Bob Dylan tries to 'make sense' of Willie Nelson
Bob Dylan has painted a poetic picture of his dear friend and musical comrade Willie Nelson.
Bob Dylan has paid a poetic and deeply personal tribute to Willie Nelson, offering one of the most vivid portraits ever written about the country icon.
The 84-year-old music legend opened up in a new profile for The New Yorker, where he attempted to capture the essence of his longtime friend. Even Dylan, a master of metaphor, admitted that trying to define Nelson is like “trying to define the indefinable".
After unleashing a cascade of imagery - “Ancient Viking Soul,” “Moonshine Philosopher,” “Red Bandana troubadour” - Dylan continued to marvel at Nelson’s singular presence, describing him as a man who treats his guitar “like it’s the last loyal dog in the universe.”
He said: "How can you make sense of him? “How would you define the indefinable or the unfathomable? What is there to say? Ancient Viking Soul? Master Builder of the Impossible? Patron poet of people who never quite fit in and don’t much care to? Moonshine Philosopher? Tumbleweed singer with a PhD? Red Bandana troubadour, braids like twin ropes lassoing eternity? What do you say about a guy who plays an old, battered guitar that he treats like it’s the last loyal dog in the universe?”
Dylan’s reflections only grew more tender as he spoke about the person behind the myth.
He said: “Cowboy apparition, writes songs with holes that you can crawl through to escape from something. Voice like a warm porchlight left on for wanderers who kissed goodbye too soon or stayed too long… Personally, speaking I’ve always known him to be kind, generous, tolerant and understanding of human feebleness, a benefactor, a father and a friend… He’s in harmony with nature. And that’s what makes him Willie.”
To this day, Nelson, 92, remains a touring force, a collaborator across generations, and a cultural touchstone whose influence stretches far beyond Nashville.
