Texas Monthly.

Hey there, I'm John Spong with Texas Monthly magazine, and this is One by Willie, a podcast in which I talk each week to one notable Willie Nelson fan about one Willie song that they really

love. This week, we visit with the incomparable Whoopi Goldberg, who in addition to being one of the

few people who's won an Oscar, a Tony, an Emmy, and a Grammy, is also a best-selling author and

a monster Willie Nelson fan. She's going to focus on his 1978 recording of Stardust,

explaining how on the one hand it's what she calls a love song about a love song, but also why,

when she hears Willie sing it, she pictures herself barefoot in the clouds with her late mom and brother.

From there she'll get into Wayland, the Four Tops, an English

song and dance man Anthony Newley. The ways that Willie's work with farm aid is akin to the

comic relief benefits she used to host with Billy Crystal and Robin Williams. And then finally,

she's going to issue a dinner invite to Willie and his wife Annie, who Whoopi describes as an American standard,

just like Stardust.

Oh, and Willie and Annie, if y'all are listening, Whoopi means it.

So let's do it.

Hey, it's hard. Sometimes I wonder.

You know, we start every show at the same place,

and that is what's so cool about Stardust, either just the song Stardust or Willie's version of Stardust?

Well, Willie's version of Stardust will stop you in your tracks and insist that you hear the words. And I like that.

I like songs that insist that I listen.

And it's not anything he's doing.

I think it's just, it's his breathing, it's the ease with which he's singing it.

And it reminds me of family because it reminds me that I'm missing people that I love tremendously.

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