Grammy events begin with salute to Willie

LOS ANGELES — Kacey Musgraves, Dave Matthews and Lukas Nelson saluted the outlaw king of country music Willie Nelson with tributes and performances at a famed Los Angeles studio.

The Recording Academy’s Producers and Engineers Wing honoured Nelson on Wednesday night ahead of Sunday’s Grammy Awards.

The 85-year-old Texas singersongwriter was a man of few words when he was presented with a plaque, jokingly asking if he was graduating. He thanked all the producers and engineers, adding that “I’m glad they liked me ’cause they could have really screwed me up.”

Nelson is nominated for two Grammys: best traditional pop vocal album for My Way, a covers album of Frank Sinatra; and best American roots performance for Last Man Standing.

The event is regularly held in the small auditorium at The Village, the studio where Fleetwood Mac recorded their seminal record Tusk, Bob Dylan recorded Forever Young and the hit soundtracks for The Bodyguard and Moulin Rouge were mixed. Artists and songwriters including Diane Warren, Weird Al Yankovic, Ziggy Marley, Lisa Loeb, Feist and more attended the event.

Musgraves, who is nominated for three Grammys including album of the year, had much more to say about the Red-Headed Stranger.

She said her fellow Texan has an ability to bring together people, no matter their differences: “Underdogs, outliers, Republicans, rappers, presidents. Everyone loves Willie,” Musgraves said.

Nelson’s songs are so iconic, “they’re never going to die, and let’s get real: he’s probably not either,” she said.

Matthews played the Nelsonpenned song Funny How Time Slips Away, and a song Matthews wrote that he got Nelson to record, called Gravedigger.

Matthews was joined by two of Nelson’s sons, Micah and Lukas, to help cover songs like Crazy, and I Thought About You, Lord. Lukas Nelson, who worked on the soundtrack and film for A Star Is Born with Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper, can sing a dead-on impersonation of his father’s unique high singing style.

But a gruff-sounding Willie returned to the stage to trade guitar licks and sing with his sons on Living in the Promiseland, before ending with his trademark, On the Road Again.