Twenty-five year old Lukas Nelson was born into a life of music. His father, Willie Nelson, was no red-headed stranger to his son, and Lukas absorbed the life of a musician into his crimson blood, eventually pumping his own tales from the heart. Nelson grew up on the island of Hawaii, until it was time for him to cross the ocean and start learning the craft his father had passed down to him. After landing Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles for a year, Nelson left to pursue music full time, calling on drummer Anthony LoGerfo, whom he met at a Neil Young concert in the fall of 2008.
Things went full circle for Nelson and his band, Promise of the Real, as less than seven years later, the group just finished recording an album with the man who was literally the soundtrack of the band’s creation. L4LM writer Brian Turk recently had the pleasure of chatting with Nelson, who shared how he got connected with Neil Young, and how he got deep in his own groove after his last release, Wasted, in 2012.
“I named the band ‘Promise of the Real’ after a line in Neil Young’s song ‘Walk On.’ The line goes: Some get stoned, some get strange, sooner or later it all gets real. That line just says a lot to me.”
He continued, saying, “Neil and I met for the first time at Farm Aid ten years ago, when I was 15. A long time went by, but once I started Promise of The Real, Neil and I started talking every once in a while. One day at Farm Aid, Neil came up to me and said, ‘Let’s jam together at some point.’ We already had a show planned, where POTR was going to be my Dad’s backing band at a Keystone XL Pipeline protest in Nebraska, and Neil was playing there too, so we wound up playing a few tunes as Neil’s backing band as well. Then we did the Bridge School Benefit with him, and a couple months later I got an email from Neil saying he had written some songs, and asked if POTR wanted to record them with him.”
Set to be released on June 29th, The Monsanto Years is a concept album drawing attention to the problems set upon the world by agribusiness behemoth, Monsanto. The Monsanto Years is Neil Young’s thirty-sixth studio album, and a piece of art produced to inspire monumental change. Although the topics on the album are heavy, according to Nelson, it was a blast putting it together.
Neil Young and Willie Nelson’s Sons Are Releasing An Album About Monsanto
“We recorded The Monsanto Years down at the Teatro Boulevarde Theater in Oxnard, California,” explained Nelson, “My dad recorded his album Teatro there, and I think both Bob Dylan and The Neville Brothers have recorded there as well. We spent six weeks amazing weeks down there with Neil. This album, like the pipeline protest, and Bridge School, is for a cause, protesting Monsanto. Neil and I always come together for a cause. While we were down there, we wound up playing ‘Walk On’ with Neil, the song I named the band after, and it was such a beautiful full-circle moment. My brother Micah joined us on the album as well.”
When Nelson got the call from Young, he had just finished up a new Promise of The Real album, but he decided to sit on it until The Monsanto Years had some time to spread its message. Not only that, the band had recorded material two years ago, but ultimately scrapped that project as well.
“We spent six weeks in Topanga Canyon,” said Nelson, “It was called The Wildwood Sessions. We lived in this old cabin on fourteen acres with a creek. It actually used to be an old summer camp. We never put the record out. We got thirteen or fouteen songs done, but it didn’t feel like it represented us well. We were going through management changes and some other stuff at the time. Some of the songs are on a bootleg album we only sell at shows. Then a year or so went by, and we called our friend Jim Siegel, who owns a recording mansion in San Francisco (William Westerfeld House), right on Fulton and Scott.”
He continued, “The mansion definitely had a lot of spirits in it. Jefferson Airplane, The Grateful Dead, Big Brother and the Holding Company, and all these other great bands used to hang out in the mansion. The vibe was really cool, and produced a psychedelic San Francisco rock record where every song is a killer. It’s called Something Real. It got mastered a month or so ago, right after we went and recorded this album with Neil, so we put it on the back burner. The Monsanto album is what matters. The GMO issue is very real, and very important. If someone wants to eat GMO’s, let them go for it, we just want to know what’s in our food, and how it was grown. People can make their own decisions.”
Nelson has been busy since releasing Wasted in 2012, and he has made some powerful changes in his life as well. According to Nelson, “Wasted was just an expression of what I was thinking about at that moment. It might have been a little rough around the edges, but I was going through a lot of shit. I wasn’t going to polish it up for anybody. That’s part of what Neil (Young) and I have in common, we aren’t afraid to just put it out there and let you know how we feel.”
Nelson has also spent the last three years diligently working on his electric guitar tone and singing, and it’s hard to deny how well his tenacity has paid off. Nelson’s guitar tone is rich, unique, filled with personality and inspired by the greats. “In order to find my voice on the guitar, I listened to a lot of JJ Cale mostly,” shared Nelson, “Specifically his album Naturally (1972). As a songwriter, and as a guitar player, there is nobody cooler than JJ Cale. He is the shit. Alot of the people that you and I look up to looked up to JJ. I went to the source. I also listened to Albert King, Freddie King, Jimmy Reed and all the guys who got it all started. We all try to learn what your heroes are all about, and emulate them.”
Well, Nelson has obviously picked the right people to look up to. He has defined his style, his soul and his character, and now an album he did with Neil Young will define one of the worst issues of our generation. What’s next for Nelson? “I want to do a country record. A real stripped down, rootsy, earthy country album that has a good mix of electric and acoustic guitar. Melodic and harmonic. I am really inspired by Neil’s Comes a Time (1972) album.” Whatever he does next, Nelson’s time has definitely come.
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The Road To ARISE is a series of conversations with artists playing this year’s ARISE Festival in Loveland, Colorado. The ARISE Festival is three days of music, yoga, art and workshops designed with the mission to raise consciousness and awareness, and the goal to uplift the world through music. The Road To ARISE is paved with good conversation.
-Written By Brian Turk, Photo by Jim Eckenrode