Willie Nelson’s Granddaughter Raelyn Nelson Joins the ‘Prine Time’ Podcast

Recorded via Zoom in December of last year, this episode of Prine Time is a special one with guest Raelyn Nelson, granddaughter of Willie Nelson. 

The episode involves a myriad of stories about American music legends like Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson, Jerry Jeff Walker and “Papa” Willie. Nelson also talks about a song her band, the Raelyn Nelson Band, and their 2019 release “Whiskey and Weed.”

As far as how the band is doing these days, Nelson explains that there isn’t much to do other than play shows virtually and wait for this period to sort itself out. 

“Whenever you’re exposed to someone who has COVID you have to quarantine for a while, so it’s been hard to plan something because things keep happening,” Nelson explained. “That being said, we are doing that and I’ve been doing little acoustic stuff for my patrons on my Patreon pretty regularly, but it’s just not the same as the band. Fiddling around with the ukulele, which I love to do and it’s great, but it’s not the band. And that’s the art we like to make. That’s what we like to put out there, so I’m just trying to figure out the best way to do live shows.” 

When speaking on how her grandfather is doing these days, she assures hosts Billy Prine and Michael Dinallo that he is doing just fine, although not being able to tour means “it’s kind of like Groundhog Day over there.” 

As a Nashville native since ’93 with an iconic grandfather, it’s not hard to imagine that Nelson would have met some big names throughout the years. In particular, she shares a sweet story of one the times she met Waylon Jennings and took a picture with him. 

“I remember one time when Papa Willie was coming through Nashville my mom took me over to the hotel and we jumped on the bus and Waylon was on there,” she said. “They’re sitting in the lounge and I come in and Waylon grabs my hand and pulls me down in between the two of them. He looks at my mom and he says, ‘Take our picture, I want a picture with her.’ And so I have this picture of me, I’m probably like 14 or 15 years old, and it’s in between Papa Willie and Waylon and Papa Willie’s got the joint in his hand. It’s a special memory I have and it’s cool that I have a picture to go with it.” 

To listen to more stories like these with music legends and find out what Nelson reveals is her favorite way to drink whiskey (hint: it’s the free kind). Check out the rest of the episode on Prine Time here.