-profit organization that documents and investigates UFO reports, recently added 50 new orb sightings to their archives, with 46 taking place since 2020. NUFORC revealed that these sightings come from civilians, professional pilots, and even military personnel. Many of those witnesses reported the same type of strange encounter Nelson described, where the orbs tended to hover, seemingly observing the people and places around them before escaping at great speed. 'A bright light shined in my window. Once I [had] seen it, it zipped away,' one witness told NUFORC about a February 19, 2024 orb sighting in Antelope, California. In late December 2024, another swarm of bright orange UFO orbs were allegedly caught flying over New York City, raising concerns over the holiday week. A local recorded video of the sighting above Brookville Blvd in Queens, New York, right next to John F Kennedy International Airport. 'Lived here 14 years with planes flying by all day everyday. They fly so low it feels like you can almost touch them. I know what they look like when they come in to land and take off. I have never ever seen anything like this. Ever,' another New York resident who also witnessed the incident posted on Reddit. That same week, a father and son in Georgia chased an orange UFO orb after they spotted the mysterious light floating through the sky while taking out the trash. On December 26, 2024, a beaming orange glow in the distant night sky stopped the dad in his tracks outside his home in Central Georgia around 6:30 pm ET. Confused, he pointed out the peculiar glow around the orb to his son. The pair stared at it for several minutes and decided to film what they were seeing. 'I've seen similar sightings by myself before but this was the first time I was able to film something I witnessed while being in company of another person,' the father posted on Reddit. Rogan and Nelson discussed the possibility that these sightings may not be alien spacecraft at all. Instead, they suggested that all of them could be secret US military craft. Nelson noted that in the last 25 years there have been few military projects which have been declassified by the government. 'I'm curious as to like what in 25 years based on the technology that we've been able to see that makes it to modern society, how much is held back and what we don't see,' the singer explained. While Nelson didn't believe the US government was capable of covering up the existence for UFO-inspired aircraft, Rogan claimed it was very possible that such an operation exists. 'I think there's a high likelihood that a lot of this stuff is ours,' Rogan said.
Forbes
08-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Lukas Nelson's New Album Is ‘A Love Letter To The Country That Raised Me'
Lukas Nelson performs onstage for day one of the 2024 Pilgrimage Music & Cultural Festival at The ... More Park at Harlinsdale Farm on September 28, 2024 in Franklin, Tennessee. Lukas Nelson took his first steps on a tour bus. He grew up on highways shadowed by towering grain silos and roads that twisted through ragged hills. He's not sure there's an interstate in the U.S. that he hasn't seen. Sometimes people ask where he grew up. He's not sure how to answer. 'I grew up traveling on the roads since I was a baby,' said Nelson, a Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter and the 36-year-old son of Willie Nelson. 'I feel like America really raised me." Nelson decided to write about his experience of being raised on the road for American Romance, a 12-song solo album that debuted last month via Sony Music Nashville. A departure from his longtime band Promise of the Real, American Romance comes billed as the solo debut for Nelson, a tenured musician who's worked with Neil Young, Lady Gaga and Lainey Wilson, among others. For the album, Nelson wanted to write 'a John Steinbeck-equse narrtive of my upbringing and travels,' he said. Listeners hear the result on a collection of rich, detailed songs that chronicle restless life lessons and open-hearted adventures. 'The diners and truck stops, Thanksgiving dinners away from home … I wanted it to feel like each song is a chapter in a great American novel. A love letter to the country that raised me," Nelson said. For American Romance, Nelson recorded at Sunset Sound Recording Studio in Hollywood alongside another second-generation song-maker – Shooter Jennings, a sought-after producer who was behind the board for standout releases from Brandi Carlile, Charley Crockett and others. Working with Jennings? It's comfortable, Nelson said. 'He brought out what I feel like what the best sonic quality you can get,' Nelson said. He continued, 'The ideas he had, in terms of how to present the music, and to bring out the best in me, performance-wise … I felt really grateful for his influence.' The album blends shades of undeniable country influence (on the fiddle-drenched number 'Outsmarted') with ambitious heartland rock ("Runnin' Out of Time") and time-tested folk storytelling (none more evident than the title track, 'American Romance'). He enlists guest features from troubadour Stephen Wilson Jr. – on the sobering cut 'Disappearing Light' – and Sierra Ferrell, who harmonizes on 'Friend In The End,' an endearing number where the two sing 'I guess I just found me a friend/ I think I can call you my friend in the end.' American Romance begins with a declaration from Nelson. In the chorus of the robust opening number 'Ain't Done,' he sings 'God ain't done with you" – five words that remind listeners of the highs and lows that come with living another day. Nelson co-wrote 'Ain't Done' with sought-after Nashville songwriter Aaron Raitiere. 'We fleshed that [song] out in an hour or less. It really wrote itself," Nelson said. He added, 'Sometimes, the good ones come quick and easy and you don't really overthink it too much.' And the album ends with 'You Were It,' a tender-to-the-touch country tune that Nelson said he wrote as an 11-year-old learning his way around a song. 'That song, when I wrote it, my dad heard it and Kris Kristofferson heard it,' Nelson. 'My dad loved it so much he recorded it. He put it on his album It Always Will Be. That really got me the confidence I needed to be a songwriter. That and Kris said, 'Are you going to be a songwriter?' I said, 'I don't know.' He said, 'well, you don't have a choice after that song.''
