Interview: On the Road (To Utah) Again w/ Lukas Nelson

Lukas Nelson performs Friday (8/8/2025) at the Canyons Village, part of its Concerts on the Slopes series.

And it’s fitting that we caught up with Nelson while he was still in Montana earlier this week. He’d just performed with Dave Matthews, Molly Tuttle and others at Big Sky’s Wildlands Festival, raising over $1.3 million for land conservation. His affection for the area shows on his latest release (2025’s American Romance), with a song on it named after the state.

The album is his first without Promise of the real, the band he recorded eight studio albums with, marking a rebeginning of sorts for the Texas-born singer-songwriter.  

“It was about time. In 2009, I met drummer Anthony [LoGerto], then the other guys in the band, and asked them to join me,” Nelson says. “I was listening to a lot of Neil Young at the time and writing all these songs, and we went out and started playing. For three years, we played everywhere, these small gigs. And once Neil [Young] heard us, he liked the band so much, they ended up as his band for five years. I couldn’t book my own gigs anymore because Neil was taking us out [on the road].”

“Because none of the other guys in the band were songwriters, I felt like I wanted to keep playing my own music,” he says. “And the other guys were happy to play with Neil.”

By going his own way, it’s allowing Nelson to continue exploring new ways of sharing his music.

“I was running out of time, and my songs deserved an audience,” Nelson says. “I was going out with my dad [Willie] and on the road 300 days a year, and I wanted an audience that was going to stay with me for a while because they wanted to hear me, not my dad.”

The hope is he’ll have time for projects he couldn’t commit to before, largely due to that gruelling touring schedule. His planned-for 80 or so shows this year frees him up to collaborate more often, including being able to do a duet with his friend Sierra Farrell on his latest (“Friend in the End”). 

And not that it matters, but that means his 92-year-old dad Willie may play on stages then Lukas does this year. But the shift in how much he plays does allow him to spend more time with his pops, too, who inspired him to become a musician in the first place.

“I love my dad’s music, and listen to it almost nonstop,” Nelson says. “I got into a phase with him where I studied it intensely, just like I did with Jimi Hendrix and Dylan and Radiohead.”

Radiohead is one of bands he listens to the most lately, and he admits to having a very wide palette of musical influences. It’s just one of the bands helping guide his next steps, as he’s already considering what comes next.

One thing is certain: he wants to go further than he ever has creatively.

“The way the world is set up now, there’s room for anything. I want to listen to my mind and heart without barriers. The next project I do, you won’t be able to define musically,” Nelson says. “Before, I was working with primary colors, but I’m going to dig deeper into secondary colors, a whole other spectrum. I’m going to get deeper and more psychedelic with it.”

It’s Nelson’s way of giving back to what music has already given him in abundance.

“It’s like they say in religion: you take one step toward god, and he takes three toward you. I stepped toward music and it wrapped its arms around me,” Nelson says. “It cradled me and said it would never let me down, that it would allow me to spread joy wherever I went. I dipped my toe in its water and now we’re betrothed.” 

“Music has given me my life. It chose me, and it’s the greatest blessing I’ve ever received. Without it, I’d be in a very dark place. Now I have a place to put my darkness.”

Tickets are still available.

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