Willie Nelson has outlived almost every prediction ever made about him, and he knows it. In an interview with The Guardian published on November 8, 2026, two days before his new memoir The Last Leaf hit shelves, the 93-year-old was asked whether he ever thought he would still be performing and recording in his 90s. His answer was one word, then a confession.
“No,” he said. “The way I was going, I never expected to be here. I don’t think anyone expected me to live beyond 21, the way I was going.”
“If It Was Wrong, I Did It Twice”
Willie Nelson has never been one to polish his own story, and he didn’t start now. Looking back on his younger years, he put it plainly:
“I did everything wrong. If it was wrong, I did it. And if it was really wrong, I did it twice.”
He didn’t stop there. “I drank too much, I smoked too much. I took too many pills,” he told the paper. For a man whose name is printed on the history of outlaw country, it was a rare moment of looking straight at the cost of that life.
The Year He Put the Whiskey Down
The turning point came in 1978. It was, on paper, one of the best years of his career. Stardust and Waylon & Willie both came out that year, and both went platinum. Behind the scenes, his body was keeping a different score.
In a 2019 Rolling Stone profile, the magazine reported that Willie Nelson had pneumonia four times that year, that his hangovers had turned rough, and that he could be a mean drunk. Around 1978, he gave up whiskey and cigarettes. Marijuana became the only thing he kept.
“I wouldn’t have lived 85 years if I’d have kept drinking and smoking like I was when I was 30, 40 years old,” he told Rolling Stone at the time. Reports on the new Guardian interview say he still credits that 1978 decision with saving his life.
The years have still asked for adjustments. “I had a lung collapse, so I have to be really careful,” he said. After breathing trouble and pneumonia, he stopped smoking altogether at 86 and now relies on edibles at night. He even joked that he has “been retired for 50 years,” even though he has hardly slowed down.
The Last Leaf on the Tree
The most quietly heavy moment of the interview came when Willie Nelson talked about the friends who didn’t make the long ride with him.
“I guess I probably am the last leaf on the tree. I’m lucky to be here. I’ve lost a lot of my good friends along the way. You know, Johnny, Waylon and Kris. I feel fortunate that I’m still here.”
Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings and Kris Kristofferson rode with him as The Highwaymen. Waylon died in 2002, Johnny in 2003, and Kris in September 2024. Of the four men who made those records together, Willie is the only one left.
That phrase, “the last leaf,” is not new for him. It comes from “Last Leaf,” a Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan song that Willie Nelson recorded as the title track of his 2024 album Last Leaf on the Tree, produced by his son Micah. He has been singing it in concert ever since. Now it is the title of his book, too.
What He Writes in The Last Leaf
The Last Leaf: Reflections on Late-Life Creativity and My Longest Love Affair was published by Penguin Press on November 10, 2026, written with David Ritz and Mia Tangredi. It looks back over roughly the last dozen years of his life, and at its center is his wife, Annie D’Angelo Nelson.
Penguin Press describes the book as flashing back to the time he faced almost-certain death from COVID. When the book was announced, Willie Nelson put it in his own words: “The heroine is my wife, Annie, who kept me alive when I was sure I was gone. COVID nearly got me.” He added that Annie wouldn’t let him go, and that the years he has lived since then are because of her.
According to the Austin Chronicle’s review, the book includes an exchange that sounds exactly like the two of them. Willie asks Annie whether he ever asked her to let him die. “Yup, twice,” she answers. Then: “Willie, if you die, I’ll kill you.”
Still Not Done
None of this reads like a farewell, because Willie Nelson isn’t acting like a man saying one. In May 2026 he released Dream Chaser, his 79th solo studio album, which includes “I Can’t Read Your Mind,” a song he co-wrote with Bob Dylan. His 2026 calendar also included a spring tour and another run of his Outlaw Music Festival.
When it comes to how much road is left, he sounds at peace. “Everybody’s gonna die, so it ain’t no big deal how long we got,” he told The Guardian. “We live and we die, and I believe we come back again.”
Where were you the first time you heard Willie Nelson sing?