WILLIE NELSON

The iconic “Always on My Mind” and “Crazy” singer-songwriter,

87, follows up 2018’s Grammy-winning My Way album of Frank Sinatra standards with a second tribute to Ol’ Blue Eyes. On That’s Life (Feb. 26), Nelson covers 11 of the crooner’s classics, including “I’ve Got You Under My Skin,” “That’s Life” and “Luck Be a Lady.”

How do you put your own spin on Frank Sinatra songs? Well, Frank Sinatra is my favorite all-time singer, and I read somewhere that I was his favorite singer, so for years I’ve been a Sinatra fan. I don’t think he ever sang the same song twice the same way. He followed his own instincts.

We have an image of Sinatra as a really cool cat. Was he? He was exactly Sinatra. He was a guy that did what he wanted to do and did it his own way. And he proved that he knew what he was doing.

You started as a songwriter. What EQOGU ƂTUV HQT [QW VJG YQTFU QT VJG

music? If I hear a line or something, I just write it. I wrote this song one time; it says, “I didn’t want to write another song, but I couldn’t tell that to my mind / It kept throwing out words, and I had to try to make them rhyme.” The music is the easiest part for me. I play guitar, so I try to write songs that I can play.

Do you have a secret to a good life? Think positive. I get up, I jog a little bit. I do little workouts, and singing is good too, for my lungs. That’s another thing that my entire body misses [during the quarantine]—the fact that I can’t go out and sing for two hours, because that’s the best exercise a guy can do because lungs are the biggest organs in the body when you’re using them.

What early musical gig did Nelson get— despite a total lack of experience? Go to Parade.com/willie ÌŖ wOE` ŖÕÌ°

+P CFFKVKQP VQ OWUKE [QW JCXG [QWT QYP OCTKLWCPC NKPG Willie’s Reserve. Why have you always been such an advocate for pot? Well, it’s kept me from doing a lot of crazy things. I used to say, jokingly, it kept me from killing people. And I’ve never killed nobody, so it’s working.