LOS ANGELES — “Are there any more real cowboys?” Neil Young sang Saturday night at the Hollywood Bowl on a rare evening when he was neither the headliner nor, at age 77, even close to the oldest artist on the bill.
Providing an instant answer, Willie Nelson, wearing a cowboy hat and red-white-and-blue guitar strap, slowly strolled on to the stage on his 90th birthday, bringing the crowd of more than 17,000 to its feet.
Nelson sat in a chair — one of the few onstage concessions he’s made to age — and joined Young for the rest of their 1985 duet, “Are There Any More Real Cowboys?”
“I want to thank all the artists who came out tonight to help celebrate whatever it is we’re celebrating,” said Nelson, feigning senility and getting a laugh.
The moment came three hours into the first of a two-night celebration of the country legend at the open-air Los Angeles amphitheater, where generations of stars sang his songs in tribute.
“As a kid growing up in Texas, it seemed like there was nothing bigger than Willie Nelson,” said Owen Wilson, one of the evening’s emcees along with Helen Mirren, Ethan Hawke and Jennifer Garner. “And looking out at the Hollywood Bowl tonight, it still feels like there’s nothing bigger than Willie Nelson.”
After Young, Nelson brought out George Strait, a country superstar of the following generation, for their self-referential duet, “Sing One With Willie,” followed by the Willie perennial, “Pancho and Lefty,” with Strait singing the part once played by the late Merle Haggard.
Nelson then shouted, “Come out and roll one with me Snoop!”
Strutting out came rapper Snoop Dogg, sitting next to Nelson as they launched into their stoner anthem, “Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die.” Perhaps fittingly, each seemed to forget the words at times. The two friends looked too happy to care.
The parade of partners illustrated one of the night’s themes: Willie brings people together.
“All of the sudden, it didn’t matter if you were a hillbilly or a hippie, everyone was a Willie Nelson fan,” Wilson said of Nelson’s late-blooming emergence as a singing superstar when he left Nashville, Tennessee, and returned to his native Texas in the 1970s. “Even the Dalai Lama is a Willie Nelson fan. It’s true.”
