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CNN Live Event/Special
Farm Aid 2026, Music Festival Live. Aired 10-11p ET
Aired September 26, 2026 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[22:00:00]
(SINGING), (CHEERING), (APPLAUSE)
NEIL YOUNG, SINGER-SONGWRITER: "Old man." "Old man." "Old man." Yes. OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible)
YOUNG: Yes. We good? How's it going out there?
(APPLAUSE), (SINGING), (CHEERING)
[22:06:05]
YOUNG: Excuse our little break there we had.
(SINGING), (CHEERING), (APPLAUSE)
[22:10:07]
YOUNG: OK. Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Perfect.
(SINGING), (CHEERING), (APPLAUSE)
[22:15:47]
YOUNG: Yes. That clock's been different all the time. Yes. It changed modes on us. I don't play well with a clock.
(SINGING), (CHEERING), (APPLAUSE)
[22:27:42]
YOUNG: Farm Aid. Farm Aid.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN HOST: Eighty years old and still rocking in the free world with the broken strings to prove it. Man, Neil Young was something.
LAURA COATES, CNN HOST: I mean, he literally broke the string. I think he cut his hand playing so hard. Wow.
BERMAN: Open with after the Gold Rush. Might have got a little misty eyed when he played "Old Man" there. It's on my son's playlist now. But we have so much more to come. Willie Nelson prepares to take the stage right after a quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[22:32:10]
COATES: Welcome back to Farm Aid 2026 on CNN. We've already been treated to performances from two of Farm Aid's three co-founders, and we are just minutes away from rounding that out when Farm Aid president and country music icon Willie Nelson will take the stage.
BERMAN: Yes, CNN's Anderson Cooper recently sat down with Willie Nelson. This is some of their conversation.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: You started this in 1985 with Farm Aid. Did you think it would go this long?
WILLIE NELSON, PRESIDENT, FARM AID: No. No, I thought people would realize how important it is to take care of the farmers. And obviously they didn't.
COOPER: What brings you back every year to do it?
NELSON: Well, I was -- I worked on farms. I know the problems. Pick cotton, grow corn, all that stuff.
COOPER: Were you a good farmer?
NELSON: No. I wanted to go play music, drink a beer.
COOPER: It must be incredible to feel that energy from the crowd.
NELSON: Yes.
COOPER: And to look out and see all different ages out there singing and dancing.
NELSON: Yes, music brings people together. Yes. And it doesn't matter whether you're Democrat, Republican, all that. It doesn't matter. They come out to clap their hands and sing and rub elbows with whoever and go home feeling better. It's been that way ever since I can remember.
COOPER: You came down with COVID.
NELSON: Oh, God, yes. It was terrible. I wanted to punch out. I wanted to go. Annie wouldn't let me, you know.
COOPER: You said, let me go.
NELSON: Yes. She said, if you die, I'll kill you.
COOPER: And it worked.
NELSON: It worked. Yes.
COOPER: Did you know how sick you were?
NELSON: Yes. Yes, I could tell that I was dying and I wanted to die. It was the worst feeling I've ever had.
COOPER: I'm wondering how you think about grief because you write about it a lot.
NELSON: Well, it's part of life. You know, it's -- we all go through it. If we're going to live, we're going to die. You got to accept it.
COOPER: You wrote it in a song, actually. It's not something you get over, but it's something you get through.
NELSON: Yes.
COOPER: Dolly Parton just passed. You've had a long history with her. What was she like?
NELSON: Oh, she was great. I loved her. All the way back to the Porter and Dolly show, you know, Porter, Wagner, Dolly Parton.
COOPER: That's when she first started.
NELSON: Yes. And I was a big fan of that show.
COOPER: Did you know she was ill?
NELSON: I had no idea. I did an interview with her shortly before that. You know, she seemed fine.
COOPER: She said a couple of things about you. She said, you think we'd work great and we do sound good. It's just that trying to catch him or trying to figure out where in the song he's trying to go is a big job. What does that mean?
NELSON: Well, my phrasing is a little crazy, you know, and I don't do it the same way every time. So that's difficult.
[22:35:05]
COOPER: It must be getting tough to write new ideas. You've written a lot.
NELSON: Yes. I get an idea and I'll start to write it. And I say, wait, I've already wrote that.
COOPER: That's a good problem to have.
NELSON: It is a nice problem.
COOPER: Yes. You end your book, you write about your own death and what you believe happens when you die. You say, thanks for letting me go on this ride. Thanks for letting me take this trip. I don't know when the trip is going to end, but that doesn't matter because I do believe that when it does end, another trip will begin. And that trip and the one that follows will go into that good night forever and a day. So there is no end. There just is.
NELSON: Yes.
COOPER: That sounds pretty good. But that's how you imagine it? That there is no end?
NELSON: No. You keep coming back. And I believe in reincarnation. You know, we leave, we'll be right back. Don't go nowhere.
COOPER: You believe that energy continues?
NELSON: Yes.
COOPER: What do you want to be reincarnated as?
NELSON: A rodeo cowboy.
COOPER: Oh, OK. That's good. I'd like that too.
NELSON: Yes.
COOPER: How have you been able to maintain this?
NELSON: I tell people I'm chasing 94 and dragging 93.
COOPER: Chasing 94 and dragging 93. OK. I'm not even sure I know what it means, but I like the sound of it.
Willie Nelson, thank you so much.
NELSON: You're welcome.
COOPER: It's an honor.
NELSON: Thank you, sir.
COOPER: Yes.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COATES: Well, that was great. That was really special. And I know that so many people in this crowd just cannot wait for Willie Nelson himself to get on stage and with his family. And let's get a taste of that excitement by going live to CNN's Bill Weir. Bill, we are literally minutes away from the biggest act of the night. What are you hearing?
BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, last year, actually the title of that book Anderson was reading from, "The Last Leaf on the Tree," a Tom Waits song that he is now singing, which has everybody just weeping, thinking about the long life of this man. And then, of course, he goes right into, roll me up and smoke me when I die. So it's the ride this man takes. Does anybody here have really strong feelings about Willie Nelson? Yes? If you want to say something to Willie Nelson in front of a global audience, anybody want to take that opportunity? Tell him how much you love him. You cheered pretty loud.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We love you, Willie Nelson. We love you. I love you. We love you. Is that good enough?
WEIR: What's your favorite Willie song?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, I don't know. There's too many.
WEIR: There's too many, right? It's like having to pick your child. Yes. Anybody here favorite Willie Nelson song?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain."
WEIR: It's beautiful, isn't it? What would you say to Willie right now if you could?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We love you. Keep doing what you're doing, and you're an icon.
WEIR: He's an American treasure, right? You agree?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, absolutely.
WEIR: You guys having fun so far?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
WEIR: Awesome. So we've got a misty rain coming down, so it might be "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain" as this legend takes the stage. But this is just a sense of what is just a beautiful vibe. Good vibes, John and Laura. Good vibes from Farm Aid once again. Get a load of this.
COATES: That was special.
BERMAN: It's just great vibes, Bill. And I have to say, don't think it hasn't gone noticed, all your costume changes. Wearing appropriate t- shirts for every one of your moments on television. We see you, Bill Weir, and we see your blue eyes soon to be crying in the rain. Thank you very much. Enjoy, Willie. We're joined once again. Actually, I don't even know if Bill's eyes are blue. But whatever they are, they're hypnotic. We're joined by CNN presidential historian and Farm Aid expert Doug Brinkley and senior editor at Billboard, Thom Duffy. And I just want to talk about Willie Nelson. It was really just plain cool to see him talking to Anderson there. Chasing 94, dragging 93, as he said. But he is such an icon, period, but so important to everyone in these stands.
THOM DUFFY, SENIOR EDITOR, BILLBOARD: He is. And he makes a point that he believes in reincarnation. And the lyric of "The Last Leaf on the Tree" is, I'm going to come back as a song. And that's what the story is. He is going to live forever in the music that he's created. And this movement that Farm Aid has created, it will last.
COATES: And the legacy of Farm Aid. I mean, this has been something that's been for 40-plus years now. And here we are. The world has changed 10,000 times over. But Farm Aid and the needs have become the same.
[22:40:05]
DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, PROFESSOR OF HISTORY, RICE UNIVERSITY: And the stick-to-it-ness of Willie Nelson --
COATES: Yes.
BRINKLEY: -- and Mellencamp and Neil Young cannot give up the cause. You can go online and look at every year, every performer under the sun has played, all of them. But the fact that they just kept at it and a lot like a farmer, right? I mean, you just might be losing everything for clothes. But you've got to come back and come back. And I live in Austin, Texas. Willie is a religion. People go everywhere for him. We have statues downtown. We have boulevards. Papers at University of Texas and at Texas State. It's Dolly Parton also reminded people of what Willie Nelson is.
He's not the last renegade or just the last leaf on a tree. But these are entertainment giants, poets that are with us. And in a time people are disillusioned with politics or different parts of their life, that we go back and say these are the people that matter. We love Dolly Parton. We love Willie Nelson. It's game over. Willie lives forever. And Texas is, you know, Abbott and Baylor and everybody. He grew up as a farmer. Just talks about him all the time.
BERMAN: We're lucky to have had him. We're lucky to have him. And everyone here feels that way. And I know Farm Aid feels that way. And for some years it was almost like sheer force of will by Willie Nelson that made it happen.
DUFFY: Oh, yes.
BERMAN: But now, like, thank goodness, it's up and going. I mean, Farm Aid is so, is Willie plus now.
DUFFY: It is Willie plus when you're seeing people like Nathaniel Rateliff joining the board and Margo Price joining the board and the new leadership of Farm Aid. And the fact that Farm Aid is really the leader into a movement that is much bigger than Farm Aid. I mean, these farmers, there have been meetings here over the past two days about the activists who are brought together by Farm Aid. But there's -- Farm Aid is not the only organization taking care of family farmers now. It was back in '85.
COATES: And the legacy that is there is so powerful. And you see it by just, and we've been covering just a few hours of it here live for everyone, but all day long and even the buildup to it. I mean, they have done a cross-section of our entire nation. This is global in so many respects. And the plight of family farms universalized across this country. And it's not lost on states or the federal government. BRINKLEY: And Virginia and Charles City was the first, still running since like 1615, you know, the Shirley Plantation and families that have been on the land and connected to it. In the end, what is the United States for people? It's the American earth and the soil and what we live on and what we grow on. And the best writers we are losing, like I was very wounded about the death of Wendell Berry of Kentucky, a great agrarian poet and philosopher. And people got to get back thinking about the land, where things grow.
And it's all these tentacles now, the organic movement, you know, homegrown, farm to table. And through it all, you know, Farm Aid has been a, you know, has brought people onto the journey of learning more about American agriculture, which is the great American agrarian way.
[22:43:26]
COATES: Well, you know what? You don't want to go anywhere because the biggest act of the night yet to come. "Whiskey River," "On The Road Again," "Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys," seven decades of hits, everyone. Willie Nelson and his family are going to take the stage in just minutes. So stick with CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BERMAN: We're back with Doug Brinkley and Thom Duffy. As we await the living legend, Willie Nelson, 93 years old. But as he said, chasing 94.
COOPER: Dragging 93 behind him. I love it.
BERMAN: He's going to be back up on that stage shortly. Can't wait to see him. Voice him musically for me. Because he's been around my whole -- I'm not a young man anymore. But there's always been Willie Nelson.
DUFFY: Well, there's always been Willie Nelson in different guises. I mean, he really attempted to be a mainstream country songwriter. And spent many years in Nashville. Having success as a songwriter but not as a performer as a country artist. And then, you know, went to Austin. The famous outlaw country music, blending country and rock. And now, with everything he's done from Stardust and collaborating with every singer you can imagine. He's kind of at the core of American music now.
COATES: You can really track Farm Aid and, of course, Willie Nelson's career across the political history of the United States of America. And with each different administration you see a different vitality and need for Willie Nelson and Farm Aid.
BRINKLEY: Absolutely. And, you know, when Carter -- Jimmy Carter was president, Willie would come to the White House and stay there. And there's a smoke pot.
BERMAN: I was going to say, you can trace Willie Nelson all the way to the roof of the White House.
BRINKLEY: Yes. We haven't said the word cannabis. It needs to be said. And, you know, but he's so amiable, Willie Nelson. And, you know, if you see him, he signs autographs for everybody. And does photographs with them. And actually I brought a daughter of mine, my wife and I did, to a Nashville event. And he -- I watched him. This wasn't that long ago. But he will preempt people and say, want a photo? Because he's reading, you know, 32nd, what's going to happen. So he's just doing. But he just gives and gives back to everybody.
And the fact that his kids playing, you know, the Chrome Hearts and you had Lucas here. And they're inheritors. And Neil Young has been part of that whole thing. But the, you know, Willie Nelson is, you know, redheaded stranger album is one of the great albums of our time. And I don't know who turns off Willie Nelson when he's on. And his guitar playing is phenomenal.
BERMAN: Well, again, to be from smoking a joint on the roof of the White House.
BRINKLEY: Right.
[22:49:59]
BERMAN: And the Carter administration to the stage behind us 50 years later. That's a lot. You see him in so many of these Farm Aids. How have his performances at Farm Aids changed? Carter administration to the stage behind us 50 years later. That's a lot. You see him in so many of these Farm Aids. How have his performances at Farm Aids changed over the years? And what can we expect tonight?
DUFFY: Well, one thing I'll say, I just counted it up. I've been to 14 consecutive Farm Aids. That, in Willie's world, makes me a rookie, a newcomer. But, you know, he has opened shows with "Whiskey River," dependably, for decades. He will tonight. And there's been a familiarity to the set through the years. And then about two or three years ago, he began introducing "Last Leaf on the Tree," which was the first reflection on mortality that's introduced with less levity than "Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die." And as Bill Weir was saying, not a dry eye in the house when he starts to sing that. And he will tonight.
BERMAN: All right. What we want to do now is while we're waiting for Willie Nelson and his family to take the stage, I want to listen to Kaitlan Collins, who had a really fun conversation with other farm aide board member, John Mellencamp. Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Did you think it'd still be going 40 years later?
JOHN MELLENCAMP, SINGER-SONGWRITER: No, I didn't.
COLLINS: You, Willie Nelson, Neil Young.
MELLENCAMP: And Neil Young. And Willie called me up, and we didn't know each other. And he was in Bloomington playing golf. And he said, I heard you just made a record about the farm crisis. And I go, well, kind of, yes. And he said, would you like to help me? And I said, sure. And then it was just casual. I just said, yes, sure, let's do it. When is it? When do you want to do it? He says, I think we need to get somebody else. Then I got a call from Neil. Neil said he just talked to Willie. And that's how Farm Aid started. We were so naive. All three of us thought, well, we'll do this concert.
And the government will see that they're wrong. And they'll help, you know, pass some laws that will help the small family farmer. And it didn't happen. Matter of fact, it's worse now than it was. But what Farm Aid has been good at is helping people who need help.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COATES: It's so beautiful to hear. I mean, just to hear how people speak about Willie Nelson and just the amount of honor that they have bestowed upon him just by talking to him, right? He'll bring you into this and how impactful and powerful it really has been. I mean, he continues not only to be legendary, but a living legend and a role model by modeling the behavior he's asking of his peers.
DUFFY: Oh, absolutely. You know, it really is a matter of Willie almost teaching us how to live.
BRINKLEY: It's like a Zen master, people say.
DUFFY: Right. And he is still moving to me.
BRINKLEY: And when he was down at Threadgill's in Austin and the whole 70s and "Birth of Outlaw," the legend, and it's true, is he brought hippies, redneck. Everybody kind of comes together. And just the collaboration with Snoop Dogg and his embrace of hip-hop and LGBTQ communities and farmer. Willie is a spiritual leader for so many people in so many ways.
BERMAN: I should note, it is starting to mist here a little bit more. I will say that the weather here leading up until tonight was a little bit of an issue because the Nor'easter was bearing down on everywhere on the East Coast, Virginia, all the way up to Maine. It's still hitting so many places. We haven't had it bad here tonight at all. It's been rather nice.
COATES: I'll tell you what, the crowd doesn't care.
BERMAN: No.
COATES: Because they are here to see the full lineup and, of course, Willie Nelson. And it's just unbelievable.
BERMAN: So John Mellencamp was telling a story there about how Willie called him and said, hey, I hear you just did a record about the farm crisis. Tell me more about that.
DUFFY: "Rain On The Scarecrow," blood on the plow. Still, when I hear it here at Farm Aid again, it is the most powerful evocation of what was going on in the mid-'80s. It is just the sense of betrayal and loss of something that is so fundamental to a family and so fundamental to a nation. And it's a great work that came along at a time when Willie was very much on the road talking to farmers and he would have been aware of that. It was a top 40 hit. So no question that he would have called Mellencamp, who didn't really know him at that time.
COATES: Talk to me about the whole musical set so far you've seen. There has been a decisive tone and also one for all the performers today, it seems, who really understand the assignment.
BRINKLEY: I feel that's right. I think the assignment is known. There are so many other issues we've been talking about. You know, in Virginia, there's, you know, data centers and dealing with the problems of tariffs, diesel prices just soaring on American farmers, you know, the crippling of not just family farms and small farms, but just the big farm crisis is here right now. And, you know, I evoked a few times Margo Price and others, Woody Guthrie, this land is your land. It's still ranked like the number one song.
[22:55:11]
And I think a deportee from 1948 of migrants that are dying, we're doing it. We're seeming to be in this moment where hopefully people are going to understand the counties in this rural-urban divide.
BERMAN: You're talking about the 1980s when Farm Aid began, how there was a sense of betrayal. Things are different now, but farmers are suffering.
DUFFY: They absolutely are. I mean.
BERMAN: Diesel prices are up 60 percent or more since the beginning of the war with Iran. Farm bankruptcies, they were up 40 percent plus last year, and we're told they're rising at an even higher rate this year.
DUFFY: That is correct. That is what Jen Fahy, the executive director of Farm Aid, had told Billboard magazine. But I want to note something else, and that is the labor that farmers depend on, they're under attack. And Jen Fahy at Farm Aid had said, you know, you have documented workers who are afraid to go to the fields. And there have been studies that said even here in Hampton Roads, the number of ICE arrests is up dramatically.
And there's just no question when you have Margo Price, as she has on this stage, you know, evoke the immigrants of the 1940s working in the fields and playing, as you said, Woody Guthrie's deportees. It really is a scary time.
COATES: Farm Aid is so relevant, not just back then, but now, and we see it more and more. And the audience right now is hearing and seeing a video of Willie Nelson, and they know he's about to come on this stage with his family any moment now, really, truly, the legend himself. Here he goes. Neil.
YOUNG: Good to be in here again. Thank you so much. We appreciate it. I'd like to introduce a really old friend of mine who needs no introduction. And here he is, Mr. Willie Nelson and family.
(SINGING)
