Lukas Nelson on His Favorite Song

Lukas Nelson Reveals His All-Time Favorite Song and No, He Didn’t Pick It for the Reason You Think

Competing for the same Grammy Award with someone who wrote your all-time favorite song is one type of daunting challenge. Competing against a close loved one, let alone a relative, is another. Lukas Nelson is one of the few musicians who can say they’ve experienced both. The eldest living son of country music icon Willie Nelson has enjoyed a prolific and successful music career himself. That has inevitably put him in the same ring as his father, who remains busy as ever well into his 90s.

Both Willie and Lukas Nelson received a Grammy nomination for Best Traditional Country Album for Oh, What a Beautiful World and American Romance, respectively... During a 2025 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Lukas discussed what it was like competing against his father for a Grammy. “Against is a strong word,” Lukas said with a smile.

“Alongside is better,” he continued. “I mean, the Nelsons have a 40% chance of winning, which is pretty good.” Later in the interview, Lukas cited “Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground” as his favorite song. Once again, he pointed out the irrelevance of his relation to the track. “That’s probably my favorite song,” Lukas said. “The fact that it happens to be written by my father is mind-blowing.”

Willie Nelson wrote and recorded “Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground” for the 1980 film Honeysuckle Rose, in which Nelson plays country singer Buck Bonham. Lukas Nelson, Willie’s second son, wouldn’t be born until eight years later on Christmas Day, 1988...

“Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground” is a beloved addition to the songwriter’s catalogue—and not just because of the rogue performance at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas when Willie’s guitarist, Bee Spears, put on tights and a tutu and strapped himself into a harness from an earlier performance of Peter Pan. “He was having a terrific time swooping and sailing and doing his impression of an angel flying too close to the ground,” Willie wrote in his autobiography, Willie. “It was the funniest thing I ever saw onstage.”

Of course, the song also has plenty of opportunities to be reflective and sincere. Willie has often used the song as a way to pay tribute to his eldest son, Billy Nelson, who died by suicide on Christmas Day, 1991. His younger brother, Lukas, was only three years old. The grieving father told a friend at the time, “I’ve never experienced anything so devastating in my life,” per People.

by Melanie Davis, American Songwriter |  Read more:

Image: YouTube

[ed. Willie had some chops.]