Willie Nelson is still fired up about music, pot, martial arts and much more

Elvis may no longer be everywhere, but Willie Nelson certainly seems to be. And, as he sings in “It Get Easier,” a fetching ballad from his upcoming new album: “I don’t have to do one damn thing that I don’t want to.”

Then again, this tireless American music giant has been doing exactly what he wants ever since he helped pioneer country-music’s outlaw movement in the early 1970s. That was also the decade when Elvis recorded Nelson’s tender ballad, “Always On My Mind.”

His latest album, the slyly titled “God’s Problem Child,” is due out April 28. His next tour begins Friday in Texas and concludes June 17 in Kansas City. It includes a sold-out San Diego show Wednesday at Humphreys Concerts by the Bay and an April 29 performance at the annual Stagecoach festival in Indio.

On July 1, just two weeks after his tour wraps up, Nelson is heading on the road again. This time he’ll be headlining his recently announced Outlaw Music Festival tour, a six-city trek that will also feature Bob Dylan, Sheryl Crow, Jason Isbell, The Avett Brothers, My Morning Jacket, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, Margo Price and more.

The lineup also includes Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real. The group, which also tours as Neil Young’s backing band, features Nelson’s sons, Lukas and Mikah.

Both of them perform on “God’s Problem Child,” their famous father’s fourth new album in the past 22 months. It includes a touching tribute to fellow country-music pioneer Merle Haggard, the album-closing “He Won’t Ever Be Gone.”

But Nelson, who turns 84 on April 29, has plenty more on his plate, be it his ongoing SiriusXM radio show, “Willie’s Roadhouse,” or his year-old line of cannabis products, Willie’s Reserve.

His pot line’s marketing slogan — “My stash is your stash” — seems custom-made for Nelson. A longtime proponent of pot, he is co-chair of the advisory board of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

Recalling the time he visited Nelson’s tour bus, former NFL running back (and San Diego native) Ricky Williams told HBO: “It was embarrassing. He smoked me under the bus... I was crawling off the bus.”

Fellow proponents are quick to cite Nelson’s many pro-pot statements, which include: “I think people need to be educated to the fact that marijuana is not a drug. Marijuana is an herb and a flower. God put it here. If He put it here and He wants it to grow, what gives the government the right to say that God is wrong?”

Not coincidentally, the title of Nelson’s memoir is “Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die,” which in 2012 made the New York Times Best Sellers list. In 2014, the day before his 81st birthday, Nelson earned his black belt in a Korean martial art called GongKwon Yusul.

Willie Nelson, right, appears at a 2016 Vermont rally in support of then-presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.

(Photo by Toby Talbot/AP)

Nelson’s mythical status as an American icon has long been a matter of record for this Texas-born father of eight. He rose to prominence in the 1960s, thanks to writing a slew of classic songs that became hits for other artists. These included “Crazy” (Patsy Cline), “Funny How Time Slips Away” (Billy Walker) and “Night Life” (Ray Price, although B.B. King later recorded the definitive version.)

“Willie has the voice of the rock of ages,” Emmylou Harris said. “He should be up on Mount Rushmore.”

Nelson, who has won 11 Grammy Awards, is a 1998 Kennedy Center Honors Recipient. In 2015, he received the Library of Congress’ Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. Yet, despite his many accolades, he is quick to play down his legend.

“If I would have done all the things I’m supposed to have done, I’d be really tired!” Nelson recently told Southern Living magazine.

The same interview also found him espousing the power of positive thinking. “I have this kind of philosophy that I can’t do anything about what happened yesterday or what’s gonna happen tomorrow,” he said. “But I feel like I’m in full control of what’s going on now.

“Worrying will make you sick. I’ve never seen worrying about anything change it. If you can’t do anything about it, why the hell worry about it? So, if you’re thinking anything negative about anything, erase it.”

Nelson canceled five concerts earlier this year because of illness. But he was in strong form at the April 6 “Sing Me Back Home: The Music of Merle Haggard” tribute concert at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena. It featured him doing vocal duets with Keith Richards on “Reasons to Quit,” Kenny Chesney on “Pancho and Lefty,” and Toby Keith on “Ramblin’ Fever,” before leading all of the show’s guest stars in the concert-concluding “Okie From Muskogee.”

As for the future, “I’d like to make it to 2018, if that’s possible,” Nelson told Southern Living, “and then we’ll figure out something else.”

Willie Nelson on…

Here are some of our favorite quotes from Willie Nelson’s previous Union-Tribune interviews.

Being politically incorrrect: “If I’ve hurt (anyone’s) feelings, I apologize. If I made them mad, f--- ‘em!”

His early epiphany: “The first time I earned money doing what I really loved to do was playing music. That was the ultimate, and that was real early in life, before I was a teenager. I was playing rhythm guitar in the Bohemian Polka Band and people couldn’t even hear me (because) I didn’t have an amp. It was $8 a night, but that was a heck of a lot more money than I was making (working) in the fields, so I was glad to get it.”

The music business: “The music itself is one thing, but the music business is another. One of the things wrong with music today is the music business. It stifles creativity.”

The power of personality: “You’ve got to sell yourself first, and once you do that, it really doesn’t matter what the product is. They’ll try to buy it from you whether they like it or not. Door-to-door selling was the best education I ever had. My first door-to-door salesman job was back when I was a kid, so I’ve been selling one thing or another ever since I can remember.”

On whether women or drinking is a better inspiration for songwriting: “”Well, since I’m sure one leads to the other, it doesn’t really matter which you start with!”

Singing Willie’s praises

We asked some of Willie Nelson’s collaborators to share their insights about him. Here’s what they told us.

Jazz great Wynton Marsalis: “People love Willie. He’s an icon, man, because of his integrity and the amount of music he knows. He is the true definition of an American roots musician. He knows blues, country, jazz, pop and New Orleans music, and he’s also a natural musician. He doesn’t talk that much, and I tease him about that all the time, but he has the natural musicianship that the New Orleans musicians have.”

Nelson album producer Don Was: “One night, I was sitting on his tour bus — he kind of holds court in it — and there was a congressman, a film director and a Hell’s Angel, who I’m laying money on had murdered a few people! And Willie treated them all the same. That’s the way he approaches his life and his music”

Matchbox Twenty singer Rob Thomas: “I had this great (pot) connection with this guy in L.A. and I hooked Willie up with him. When he came to see us, he brought his demo tape with all this crazy 1980’s ‘devil-metal’ stuff. All his songs had these weedly-weedly guitars and ‘I am the dark lord of Satan’ lyrics. Willie said to me: ‘God, I hope this guy’s weed is better than his music.’ A month later, I was on the road and Willie called me. He said: ‘I’m in L.A. and I need to know where I can get that devil weed.’ That’s when I knew I was going places, when I hooked Willie up with weed!”

Willie Nelson & Family, with Steve Moakler

When: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday

Where: Humphreys Concerts by the Bay, 2241 Shelter Island Drive, Point Loma

Tickets: Sold out

Phone: (800) 745-3000

Online: ticketmaster.com

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george.varga@sduniontribune.com