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One by Willie

One by Willie x Nashville Now: Happy Birthday, Willie Nelson!

One by Willie

John Spong

Willie Nelson, Music, Music History, Music Commentary, Guitar, Spong, Music Interviews, Society & Culture, Austin, Texas Monthly, Country Music, Arts, Americana, Songwriting, Outlaw Country

4.6898 Ratings

🗓️ 29 April 2026

⏱️ 58 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

With Willie Nelson turning 93 today, One by Willie hooks up with Rolling Stone’s Nashville Now and its host, RS Head of Country Joseph Hudak, for a special birthday collab episode. We’ll open with a look at how OBW host John Spong managed to turn listening to Willie Nelson records into a full-time job, plus the unique, almost metaphysical way that individual songs connect fans not just to Willie, but to people in their own lives. And then, proving that point, we pivot to Hudak’s favorite Willie song, “My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys,” which takes Joe back to being a kid in rural Pennsylvania watching The Electric Horseman on bootleg HBO with his mom.

Transcript

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0:00.0

One by Willie is brought to you by Waterburger.

0:03.0

Willie's been doing things his way for over 70 years, and Waterburger's been doing the same.

0:08.0

Fresh beef, made to order, no shortcuts.

0:12.0

Some things are just worth doing right.

0:14.0

Find yours at waterburger.com.

0:17.0

Hey, it's Kathleen Hannah, Bikini Kell and the Tigra, and I'm so excited to share that I've teamed up with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to host their new podcast.

0:26.3

Music Makes Us.

0:27.8

I'm going to get to chat with revolutionary musicians about the things artists really want to talk about.

0:33.3

Favorite songs growing up, the lyrics that sparked a new era in their life, what they listened to

0:38.8

today, and what inspires them to keep doing this. Check out Music Makes Us available November 18th

0:45.0

from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Radiotopia and Talk House. Find it wherever you get your

0:49.6

podcast. Hey there, I'm John Spong.

0:55.2

This is One by Willie, a podcast in which I talk each week to one notable Willie Nelson fan about one Willie

1:01.6

Willie song that they really love.

1:03.9

Only this week, we're doing things a little differently.

1:06.7

With the show's patron saint Willie Nelson turning 93 today, we've hooked up with Rolling Stone Magazine's country music podcast Nashville now

1:15.3

and its host, Rolling Stone Head of Country Joseph Hudak,

1:19.2

for a special collaborative birthday episode that is a little bit our show and a little bit theirs.

1:25.2

So we'll open with a walk through the Willie work I've done

1:27.7

here with the podcast and before that as a writer at Texas Monthly.

1:31.7

We'll look at the way so many, I'd argue all,

1:34.7

of Willie's 155 albums can be viewed as little parables

...

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