This Willie Nelson two-day birthday concert is the gift that keeps on giving.
Over the weekend, a massive, star-studded group of some of the best country acts out there gathered at the Hollywood Bowl in LA to honor the red headed stranger for his 90th birthday.
And there were some phenomenal performances from George Strait, Miranda Lambert, Chris Stapleton and many, many more.
But one of the coolest, full-circle moments came when Shooter Jennings, son of the late, great Waylon Jennings, and Lukas Nelson, son of Willie Nelson, teamed up for a duet of their fathers’ hit song “Good Hearted Woman.”
Waylon first recorded it as the title track for his 1972 album, Good Hearted Woman, where it peaked at #3 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles chart.
In 1975, he remixed the song and added vocals from Willie, as well as fake crowd noise, to give it a live feel for their iconic Wanted: The Outlaws! album. That version went #1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles chart in 1976 and became an all-time country classic.
The iconic duo wrote it together in 1969 in a motel room in Fort Worth, Texas, during a poker game. Waylon was reading an ad about Ike and Tina Turner, and it mentioned how a lot of her songs were about good-hearted women loving two-timing men, which first inspired the idea.
They pulled from a lot of their own, real-life experiences with their wives, as well.
Willie actually only wrote two lines of the song, but received half of all the royalties that they originally agreed upon, which is cool because it goes to show just how good of a man Waylon really was at heart… even with the bad boy, outlaw image he maintained throughout his career.
And I can’t think of anything more perfect and fitting than these two teaming up for such a special occasion.
They certainly made Waylon and Willie proud, that’s for sure:
“Good Hearted Woman”
