One by Willie

John Spong

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Each episode, music writer John Spong talks to one notable Willie Nelson fan about one Willie song that they love, leading to highly personal looks at the life, art, and legend of a genuine American folk hero. Check us out on instagram: @onebywillie and our website onebywillie.com

14 TIMER SIDEN

Emmylou Harris on "Till I Gain Control Again" (special Willie's birthday episode)

In another of our annual, Icon-on-Icon birthday tributes to Willie, 14-time Grammy winner and Country Hall of Famer Emmylou Harris talks about a song she sang every night with him when they toured together in the 70s, “Till I Gain Control Again.” It was, of course, written by one of her and Willie’s all-time favorite songwriters, Rodney Crowell, and it gets Emmy thinking about being a young artist watching the deep, almost spiritual connection Willie forms with his fans—plus the way she and Willie had to swim against the Nashville tide to pull country music back to its roots, the day Elvis died, the making of Teatro…and the death-defying, high-wire act of trying to sing harmony with Willie Nelson.

42 min.
8. APR.

Matt Berninger on "All of Me"

Matt Berninger, lead singer and lyricist of beloved Brooklyn rock band The National, talks about Willie’s 1978 cover of “All of Me.” It was the third single off his dad’s favorite Willie record, Stardust, an album Matt loves so much that, when he went to record his first solo album, Serpentine Prison, he enlisted Stardust producer Booker T. Jones to produce, and Willie’s harmonica player, Mickey Raphael, to play harp. We’ll get into all that, plus the pre-Willie history of “All of Me,” the decidedly unorthodox sessions in which Willie and Booker recorded it, and the healing power of music…with brief cameos by Roberta Flack, Billie Holiday, and Lester Young, and a full-on co-star role for Mickey, who sat in on the interview and provided his own detailed memories of creating Stardust.

48 min.
25. MAR.

Jamey Johnson on "It Always Will Be"

Million-selling country star Jamey Johnson, one of the finest singer-songwriters alive and a man generally considered the walking embodiment of Outlaw Country, talks on the title-cut to Willie’s 2004 album, It Always Will Be. The song’s a simple, hymn-like ballad, and maybe not the first thing you’d think of when Outlaw comes up, but that will change when Jamey explains what the term—and this wonderful song—mean to him. From there he describes poker, chess, and domino games; huge figures in Willie’s life, like longtime stage manager Poodie Locke and legendary songwriter Hank Cochran; and what Willie means to him, both as a friend…and as an example of how to live your life.

51 min.
11. MAR.

Kenny Chesney on "That Lucky Old Sun"

Kenny Chesney, a Country Music Hall of Famer and longtime Willie friend, fan, and collaborator, talks about Willie’s 1976 cover of “That Lucky Old Sun.” That beautiful, hushed track, which opened the album The Sound in Your Mind, was one of Willie’s first covers from the Great American Songbook, setting the stage for his Stardust triumph two years later...and hearing it now takes Kenny back to an old tour bus, when he was a young artist studying Willie’s singing. From there he gets into the duet the two cut on the song in the mid-2000s—which ended up being a pivotal record for Willie—plus what it was like to produce Willie's 2008 album, Moment of Forever, and the way Willie helped inspire the artistic change that grew Kenny into Billboard’s Top Country Artist of the 21st Century.

41 min.
TRAILER

Introducing One by Willie, Season 7

Music writer John Spong talks each episode to one notable Willie fan about one Willie song they love--then runs down the kinds of rabbit holes that open up when the subject is Willie Nelson. Starting March 11, fifteen new episodes featuring Kenny Chesney, Taj Mahal, George Saunders, Tami Neilson, Dave Stewart, Jamey Johnson, Ali Siddiq, Matt Berninger, and so on…each giving a uniquely personal take on the life and art of a genuine American folk hero.

4 min.
09.12.2025

Wesley Schultz on "Pretty Paper" (special holiday reboot)

With the holiday season in full effect, we’re reaching back to OBW’s earliest days to re-up this Nov 2020 episode with Lumineer Wesley Schultz on Willie’s initial contribution to the holiday canon, “Pretty Paper.” Wes was a little kid growing up in the New Jersey suburbs when he first fell for "Pretty Paper," which his folks played in the car as they drove their neighborhood checking out Xmas lights. We talk about that, the surreal story from Willie’s own childhood that prompted him to write it--and the way only Willie could write a Christmas song you want to hear all year long.

29 min.
29.04.2025

Bonnie Raitt on "Getting Over You" (special Willie's birthday episode)

In a special, icon-on-icon birthday tribute, 13-time Grammy winner and longtime Willie friend, fan, and collaborator Bonnie Raitt talks about their sublime 1993 duet, “Getting Over You.” It was a cornerstone of one of the most important albums of Willie’s career, Across the Borderline, and produced by the brilliant Don Was—who also produced Bonnie’s own masterpieces Nick of Time and Luck of the Draw. Bonnie gets into all that, likening Willie in the studio to both the Cheshire Cat and Yoda, before talking about covering “Night Life” with B.B. King at Willie’s legendary 60th birthday concert, why she thinks Willie is the most unique guitar player alive, and then sending him the most gracious birthday wish you will hear all year.

48 min.
26.03.2025

Conor Oberst on "Undo the Right"

Brilliant indie rock-pop-and-folk singer-songwriter Conor Oberst, of Bright Eyes and Monsters of Folk fame, talks about another of Willie’s famous Pamper Demos, “Undo the Right.” It was one of Willie’s earliest efforts for the Pamper Publishing Company, a co-write with Hank Cochran, the legendary songwriter who first championed him when he moved to Nashville. That gets Conor thinking about the craft of songwriting, about how sneaking contradictory or counterintuitive ideas into songs helps them to better reflect what he calls the "big mess” of real life, and how nobody writes a bridge like Willie does…before we listen to another old Willie song, “The Storm Has Just Begun,” which was the B-side to his first single in 1959—and that Willie wrote when he was just twelve years old.

40 min.

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John Spong

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Each episode, music writer John Spong talks to one notable Willie Nelson fan about one Willie song that they love, leading to highly personal looks at the life, art, and legend of a genuine American folk hero. Check us out on instagram: @onebywillie and our website onebywillie.com