Back like he never left.
On June 21, the music world began to worry after Willie Nelson had to cancel his appearance at the Outlaw Music Festival at The Gorge in Washington due to an undisclosed illness. While many performers will cancel shows due to illness, there’s no doubt everyone was a bit more worried given that the legendary singer/songwriter is 91 years old. Just five days later, Nelson had to cancel another show in Virginia Beach due to the same unidentified illness.
That being said, however, Willie put everyone’s fears to rest when it was confirmed that he was good to go for his 51st annual Fourth of July Picnic celebration which took place in Camden, New Jersey this past Thursday.
Willie took the stage along with his son, Lukas Nelson, and performed a plethora of hits including “Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys,” On the Road Again,” “Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground” and his newly-released “The Border.”
The “Always On My Mind” singer opened the show in fashion with his 1973 hit, “Whiskey River,” before immediately diving into a cover of Bob Wills’ “Stay a Little Longer” alongside Lukas Nelson. While there’s no denying that his vocals aren’t quite what they used to be, it’s still incredible it is to see Willie continuing to perform at the age of 91.
Since the 4th of July performance, Willie has gone on to perform back-to-back nights at the Outlaw Music Festival in Bethel, New York and Hershey, Pennsylvania, seemingly calming everyone’s fears of him not being able to get out on the road again.
Watch here: