Interview: Lukas Nelson on being shaped and raised by the romance of the American road

Some people might say the highway is their home, that they hit the road and never turned back, and it could be somewhat of a glorified-wannabe-troubadour narrative, but for americana icon Lukas Nelson, it’s just a fact. Raised on a tour bus, learning the rights and wrongs of life and the music industry, and along the way perfecting the craft of songwriting, Nelson has been writing, singing and playing from his earliest days. 

As the son of country legend Willie Nelson, Lukas knows the deal – he’s grown up around the names that sit pride of place in a record collection of classic country icons. But put that to the side, and what you have is an honest, authentic, distinctly American artist. 

It’s a unique way of being raised, of growing into your own person, and learning who you want to be. There have undoubtedly been missteps along the way, but to suggest that Nelson took the wrong route couldn’t be further from the truth. Having excelled in the music world from day one and worked to shape an identity that both lives up to his last name and makes it his own, Nelson is now turning down a new road. It’s one that’s paved with reflection and embraces both the good and the bad of a life on the move. 

Releasing his solo debut album “American Romance” in June 2025, he turned to what he knew best for inspiration: America. Without the company of his long-time band Promise of the Real, this was an opportunity for Nelson to creatively and personally explore, putting his sound at the forefront. Teamed up with legendary producer (and fellow son of an outlaw) Shooter Jennings to craft a representation of where Nelson’s soul is right now, the album is nothing short of a deeply personal, yet universally accessible Great American Novel. It’s well worth the read.

Watching the sunrise from a truck stop in the middle of nowhere; tuning into the radio and hearing a Willie Nelson song (more familiar to some than others); a conversation with a stranger that could last an hour, a day or a night; a street corner in a brand new town that could soon become as familiar as the back of your hand, or you drive on by without a second glance. From start to finish, the album spans as far and wide as the Western Plains, it reaches coast to coast with its varied genre explorations, but at its heart sits Nelson in a diner booth, coffee in hand and the shadow of the mountains through the window frame – it’s an American Romance.

Taking some time from his current tour, Nelson sat down with Americana UK to talk through the moments and milestones that led to his new record, the unconventional upbringing that shaped him into who he is today, and the corners of America that he’s found himself passing through.

Americana UK: Well, thank you so much for taking some time to have a chat

Lukas Nelson: It’s good to talk to you.

AUK: First and foremost, how are you, and where are you? 

LN: I’m pretty good. I’m in Ithaca, New York, where Cornell University is, it’s a nice little area, a lot of trees, nature. I’m out on the road right now, we played here at a festival yesterday, and then we have a day off or so left. And then we have a show in Kingston, upstate New York.

AUK: How is your tour going so far? Is it treating you well? 

LN: Yeah, I’m trying to get exercise while I can and eat well and sleep well. Days off help – it’s good because you can sleep in generally. Most of the time, you don’t have a wake-up time specified. So, the time you go to bed may be late, but you can also sleep as long as you want – I just have to get the curtains black.

AUK: Have you noticed a difference touring for “American Romance”, as opposed to with Promise of the Real? 

LN: Yeah, the main difference between Promise of the Real and myself is that they’ve become Neil Young’s band. They started off as my band, and then it just kind of morphed into Neil’s band, which I was happy with, but I also wanted to keep playing my own songs and my own music. Most of them were pretty content to go out and be with Neil for as much as he wanted them out, and that was a conflict for me. So I just decided that I’m going to be full-time my own music and be able to hopefully play with Neil whenever I can… but wanted to focus on my own music. And some of those guys chose to just make that more of a priority, I think it was good to explore musically, just to do our own thing. I’ve been the principal songwriter the whole time, so I like to just explore different musical palettes, different instrumentation, different people to play with. It kind of worked out for everybody, really.

AUK: Have you noticed a difference in terms of audience reception? Not having the band with you?

LN: No, not really – it’s the same. It’s pretty much the same show. I’m playing a lot of my new album, which is great; people are really into that. But I play a lot of my old songs, too, I’ll still play ‘Turn Off the News (Build a Garden)’, and I’ll still play ‘Find Yourself’, ‘Set Me Down on a Cloud’, ‘Forget About Georgia’, ‘Just Outside of Austin’, all these songs that I wrote back then. I’ll play them with just a little bit of different instrumentation, that’s all, but it’s still rock and roll, country soul, whatever it is. Not very genre-specific.

AUK: I have to say, “American Romance”, I have been listening to the album on repeat. It’s a very special album.

LN: Thank you so much.

AUK: There are so many themes of constant movement and living on the road. Are you finding a new kind of connection to the songs when you’re playing them on the move? 

LN: Yeah, I am. Songs like ‘Make You Happy’ have been sort of sleeper; people really love that song, and it’s great when it goes into that soul/R&B kind of explosion in the middle there. ‘American Romance’ itself has been really great – that’s been one that people really, really love, and it just adds a lot of depth and dynamics to the show. ‘All God Did’ is a really fun one to play live. And then ‘You Were It’, I’m starting the show with right now, which is fun. It’s the first song I ever wrote, so it’s me just stripped down into my raw artistry there.

It’s just nice to have a lot more colours to play with, I suppose. Putting together a live show, it’s deeper and it’s more lyric-centric, but also the melodies are very varied. There’s a lot of colours I like to sing. 

AUK: You’ve mentioned how you’ve explored different genres, but this album, it does feel distinctly americana, and I don’t just mean that genre-wise. Themes, aesthetics and the art that you’re going for, it’s like the heart of America. Do you think that comes from spending so much time seeing every corner of America? 

LN: When people ask me where I’m from, I can’t really give a straight answer. I mean, I’ve slept anywhere from my car to fancy hotel rooms, on street corners, and had Thanksgivings in diners and truck stops. I just feel like I was raised by the country as a whole rather than from one place; I don’t feel like I’m from one place necessarily.

I was born in Austin, I was raised in Hawaii, and I was on the road most of my life – even when I was raised in a certain place, I was never there for very long. It’s one of those things where it’s hard to say where you’re from. My whole life has been an American Romance, and I suppose that’s why I wrote this.

It’s like an American novel in music, that’s what it feels like. I grew up reading John Steinbeck and Cormac McCarthy, so there’s a lot of those themes on the album.

AUK: Well, I have to ask you, what’s your favourite Steinbeck novel or short story? 

LN: “Travels with Charley.” And that’s kind of what I based this album on. I tried to sort of capture what it felt like to just be traversing the country. Seeing new places. Playing music. Having affairs. 

AUK: Well, you mentioned earlier about being everywhere from hotel rooms to sleeping in your car to Thanksgiving diner dinners. What’s your go-to diner breakfast order?

LN: Oh, that’s a great question. I usually will have a couple of soft scrambled eggs, and I’ll have some avocado, some wheat toast. And then maybe a grilled chicken breast or I’ll have bacon and a grilled chicken breast. I’ll have a piece of salmon if I can; if it’s a nice place, then sometimes I’ll have salmon. A lot of times, I’ll just have eggs, avocado, wheat toast, and a piece of lean protein. I try and get two proteins just so I can load up, I have to eat a lot of it.

AUK: So, following that, when you’ve left this diner and you’re back on the road, what are you listening to?

LN: Paul Simon – probably like “Graceland” or “Rhythm of the Saints” right now. I really like this artist, Ren, he’s from Wales. I love Sierra Farrell. I love Stephen Wilson Jr. Oh man, who else? I mean, I love listening to my dad. I love listening to Neil Young. I love listening to Bob Dylan. The Beatles, Zeppelin, Pink Floyd. I like a lot of soul, too. I think Al Green’s probably my favourite soul singer other than Ray Charles. Or Stevie Wonder. When you start getting into that, the list goes on. 

AUK: So I was hoping that we could dig into the new album just a little bit, ‘Born Runnin’ Outta Time’ feels like quite a brutally honest reflection on the life on the road that you’ve lived. Was it a cathartic one to write? 

LN: Yeah, it was fun to write. I had this sort of concept, and then I brought in Nate Ferraro and John Decious, and it was Nate’s idea to speed it up and make it this fast thing. And me, John and Nate really kind of worked it into this fun pop kind of vibe, but with this dark under twist.

I had this really strange thought when I was like 13 or 14, and I was already playing music, that I really had to hurry to establish a musical career because I was a great guitar player for my age and a great writer for my age. I was afraid that the older I got, the less people would be impressed with me. I thought, ‘Oh, man, I’m running out of time already, and I’m only 14 years old.’ I had a very strong sense of urgency to establish myself as someone who wasn’t just handed everything. I really worked super hard; I trained like an Olympic athlete when I was a kid, eight to ten hours a day, I was playing my guitar. I didn’t go to parties; I didn’t care about gossip in school. I was just in my locker room where there was reverb, and I’d have my electric guitar, and I’d be playing and playing and playing and playing.

So I felt like I was always running out of time. I still feel that way, but I’m glad because it keeps me pushing towards something. I’m also sort of able to step back now and find peace of mind as well. So I have both. I think slowing down through the pandemic kind of gave me the knowledge that I could slow down, and I wouldn’t lose myself completely.

But it’s always felt like I made the choice to just keep the pedal to the metal. There’s a movie called “Easy Rider” from the 70s – great soundtrack – it’s like these two hippie biker guys. At the very end, one of them says, “I can’t help feeling like we might have made a mistake,” that’s where that line in the song comes from. There’s this feeling like, did I miss something back then? Did I do it right? And that’s kind of what led me to clean myself up a little bit, stop smoking and drinking and just kind of get into a clearer mindset, because I didn’t want to miss anything.

AUK: Obviously, you haven’t had a conventional life, but that feeling of running out of time is very universal and in one way or another, everyone’s always feeling it. Being able to reflect on it and take a step back is an impressive thing to be able to do.

LN: I think it’s part of being self-aware, and it’s one of those things where the more and more I grow, the more I try and criticise myself – not in a bad way, but just sort of ask myself harder questions so that I can get closer to the truth of who I am.

AUK: Do you think that with a solo album, you’ve been taking those steps towards doing that? Not necessarily more authentic, because your music has always been authentic, but perhaps more full circle?

LN: I think that it’s not even really a solo album necessarily. I mean, look, the band Promise of the Real was a group of musicians who followed me on my journey, and I took them along as much as I could. But I was always the creative force of the music.

All those songs come from a place of me taking a picture of my soul at that time and writing about it. This is just a different picture of my soul at the time. It is a signal of growth; it’s the most clear-headed album I’ve ever made, which, more than the difference band-wise, I think I’m more clear now into who I am. I’m taking steps towards diving deeper into that. There’s a lot of different depths of my psyche that I have the freedom to explore 100%. 

AUK: You already mentioned the song ‘You Were It.’ I wanted to ask you about the story behind that and why you chose to close the album with an older song that’s already had a life.

LN: It’s the first song I ever wrote. I was 11, and I must have been going through something, you know? It was probably just family drama, maybe, that just got me feeling dark.

I remember being in the school bus and sort of feeling like I had a song stuck in my head, and I realised that it hadn’t been written yet. So I went and I wrote it down, and that’s how some of my best songs have come, they just started playing in my head. Then my dad loved it so much he put it on his album. Kris Kristofferson heard it and said he loved it, and that I had no choice but to be a songwriter. All these things made me feel inspired, and so I felt I’ve got this talent: maybe I should just push and train and give everything to it, so that in the future I’d be set. 

I’m grateful to that younger me for having that kind of wisdom back then because there’s a lot of people that don’t know what they want to do until late in life, and I knew from a very, very young age.

AUK: Do you know if there’s a song that your dad has written that he would really like you to include on an album? 

LN: That’s a good question. I covered ‘Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground’ for his 90th birthday, which is, I think, my favourite song of his. I think that was special for him, but I’ve covered many of his songs over the years.

AUK: Well, maybe on your next album, you close with one of his songs? Then it kind of evens out.

LN: Yeah, that would be sweet. I think we could do that for sure, that would be really nice.

AUK: It feels like a great match to have Shooter Jennings produce “American Romance”. How did that relationship come about?

LN: Well, Shooter and I have worked together a little bit here and there, but we decided that this was the time to really work together. We both have established our careers, and we’ve both done a lot of great things. With “American Romance”, I think it will become less about our fathers and more about what we’ve done. I think Shooter’s a very talented guy, and he’s a good guy, so I really enjoyed working with him.

AUK: And then the guitar work across the album is wonderful. The solo on ‘Pretty Much’ works so seamlessly. Is guitar work something you were focusing on more closely on this album, or did it just naturally come alongside anyway?

LN: I wouldn’t say I focused on it more closely. I think I’ve just been focused on the song itself and trying to just see exactly what the song needs. There have been other albums where I’ve focused more on guitar, but this was just supposed to be as stripped-down as possible. So, I could not have my guitar in there, but I wanted it to be just about the lyrics. I wanted people to really focus on that. I wanted to accentuate the storytelling side of things.

And so the guitar riffs, I think, are really beautiful, but I wanted them to be understated and to support the song and the lyrics and the poetry of it.

AUK: No, definitely. It feels like a very seamless transition from the words of what you’re saying into the music of what you’re saying – it’s the same story, different communication.

LN: Thank you.

AUK: And on that note, if you could only play one guitar for the rest of your life – maybe your own Trigger – what would it be and why? 

LN: Oh, it would be my Les Paul Jr. It’s a 1956 Les Paul Jr. It’s a great guitar.

AUK: Amazing. That was a quick answer. And, as this is Americana UK, I have to ask: any plans to come over here anytime soon?

LN: Yes, I would love to come over there. I’m really hoping to get out there really soon. We’re just trying as hard as we can. I’ve spent a lot of time there over the years, so coming back there and trying to figure out where and what the best way to do that is the next step. 

AUK: I know for a fact that there are quite a few people here waiting to see you.

LN: Well, I’ll be there as soon as possible, let them know.