SAN ANTONIO – During a stop here on his current tour, singer and songwriter Lukas Nelson talked about his involvement in the recently released movie “A Star is Born.”
“It was an opportunity to work alongside some of the best in the business,” Nelson said. “I feel incredibly lucky.”
“I am blessed,” he said. “Every day, I wake up with gratitude for life.”
Listening to Nelson perform before a sold-out crowd at The Rustic, there was little doubt that he was the son of country music icon Willie Nelson. However, his music is uniquely his own.
“It’s me,” Lukas Nelson said. “It’s a combination of the music I know and love.”
He said, “I integrate a lot of different styles into what I do.”
Asked whether his musical talents were genetic or nurtured, he said, “Nurture versus nature is an old question that hasn’t quite been put to rest.”
He said that his love for music is the direct result of his love for his dad, who spent a lot of time on the road touring as Lukas Nelson was growing up.
“I picked up a guitar hoping to get closer to him,” he explained. “Because I missed him every time he left.”
Their family is close-knit, with a lifestyle that is built around happiness.
He said, “We come from happiness being the ultimate goal and not success or gain.”
“I think parents should teach you how to be happy, not just successful,” Lukas Nelson said. “And I think that is one thing that my parents did impart on me.”
He said that he’s never felt pressure to fill his famous father’s shoes.
“I’m comfortable in my own skin and I come at life from a different place,” he said. “I’m not trying to fill any shoes.”