Like father, like son.
During Willie Nelson’s two-day, star-studded 90th birthday bash in April, Willie’s son Lukas took the stage solo to perform an absolutely perfect rendition of his dad’s classic #1 hit, “Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground.”
Of course, Willie wrote the song for his starring role as a country singer in the 1980 film Honeysuckle Rose, and it eventually become his seventh #1 single on the country chart as a solo artist in 1981.
It stayed at #1 for a week, spent a total of fourteen weeks on the country chart, and remains a fan-favorite to this day.
Lukas gave a magnificent performance at the Hollywood Bowl that had the thousands of people in the audience so invested and captivated that you could hear a pin drop, and it’s still one of, if not the best, from that entire weekend.
And over on Instagram yesterday, Willie’s team shared an incredible side-by-side video of Willie playing the song live at Budokan, Tokyo in February of 1984, with Lukas’ performance earlier this year.
Their talent is transcendent, and it’s amazing to think that 40 years later, his son is carrying on his legacy in this way and continuing to honor the music of a country icon.
Lukas is an insanely talented artist in his own right too (he comes by it honest, obviously), and actually put out a brand new album earlier this year called Sticks and Stones that you should definitely check out if you haven’t yet.
There’s just somethin’ about this that brings the chills… I’ve already watched it like 10 times over. It’s that good:
The entire concert will be available on film on December 15th as a 2CD+Blu-Ray deluxe edition, a complete digital edition and as a 2xLP highlights.
It airs on CBS Network on Sunday, December 17th (8:30-10:30 PM, ET/PT), and will be streaming live on Paramount+ that evening, too, if you haven’t had a chance to see it yet.
The full video of Lukas’ performance isn’t available quite yet, but you can listen to the audio below (and I cannot recommend it highly enough):
And of course, Willie’s live performance from nearly 40 years ago:
