Lukas Nelson Opens Up About His Relationship With His Father, Willie

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Lukas Nelson might be country royalty, but he doesn’t want to be summed up as a nepo baby.

When the 36-year-old singer-songwriter, son of country legend Willie Nelson (92) and Annie D'Angelo, joined SiriusXM’s The Howard Stern Show to promote his first solo album, American Romance, he took a beat to reflect on his career and how his globally adored father inspired him.

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“I really wanted to make my dad proud by being completely self-sufficient, you know? I wanted to make him proud by not needing him,” Lukas told Howard during their chat. “[So], I put 70,000 miles on a ’91 Econoline Ford with my first band [Promise of the Real], and we went out for 15 years and played 250 shows a year straight and built something with ourselves that now I can say I feel like I’ve earned—and I think that makes my dad and my mom the most proud.”

Expanding on his relationship with Willie, Lukas revealed that (unsurprisingly) his dad’s career and lifestyle inspired him to follow in his footsteps. “My dad would leave all the time, and I’d be naturally upset as a little kid, and I knew that if I learned how to be a great musician, we would be bonded forever,” Lukas told Howard. “It wasn’t about being as great as him, it was about speaking the same language [and] being part of the club that understands music.”

Lukas isn’t the only child of a country star to join the club. Tim McGraw and Faith Hill’s daughter, Audrey McGraw, is also working to forge her own path in the industry. And it’s only fitting, then, that she and Lukas have actually joined forces to release music together. Their song, “Descent into Love,” has been met with widespread adoration. Now the only question is, which famous country kid will join the club next?