Man, talk about four country music legends sitting in the same room.
Of course, we all know and love The Highwaymen, the country music supergroup comprised of Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, and Kris Kristofferson. Back in 1991, the four sat down for an interview with Paul Holmes, a popular New Zealand broadcaster, right as they were announcing a bit American tour.
There were a bunch of intriguing parts of the interview, especially when Holmes implied that the four had to team up together because they had a hard time selling tickets on their own. Although he appeared to be joking, you can tell the comment ruffled Waylon’s feathers a little bit, as he responded with a grin:
“I tell ya, one more point too… that if you ask another question like that we’ll be burn your home.”
LEGEND. Not promoting arson or anything, but it was a pretty savage response to say the least. However, another intriguing portion of the interview was when Holmes asked the four what they think is wrong with America… another seemingly loaded question coming from a New Zealander. It is also the kind of question we’d expect to see today from overseas media… funny how that hasn’t really changed.
“If there is anything is wrong with the United States at the moment, if it is ill, if it is sick, if anything is ailing it, what do you think it might be?”
I mean, I don’t think I’d interview someone from another country and as them why their country sucks, but hey, do you Paul. Nevertheless, he found the tasty quote he was looking for. Willie Nelson led off the answer with:
“There’s a lot of things wring with this country, I think the spirit is still here, the spirit just needs to scream a little bit.”
Now there’s one thing for certain about Kristofferson, and it’s that he’s never been afraid to let his opinions on politics fly, and he doesn’t really care if you agree with him or not. A man who was both a veteran, but also a pretty staunch liberal, he famously got into quite the argument with Toby Keith at Willie Nelson’s 70th birthday. Although, both Toby and Kris denied that the infamous incident ever happened so maybe not… either way, that’s a story for another time.
But he took the question from Paul Holmes and ran with it, responding:
“Well other than the fact that it reminds me a lot of the flag-waving and choreographed patriotism that we had back in Nazi Germany half a century ago. The fact that we’ve got a one-party system which is in control of all three branches of our government.
Lap dog media that’s cranking out propaganda for the administration that’d make a Nazi blush, other than that we’re doing pretty good.”
SHEESH… tell us how you really feel, Kris. It’s easy to see that he wasn’t too happy with the direction the country was going under President George H.W. Bush. Although, the same probably goes for most presidents. He famously said that between him and Bill Clinton, “we’ve settled any lingering myths about the brilliance of Rhodes scholars.”
Finally, Johnny Cash called out the military spending, saying we should focus more on helping people at home:
“There’s too much money being spent on military and there should be more spent on education, welfare, young people, children, the elderly… especially the elderly. There’s always been a lot things wrong with the country, but it’s always been our obligation and opportunity to help straighten those things out. I love America… I love this country.”
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