Willie Nelson celebrated his 90th birthday this weekend with two special gigs in Los Angeles – watch performances by Neil Young, Snoop Dogg and Beck below.
Nelson’s big birthday landed on Saturday (April 29), and a host of the legendary singer’s friends and collaborators came together at the Hollywood Bowl on that evening, and the subsequent night, for the celebration, dubbed Long Story Short.
Also playing alongside Nelson were a huge variety of artists including Sturgill Simpson, The Chicks, Leon Bridges, Kacey Musgraves, Sheryl Crow, Tom Jones, Orville Peck, Nelson’s son Lukas and more.
During the festivities, Snoop joined Nelson for ‘Roll Me Up’, while Beck performed ‘Hands On The Wheel’.
Young, meanwhile, joined Stephen Stills for his performance, which came soon after the pair – famous for working together in Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young – performed together for the first time in four years the previous weekend as part of Stills’ ‘Light Up The Blues’ event that he puts on every year in aid of Autism Speaks.
Watch a host of the performances from the special evening below.
Young’s first performance in four years came in February, where he performed ‘Heart Of Gold’ and ‘Comes A Time’ at a march and rally in support of the United For Old Growth campaign, which is looking to stop the Canadian government from allowing logging companies from destroying old-growth forests.
Last summer, the singer indicated he’s not yet ready to play concerts, saying he doesn’t think it is safe amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. His latest comments echoed ones made in December of 2021, when he said he wouldn’t be returning to touring until COVID-19 was “beat” and the pandemic was over. “I don’t care if I’m the only one who doesn’t do it,” he said during an interview with Howard Stern.
During the pandemic, Young also called on promoters to cancel “super-spreader” gigs while a pandemic was still ongoing. “The big promoters, if they had the awareness, could stop these shows,” he wrote in a blog post on his site. “Live Nation, AEG, and the other big promoters could shut this down if they could just forget about making money for a while.”
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