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Published at 1:48pm
Published on 7/24/08
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Willie Nelson grew up in a small farming community in Abbott, Texas. Digging vegetables out of the soil wasn’t an ideal way to live—it was the only way to live. “We ate good, too,” the 74-year-old singer and activist tells me from his tour bus, which, at the moment, is rambling along the asphalt en route to Holmdel, New Jersey.
It’s these American highways that first inspired the poster boy of ’70s-era rebellion to think differently about food. Or think about it period. Only when Nelson started touring the country with a guitar on his back did he realize that most of his fellow citizens didn’t grow their own beets or slaughter backyard chickens. “Truck stop after truck stop after truck stop, it was all garbage food,” he recalls. “It was real surprising, real frustrating.”
And so, with the help of his buddies Neil Young and John Mellencamp, Nelson birthed the first Farm Aid concert in Champaign, Illinois, in 1985. Despite the shrinking number of small-time farmers-—“We went from 8 million to 2 million,” sighs Nelson—the guitars are amped and the spliffs are still burning. “It’s a fight we’re not giving up.”
In addition to the braided outlaw, the Farm Aid ’07 lineup includes performances by board members Dave Matthews, Young and Mellencamp, plus supporting musos Tim Reynolds, Gregg Allman, Matisyahu, Warren Haynes, Guster and more.
Always the advocate, Nelson hopes the fest will raise awareness for a farm bill, and he gets around on his own gas: BioWillie biodiesel fuel, made from soybeans and feedstock. As for food, just how easy is it hunting for farm-friendly organic produce on the road?
“Oh, I got people to do that for me now,” laughs Nelson. “But I’m a pretty simple guy. I like eggs and potatoes. Eggs and potatoes in the morning. Eggs and potatoes at night.” Free-range, of course.
Farm Aid 2007: A Homegrown Festival is at Randalls Island Sun 9. See farmaid.org.
