The guitar pickers played their weed-smoking collab at the second night of Willie’s L.A. birthday concerts
Billy Strings was seemingly all over the stage this weekend at the Willie Nelson 90th birthday concerts at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. On Saturday, the bluegrass picker opened the show with “Whiskey River” and later joined Bob Weir for “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain.” On Sunday, he played “I Gotta Get Drunk” and reunited with Weir, along with Margo Price, for “Stay All Night.” But the literal and figurative high point was Strings’ live debut of “California Sober” with Nelson.
The pair released the song, an ode to choosing weed over booze, last week with an accompanying music video. It’s a rollicking number, in line with the vibes of Nelson’s “Bloody Mary Morning,” and finds the two tokers harmonizing on the chorus and Nelson taking his own verse. Onstage at the Hollywood Bowl, “California Sober” was even more energetic, with Nelson delivering his verse with gusto, Strings dropping a wicked solo, and Nelson’s longtime harmonica player Mickey Raphael blasting through a dynamic solo of his own.
“[Recording ‘California Sober’] was really like a dream come true. We went on the Outlaw Tour with Willie, and after that tour…all I was listening to was Red Headed Stranger for weeks. I was just immersed in it, and it brought back so much nostalgia from my childhood — from my grandfather and my dad, singing [his] songs out in the garage, having a few beers and smoking a joint,” Strings told Rolling Stone on the red carpet prior to the Hollywood Bowl concerts. “So I was sitting out by the burn pile at my house and I ripped off a piece of cardboard when I came up with this lyric, ‘California Sober as they say, lately I can’t find no other way.’ And to me it was such a Willie song that I wasn’t going to record it unless Willie recorded it with me. I have so much respect for him because he’s been doing music for so long … writing songs and kicking ass, and I’m not good at math but what’s that – 60, 70 years in music? C’mon man, fuckin’ toast to that man.”
Nelson turned 90 on April 29 and marked the occasion with a pair of all-star concerts this weekend. Right after “California Sober” on Sunday, Keith Richards emerged from the wings to surprise the crowd and join Nelson on two songs: “We Had It All” and Billy Joe Shaver’s “Live Forever.”
Strings returns to the road on May 11 with a headlining show at Red Rocks in Morrison, Colorado, before zigging and zagging along the West Coast. On June 23, Nelson launches his annual Outlaw Music Festival Tour, with a rotating lineup of guests.