Willie Nelson has confessed that he never imagined he would still be alive at 93.
The country music icon opened up about decades of substance use and acknowledged that he had “done everything wrong” before choosing sobriety.
In an interview released by The Guardian on Sunday, Nelson, now 93, said he was as astonished as anyone to remain active in the recording studio and on stage — releasing his 79th solo studio album, Dream Chaser, earlier this year — and continuing to perform into his nineties despite the rough years of his youth.
“The way I was headed, I never expected to be here,” the 12-time Grammy winner told The Guardian. “I don’t think anyone expected me to live past 21, the way I was headed.”
The On the Road Again singer explained that his decision to quit drinking and hard drugs in 1978 came after realizing he had “done everything wrong.”
“I did everything wrong,” Nelson recalled. “If it was wrong, I did it. And if it was really wrong, I did it twice.”
Even after giving up alcohol, Nelson continued to smoke cigarettes and use cannabis daily until 2018, when ongoing battles with pneumonia and emphysema forced him to quit. He then turned to cannabis edibles as an alternative.
“I had a lung collapse, so I have to be really careful. I do edibles at night,” the singer explained.
His memoir The Last Leaf is slated for publication on Tuesday, and Nelson said he feels grateful simply to be alive.
“I suppose I am the last leaf on the tree,” he said. “I’m lucky to be here. I’ve lost many close friends along the way — Johnny (Cash), Waylon (Jennings) and Kris (Kristofferson). I feel fortunate that I’m still here.”
He also indicated he wasn’t overly worried about dying, expressing belief in reincarnation.
“Well, you know, everybody’s going to die, so it isn’t a big deal how long we’ve got,” the singer concluded. “We live and we die, and I believe we come back again.”
