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CNN Live Event/Special
Jake Is In The Band With Lukas Nelson; The Guitar Is Exhausted When Dave Matthews Is Done. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired September 26, 2026 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[20:00:00]
(DAVE MATTHEWS & TIM REYNOLDS SINGING "PAPERTOWN")
(AUDIENCE CHEERING AND APPLAUDING)
DAVE MATTHEWS, MEMBER, FARM AID BOARD OF DIRECTORS: I messed up my lyrics. I said the wrong word. If you notice that they sang one thing and I sang a different thing, that's because of me. They had it right. I had it wrong. But it's hard to keep your -- it's hard to keep my head straight when things are quite that beautiful.
(AUDIENCE CHEERING AND APPLAUDING)
MATTHEWS: It's a good day, and thank you for coming, everybody, very much. Love you too. This is the song about the people that came before us. This is the song about genocide.
(DAVE MATTHEWS & TIM REYNOLDS SINGING "DON'T DRINK THE WATER")
[20:05:00]
(DAVE MATTHEWS & TIM REYNOLDS SINGING "DON'T DRINK THE WATER")
(AUDIENCE CHEERING AND APPLAUDING)
MATTHEWS: Thank you very much. Hey, Tim and I -- thank you very much, everybody. Tim and I have another friend who is also -- well, we got -- I got so many friends. It's like a reunion of joy and purpose backstage, if y'all are wondering. Like, good to see you for the farmers. Good to see you. Where'd you been doing? What have you been up to, for the farmers? It feels good and it feels good. Anyway, I'd like to ask our friend Jake Simpson to come out. Jake is in the band with Lukas Nelson. So, it's a great honor to share the stage with Jake, because there -- that -- Lukas's band is -- that's the nasty band, and he is part of that nasty band, good nasty, not nasty-nasty. A little bit of the nasty-nasty. I talk too much when I'm excited. Thank you again, everybody.
(AUDIENCE CHEERING AND APPLAUDING)
(DAVE MATTHEWS & TIM REYNOLDS SINGING "CRUSH")
[20:10:00]
(DAVE MATTHEWS & TIM REYNOLDS SINGING "CRUSH")
[20:15:00]
(DAVE MATTHEWS & TIM REYNOLDS SINGING "CRUSH")
MATTHEWS: Jake Simpson and Tim Reynolds.
(AUDIENCE CHEERING AND APPLAUDING)
(DAVE MATTHEWS & TIM REYNOLDS SINGING "ANTS MARCHING")
[20:20:00]
(DAVE MATTHEWS & TIM REYNOLDS SINGING "ANTS MARCHING")
(AUDIENCE CHEERING AND APPLAUDING)
MATTHEWS: Tim Reynolds and Jake Simpson. Thank you all very, very much.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN HOST: Now we're getting started.
MATTHEWS: Thank you very, very much.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN HOST: Wow! I mean, just wow! All I can think is the guitar has to be so tired, right? The guitar is exhausted when Dave Matthews is done.
LAURA COATES, CNN HOST: Every string, every string.
BERMAN: He just leaves it all out there. Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds, what an incredible duo!
When we come back, Bill Weir will go backstage to speak with Dave about his decades working with Farm Aid, and later, we're going to get a rocky performance from Neil Young, the man behind some of our favorites like Harvest Moon and Heart of Gold and Old Man. Stick around for that, and of course, Willie Nelson.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:25:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BERMAN: All right. Welcome back to Virginia Beach and Farm Aid 2026. We have so much more to come. John Mellencamp, Neil Young, Willie Nelson, they all take the stage 41 years, 41 years after the first Farm Aid. Now, in the years since, this festival has brought in more than $90 million to support America's family farms.
COATES: I mean, Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds just brought the house down literally with their performance, and CNN's own Bill Weir is backstage with Dave. Bill, talk to us.
BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: This is this gentleman's 25th anniversary with Farm Aid --
MATTHEWS: As a board member --
WEIR: -- as a board member, and that's either silver or mulch.
MATTHEWS: We've decided it is mulch, mulch. I think it's -- that's the anniversary mulch.
WEIR: First of all, that version of Ants Marching right there, it was hard to believe there was, what, 12 strings between you and Tim, and then the fiddle is another four, right? It sounded much bigger than that.
MATTHEWS: 16 strings. Yeah, it's like, oh, you panic, is the key, and then two monsters. Well, we had a -- it was fun, and it was a good ending.
WEIR: Yeah. Yeah.
MATTHEWS: I wasn't sure. So, I get -- I don't know what to write for a set, and then I get all panicky. But I was glad to have everybody here.
WEIR: It works out. Tell me about why this moves you. Why you're part of this? Why we should be thinking about farmers in 2026, and how we should be thinking about them?
MATTHEWS: Well, because I think that the thing that farmers know is how to care for the Earth, and especially farmers that feed them that are actually working on the land. There are some farmers that probably live in New York City and have never been to the farms that they own. But -- so, I suppose they're not farmers; they're investors. But the farmer that has their hands in the dirt or is raising animals in the barn and in the fields, they are -- they know -- whether they like it or not, they know exactly what the Earth needs and how to take care of the Earth, and it's ancient knowledge.
And we've tried to -- technology and everything has tried to improve on it.
[20:30:00]
But a lot of the technologies that we use are Earth -- it's the death. Death seeds are -- it's a deadly technique, the sort of corporate giant agribusiness is -- it's a toxic way to -- as part of a -- it's like a mad plan to kill the Earth, whereas farmers that are on the land, small farmers, family farmers, they know what the Earth needs and they know how to take care of it and how to grow food from it. It's like in -- and I'm not saying here nor there about it, but it's sort of like the people, the first environmentalists, the first people that cared about the woods and cared about the wilderness were hunters --
WEIR: Yes.
MATTHEWS: -- and it's just because of their occupation and what they love. And I'm not necessarily comparing them. But I -- you have to go to the people that have knowledge, and farmers are, in my opinion, in charge of the Earth. We just need to accept their authority, and we need to follow their lead. And they suffer in a planet of this sort of unreliable -- there is a -- we've turned the planet into somewhat unreliable and more difficult for farmers to function reliably, and we have to allow them to take it back. So, that -- for me, it was about giving the caretakers the power to take care. That's what it was about for me.
I believe that every -- I wanted to be a farmer when I was little, and then I got distracted by Bob Dylan and the Beatles. But -- and it's sometimes hard work, but it ain't as hard as farming.
WEIR: Well, you did your little part here today, filling their hearts and then letting them know they're appreciated. Dave Matthews, thank you for having us back for 41.
MATTHEWS: We got it done.
WEIR: You got it done.
MATTHEWS: That was quick. Like, he asked one question, but I talk so much. It's done. See you.
WEIR: Some of my best work right there. Right there. We'll kick it back to you. My pleasure, Dave.
MATTHEWS: Bye-bye.
COATES: Well, thank you both so much. And they were back in with Dave Matthews. How cool was that? I mean --
BERMAN: I have to say, when he was on stage, it seemed like as his set went on, he was getting more and more and more energy, and then just there with Bill, he was still buzzing. He was still buzzing from the set.
COATES: And you know what? This crowd started -- I mean, they've got Jolene playing. Dolly Parton has been a big part of all this today as well, a lot of tributes. And I'll tell you, it's just as cool. We've got Nathaniel Rateliff right here with us live on CNN. We saw some of his performance earlier this hour, and this year, he became the newest member of Farm Aid's board of directors. Also, he has a new album coming out in the spring, Nathaniel.
NATHANIEL RATELIFF, MEMBER, FARM AID BOARD OF DIRECTORS: Correct. Yeah.
COATES: Nathaniel, glad to have you here.
RATELIFF: Oh, it's a pleasure to be back. Thanks for having me.
COATES: This is your 10th year. Tell me, you have seen personally the impact that Farm Aid has made all across this country. Tell me about it. RATELIFF: Well, I have seen some impact that has made around the
country, and I think there is still so much more to do. So, 41 years now, my 10th year, and it's still surprising that this is a fight that continues to go on for food sovereignty and to educate people that farmers are still struggling, and so -- and just to get clean, good food into rural and urban communities, I think, is the goal. So --
BERMAN: Yeah. Look, we all eat, no matter what party we're in, no matter what we do for a living, no matter where we live, and one of the things you said is you think that this cause, what Farm Aid is doing, can bring people together --
RATELIFF: Yeah.
BERMAN: -- across the spectrum. What message needs to get to the leaders in Washington?
RATELIFF: Oh, well, I think the leaders in Washington have to remember that they are civil servants, and it's not about a career that they have. And so, they leverage their careers on deals to fill their pockets instead of continuing to support the people that vote for them. So, it's their civil duty to remember that the farmers and the average workers are the ones that put them in their place. So --
COATES: Well, I wonder if there is an urban-rural understanding of what farmers really go through. Is there enough support in communities across the country as well for farmers, or do the people need to understand the extraordinary impact?
RATELIFF: I think people need to understand the impact that our economy, the tariffs, the farm bill -- in the West, we have fires. We have water an issue, and it will continue to be an issue as we have data centers move into rural areas. They're going to take the water from the aquifers that people use for their wells and for their livestock. And yeah, I think there is -- a lot of that stuff happens without people knowing. A lot of those deals are happening in counties and states across the U.S. And yeah, it's not to the benefit of the average person. It's to the benefit of the people who are the heads of those companies.
COATES: And the interconnectivity --
BERMAN: Yeah.
COATES: -- you talk about.
RATELIFF: Right.
BERMAN: So, this is your 10th Farm Aid --
RATELIFF: Yeah.
BERMAN: -- but it's your first one with a five-month-old fan who has been --
[20:35:00] RATELIFF: Yeah.
BERMAN: -- coming to a lot of your shows lately.
RATELIFF: Yeah. My son is five-months-old and it's his first Farm Aid, and my first Farm Aid is a board member. So, we're doing it together. And he has been going everywhere with us, and we're just trying to raise him the same way Willie did his kids on the road. So --
COATES: Well, speaking of Willie, do you have a favorite Willie Nelson song?
RATELIFF: I sang -- not "Blue Eyes Crying In the Rain." When Cecil was little, I always sang Blue Skies to him.
COATES: Ooh, that's a good one.
BERMAN: Maybe we'll get that tonight. Nathaniel Rateliff, it was great to see you.
RATELIFF: Great to see you.
BERMAN: You've got a big year, new son, new album coming out, some new songs up there in the stage.
RATELIFF: Yeah.
BERMAN: All the best to you, my friend.
RATELIFF: Thank you so much.
COATES: And still to come tonight, performances from all three of Farm Aid's founding members, all of them musical superstars: John Mellencamp, Neil Young, and Willie Nelson.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BERMAN: All right. Welcome back to Farm Aid 2026 here live on CNN. I'm John Berman with Laura Coates. We've seen so much already, right?
COATES: Yeah. It's been electric. I mean, Dave Matthews, everyone is still talking about it. And then you had, of course, Margo Price singing 9 to 5, and everyone was into it. I loved it.
[20:40:00]
BERMAN: And I think back on stage, I'm hearing the dulcet tones of Dave Matthews, who has got a very special introduction.
MATTHEWS: No introduction. But it's how we do it. When Willie saw the plight of the farmer, and he wondered who he could get to jump on the bandwagon with him. The first person to stand up was John Mellencamp, and he is still making beautiful music, and he is still touring around the country, and I'm grateful to call him my friend, and I'm grateful to be involved with Farm Aid with him. Y'all, please have a very good time with the one and only John Mellencamp. (JOHN MELLENCAMP SINGING "LOVE AND HAPPINESS")
[20:45:00]
(JOHN MELLENCAMP SINGING "LOVE AND HAPPINESS")
(AUDIENCE CHEERING AND APPLAUDING)
(JOHN MELLENCAMP SINGING "SMALL TOWN")
COATES: Who doesn't love John Mellencamp? This crowd does, and there is a whole lot more where that came from. More Mellencamp, Jack & Diane, and Neil Young and Willie Nelson.
Farm Aid 2026 continues after a quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:50:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BERMAN: All right. Welcome back to Farm Aid 2026. Co-founder John Mellencamp is still on stage. Let's listen.
(JOHN MELLENCAMP SINGING "CHECK IT OUT")
[20:55:00]
(JOHN MELLENCAMP SINGING "CHECK IT OUT")
