Musician Lukas Nelson brings the ‘real’ everywhere he goes

Lukas Nelson may be just 35 years old, but he’s already lived several lifetimes. The singer, songwriter and guitar player grew up in a wealthy music business family, then couch-surfed for years in the beachside bohemia of Venice, California. Along the way, he became intimately familiar with alcohol and drugs – and, through meditation, education, therapy and exercise, successfully put them in his rearview mirror.

Nelson and Promise of the Real, the band he co-founded in 2008, perform Oct. 30 at Jannus Live.

He and his younger brother Micah grew up in tiny Luck, Texas – and on the Hawaiian island of Maui. Their father is Willie Nelson, who owns Luck, Texas (and parts of Maui, too).

“I did, by my own hand, sever my connection to the teat, if you will, of the family,” Lukas tells the Catalyst. “I’ve been financially independent since I was a young kid out of college. And so there were times when I slept in my car …

“But it was my choice. I think my parents were proud of me for never coming to them and asking for anything. Moreover, I was more proud of myself to just know that I could make something of myself.”

Nelson still does the occasional gig with his legendary old man – Micah is a full-time member of Willie’s road band – but Promise of the Real, playing an amalgam of country, Americana, rock and soul music – is his superior vena cava, his direct connection to the world.

The band’s name, he explains, is a “statement of integrity.” And Nelson, who reads Rumi, Hafiz, Hesse and Tom Robbins, is all about absolute honesty these days.

“Really, it’s there to remind me that when I look up at the marquee and I see the name Promise of the Real, I see why I started playing music. It wasn’t for fame or fortune, it was to honor the muse. And the idea that I’m grateful to play music for a living.

“It’s sort of like, don’t get pulled into the temptation of losing yourself to gain the world. The Beatles have a famous line – there are people who gain the world and lose their souls, are you one of them? So I try not to be one of them.”

The moniker, he adds, came from an old song by Neil Young called “Walk On.”

Some get stoned, some get strange.

Sooner or later it all gets real. Walk on.

“That,” Nelson says, “is the promise of the real.”

Young, in fact, liked Nelson and Promise of the Real so much he recorded four albums – two studio and two live – with them as his backing band, between 2015 and 2019.

Nelson and his bandmates appeared in the 2018 remake of A Star is Born, playing behind “country rock singer” Bradley Cooper. Nelson served as the film’s musical consultant, and Cooper’s co-star Lady Gaga returned the favor by duetting on two songs for the album Lukas Nelson and Promise of the Real.

Recently, Nelson’s record label convinced him to refer to the band as, simply, POTR. “I didn’t really think about marketing when I was a young kid,” Nelson laughs. “Promise of the Real is a long name, and it’s hard to explain. And it actually could be misinterpreted as almost a boastful thing, you know? Which is the opposite of what it is.”

Three POTR albums have gone to No. 1 on Billboard’s Americana chart.

Released in July, the band’s eighth collection Sticks and Stones covers a lot of musical ground, from honky tonk stompers like “More Than Friends,” with vocalist Lainey Wilson, to reflective acoustic pieces (“Lying,” “The View”). It is a rewarding listen, full of dynamics, moods and colors.

“I love the freedom that I have a band where you can do all kinds of stuff, and you never know what’s going to come out of us next,” Nelson says.

“Sticks and Stones is a bit autobiographical,’ he explains. “Because it starts off pretty defiant, and then it chronicles this guy who drinks, and then his life starts to fall apart. People are warning him he’d better settle down. And then he goes down into this depression, and ends up living under an overpass. Then he starts bringing real love back into his life, whether that be the love of himself or of someone else. He gets touched by that beauty.

“We all have to leave this planet alone, so we gotta figure out how to do that without kicking and screaming.”

Songwriting, Nelson confesses, is something he doesn’t feel the need to completely understand. “For me, it really is at the behest of the muse. Roger Miller once told my dad he felt like songwriting was like waiting for the rain to fill up your well. You just can’t force it. Good songs just come, and when they come you appreciate them.  

“I like to think there’s a beautiful muse somewhere, and for some reason she loves me and she gives me gifts. But if I were to demand anything from her … the worst thing you could do would be to take it for granted, or try to take the muse prisoner and lock her up. And say ‘give me inspiration.’ And so I never will try and force it. I appreciate songwriting as the gift that it is, and it comes from that beautiful angel that sent it to me. And if she doesn’t feel like sending anything to me, that’s fine. I’ll have to wait till she does.

“Sometimes it comes from real life. Sometimes it comes from something someone said; sometimes it comes from a dream. And sometimes you just start saying man, I feel like I could wax poetic today. And then you start writing.”

Songwriters he admires: “Leonard Cohen. John Prine. My dad. Neil. Paul Simon.”

Then there’s something else. “I find that my real inspiration comes from listening to a song like ‘Comfortably Numb,’ the Pink Floyd song. Wow. The arrangement’s built into the lyrics, built into the lyrical guitar solo that’s amazing too.”

Nelson says POTR live shows (“what I think we do best”) are exuberant affairs “where everybody loves to dance and have a good time. And then we have some poignant moments where we relax and come down with acoustic music. It’s nice to have all kinds of songs to fill in those spaces with dynamic ups and downs.

“It’s nice to also go out and play your own music, and have people singing along to your songs. I don’t do a lot of covers, because I don’t want people writing about that great version of ‘Down By the River’ Lukas Nelson played! Because first of all, Neil’s still out there – you can hear a great version of ‘Down By the River’ now, from the horse’s mouth.

“I want people to come up and say man, every time I hear ‘Find Yourself,’ it makes me feel like I’m in my own power again – it was like going to church with those songs ‘Set Me Down on a Cloud’ and ‘The View.’

“That’s what I want people to write about when they come out of the shows.”

Lukas Nelson and Promise of the Real perform Monday, Oct. 30 at Jannus Live. Find tickets here.