[How Frank Sinatra and Hank Williams influenced Willie Nelson]
>>Willie Nelson: We had one of those old-timey record players, you know?
The ones growing up.
We played a lot of Sinatra songs.
Phrasing was, I think, one of his main things,
and I feel like I learned a lot about phrasing listening to Frank.
♪ Saturday night is the loneliest night of the week♪♪
>>Willie Nelson: He sang it like he felt it,
and he didn't worry about behind the beat or in front of the beat, whatever.
He could sing it either way.
And that's the feel that you have to have,
be able to do that.
He was kind of like the rest of us, you know:
one wild musician singers that like to raise hell
and party and have a good time,
and I think he did that.
But he was also a great musician
and always had fantastic instrumentation behind him.
He used the best arrangers out there.
He knew what he was doing.
♪ Say, hey, good lookin'
Whatcha got cookin'? ♪♪
>>Willie Nelson: Of course, Hank Williams was an incredible writer,
sang with so much feeling.
He was, you know, a sick man.
He was, from the time he was born until he died,
he was a sick man.
He had a bad back
and he was always on some kind of pain medications or alcohol,
or whatever it took to get him up to the show.
He had a hard life,
died at 29.
But nobody wrote any better songs than Hank.
♪ I'm free, I'm ready
So we can go steady ♪♪
It was the simplicity, melody, and a line that anybody could understand.
He didn't get deep, he kept it straight down the middle.
Knowing Hank, he could've done anything he wanted to do.
Great entertainer, great writer, good singer,
that nobody could compete with him.
And I still do three or four
Hank Williams songs every night.
Me and the boys, Lukas and Micah, just did an album,
and I think we got seven Hank Williams songs in there.
That's how much Hank Williams influenced me.
♪ How's about cookin'
somethin' up with me? ♪♪
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