police department. the good, the bad, the ugly. we're all here. >> somebody said something like, oh, things like this build character, you know. tough times build character. it doesn't build character, it reveals character. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com hey, this is your cotton picking, snuff picking, tobacco chewing, gravy sopping, hill billy from hill county. you're listening to luck, luck, texas. wish me luck. >> larry: tonight -- ♪ on the road again >> larry: -- willie nelson. the outlaw is on the road again. >> yeah, you could arrest me. >> larry: the legendary willie

nelson and i team up for the hour. next, on "larry king live." ♪ pull off the coat throw it in the car, i don't see why you don't stay a little longer ♪ >> larry: what a treat we have in store for you tonight. we welcome back willie nelson to "larry king live." he's on the road again, literally, with the on the road again tour. and his newest album, "country music," will be released next tuesday from rounder records. always good to see him. last time you did this show, you were on the phone from your tour bus. you're touring again now, right? >> sure. >> tell me about it. >> we play anaheim tomorrow night. we were just in vegas for a bmi convention down there and a broadcasters convention. >> larry: how big is the tour? >> oh, i don't -- you know, i'm just starting. i don't know. just one long tour, you know. >> larry: they don't tell you beyond the next night? >> i don't want to know.

>> larry: because we've shot some scenes in your bus. does your bus go everywhere? sometimes you have to fly, right? >> yeah, but i always hate it. i love it when i can just stay on the bus. you know, i don't even use hotels. i stay on the bus all the time. >> larry: why? >> i have everything i need there. shower, food, and i got a couple of people in there to wait on me hand and foot, so i get better service there than i get in the hotel, so why go in there? >> larry: are there times, though, you have to fly? >> yes. i don't like to fly. i don't like all the hassles. i don't like the luggage and all that stuff. >> larry: do they hassell you? >> no more than they hassle anybody else. just a hassle to get up and go there by this time, get your luggage checked in by that time, and by the time you go through all the securities and everything, it's a hassell. >> larry: you've been doing music for how many years? how many years singing professionally? >> i got my first professional

job i think when i was 12 years old. >> larry: you're how old now? >> i'm 77, will be. april 30th. >> larry: 12 to 77. that's 65 years. >> yeah. >> larry: does it ever get tiring? >> sure, the actual physical work gets tiring. but i don't ever get tired of playing the music. and i don't get tired of the fans. that's sort of the reason i get out there, i guess, to see the fans. >> larry: sinatra told me once, it's still a kick. >> yes. still a kick. >> larry: to go on that stage? >> yes. i knew him. he was a good buddy. >> larry: good guy. if he liked you. >> yeah. >> larry: your new cd is called "country music." which seems funny to me, because who's more associated with country music than you that we have to put that title on? so give me your definition of country music. >> well, this album, made up of fiddles, steels, guitars, and

songs like "house of gold" and "satisfied mind," which to me are really country music standards, this is the star dust of country music. and these songs in their time were just as famous and just as good and soul like stardust and -- >> larry: so they're all famous. country fans would all know man with the blues, my baby is gone, satisfied wind, pistol packing mama, we all know that. ♪ lay your pistol down, baby drinking champagne and house of gold. all favorite songs. i'm a pilgrim. an ocean of diamonds. >> i'm a pilgrim is an old mel travis song. dark as a dujen is another earl travis song about the miner which is is very appropriate for these days. so there's a lot of great music in there. >> larry: you sing everything. you have great albums of pop songs. the other night, the other day,

hal david, a great song writer, told me that you are the best singer living. >> thank you, hal. >> larry: you sell a song. and when you hear willie nelson, you know it's willie nelson. >> that's great. >> larry: is it as much fun to sing pop as country? >> sure. it's more of a challenge to do those pop classics and standards, because i grew up singing "your cheating heart" and the hank williams songs. and it's second nature to me. to do "star dust" and "moonlight in vermont" and stuff like that, you really have to be on your game a little bit. >> larry: but you still give it that same willie -- no one sings it like willie nelson. >> it still sounds country. >> larry: because you're country. >> because i am, yeah. >> larry: where do you live if you live on a bus? >> i live on the bus mostly, but i also have a home in texas. and i have an apartment in l.a. and the home in maui.

i have the best of all of the worlds. >> larry: are you almost always working? >> most of the time. which is okay. >> larry: talking about a willie nelson tour is redundant? >> yeah. if i'm through with this one, i'm starting another one. we're going to europe in june. and we'll be over there for the month of june. going to england, paris. >> larry: what do you think of the current state of country music? >> well, personally, i think it's good. i know my shows -- i have a lot of people there who are great country music fans, and i do hank williams, and i do my stuff. so i don't really look at country music as the way it is today. i look at country music like the way it's always been. >> larry: so country music doesn't have its b-bop or its newcomers or its teen bop. country is country. >> that's right. that's right. >> larry: and there are pure country singers, right? >> absolutely. george jones is a good example. >> larry: he's a country singer. >> great country singer. vern gosden, a fantastic writer and singer.

he's passed now. and some of those guys are just, you know, unbeatable. >> larry: willie nelson, he's got something to say about sarah palin, the tea party movement, his offer to president obama, all ahead. we're covering everything tonight. it's the night with willie. stay with us. ♪ mama, don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys ♪ >> i remember when a dime bag cost a dime. you know what i mean? [ male announcer ] fact -- when doctors are in pain, the medicine in advil is their #1 choice for pain relief. more than the medicines in tylenol or aleve. use the medicine doctors use for themselves. one more reason to make advil your #1 choice. use for themselves. challenge that with olay. in an independent study of 50,000 consumers presented by better homes and gardens, olay was voted best

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he has become a kind of folk hero. >> people come from everywhere just to see willie nelson. >> now we're having fun. ♪ whiskey river take my mind don't let my memory talk to me ♪ ♪ whiskey river don't run dry, i got all i got to take care of me ♪ >> larry: we're back with the legendary willie nelson. his new album, "country music," will be out everywhere on tuesday. his latest tour is starting right now in vegas. you will hear from willie everywhere. we never hear you on country radio stations. have you been marginalized?

a lot of times we'll hear you on the pop stations. but country stations aren't playing you as much. if so, why? >> well, honestly, i never have really received that much air play on commercial, am, xm, radio. >> larry: why? >> i never did really fit the format, i don't think. whatever was popular today, that wasn't what i was doing. i was into something else, so it never really seemed to hurt my career any at all, because if this station didn't play me, that one over there did. so i always had air play. but not necessarily from the mainstream country music. because that has changed so much that my music didn't really fit the format. >> larry: are you a singer who plays the guitar, or a guitar player who sings? >> i'm a guitar player who writes songs and sings. >> larry: guitars first? >> guitar. >> larry: is that what you did

at 12? where did you learn the guitar? >> my grandmother was a music teacher, and my grandfather taught me a few chords on the guitar before he died. i was 6 years old when he died. but then my grandmother taught my sister and i a lot about music. she learned to read. and i'd sit on the piano. while she was reading i'd sit there and play guitar and try to learn the chords. >> larry: when did you learn to sing? >> i was writing poems before i would write melodies, about things i couldn't have possibly known anything about, love and no love and at 5 years old, what do you know about this stuff. >> larry: did your voice sound like that then? like it sounds now? what did you sound like at 12? >> i had a high voice, and i went through the same problem that every guy goes through when his voice changes. i was playing clubs, and my

voice changed, so i went from a high singer to a low and then back and forth and it would break for about two years. >> larry: you've collaborated with many different artists, you've tried your hand in a lot of musical genres. does the country music establishment, if there such a thing, get angry when you perform with julio, snoop dogg, and so on? does country music say is willie leaving us? >> i don't think any of them get angry. the ones that get angry, that makes it all worthwhile. but i don't think there's any of them out there that really think i don't know what i'm doing, because -- >> larry: you're beyond that. do you still play nashville? >> sure. absolutely. enjoy playing nashville, and the band that we're -- we used on this new record, these are all nashville pickers and we played

in nashville at the ryman with all these songs and this band a few weeks ago. >> larry: the nashville sound, they always talk about the nashville sound. >> this is the cream of the crop. ronny mccry, his family, a great group of bluegrass pickers, chris charp, dennis krout, a great up right base player. these guys. stuart, the fiddle player. these are the real pickers. it's always comfortable to be able to look at anybody in the room and nod at them and know they're going to take a great chorus. >> larry: anybody you haven't worked with you want to work with? >> let's sing one. let's you and i do one. >> larry: you want to do one? "blue skies"? >> yeah. >> want me to get started? ♪ blue skies smiling at me nothing but blue skies do i

see ♪ ♪ blue bird singing a song, nothing but blue birds from now on ♪ ♪ never saw the sun shining so bright ♪ ♪ never saw things going so right ♪ ♪ working in the day, worry at night, when you're in love, my how it flies ♪ ♪ blue skies, blue days all of them gone, nothing but blue skies, from now on ♪ >> larry: as we go to break, here's a look at willie on the road again in concert. >> well, hello there. ♪ whiskey river take my mind don't let her memory torture me ♪ ♪ whiskey river don't run dry you're all i've got, take care

of me ♪ ♪ whiskey river take my mind >> i've seen him several times, but i can't catch him alone. >> you're going to get to see willie? yeah! >> he's continuously on tour from now through october of this year. i can't imagine that. it's just phenomenal. the guy is just great. >> we thought it was especially fitting that it's april 15th, tax day. and we just thought that as we dropped our 1040s in the mail today that we'd high tail it over here, so here we are. >> he does his music for his fans, for himself, and doesn't do it for what anybody else thinks. >> that's my son lucas, been out here working for y'all earlier. ♪ drowning out a whiskey river praying that my memory of mine and the witness of a soul ♪

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a day of fun in the california desert turned deadly. eight people were killed when an off road racing truck lost control and flipped on to spectator. nine other people were hurt, four of them seriously. the california 200 is an amateur race that goes on all night in the mojave desert on a course 50 miles long. spectators are ruurged to stay back at least 100 feet. many ignore that to get as close

to the action as possible. police dropped charges against a man arrested after saturday's shootings in buffalo, new york. four people were killed outside a downtown restaurant. investigators are examining surveillance video which led to the arrest. the former suspect remains in jail on unrelated parole violations. a former medical student facing charges in a murder tied to the craigslist website is dead. police say philip markoff apparently committed suicide. he was found in his massachusetts jail cell this morning. markoff was charged with killing a masseuse who had advertised on craigslist. a warden and a security official have resigned at an arizona prison where three inmates escaped last month. two of the fugitives have been captured. inmate john mccluskey is still on the run. he was serving a sentence for attempted murder. u.s. marshals are once again focusing on the canadian border and western montana in their search for mccluskey and a female accomplice. those are your headlines this hour. ""larry king live" continues

right now. ♪ on the road again, just can't wait to get on the road again ♪ ♪ the life i love is making music with my friends ♪ >> larry: of all the willie nelson songs, is "on the road again" the most famous? >> maybe so. either "on the road again," "crazy," or "night life." >> larry: "crazy" ain't bad either. he loves that song, ross perot's theme. "on the road again" is on commercials. did that come to you. what's the story of the writing of that song? >> i was on a plane with sidney pollack and jerry satsberg, and we were talking about doing the movie "honeysuckle rose." and we were talking about a song. and they said, can you come up with a song for the movie? and i said, oh, you mean

something about on the road again, on the road again, just can't wait to get on the road again? yeah. but where's the melody? i said, oh, well, i'll find one. so i went to the studio pretty much with just that in my mind. it was an easy song to write. >> larry: once you hear it, it never gets out of your head. it's one of those songs. as president of farm aid, you wrote to barack obama, offering to help him put together a new u.s. food and farm policy. any word back? >> i did talk to the secretary of agriculture and i got some very encouraging reports from him. and i'm looking forward to talking to him again and seeing what we can do to help the farmer. >> larry: what is your basic idea? >> to get the farmer more money for what he does. get the dairy farmers more money for what they do. they are in bad condition right now. they are not getting enough money, and the dairy cows are -- are not worth what they should be worth. and this is really bad for not only the farmers, bad for america. it's bad for all of us. >> larry: how did you get

involved and interested in the farming thing? >> i was doing some shows at the illinois state fair. and i was on the bus talking to big jim thompson, the governor of illinois. and he and i were sitting there, and it was kind of like an annual ritual, i'd come in and do the fair, he'd come on the bus, we'd have a bowl of chili, drink a beer and talk about things. this particular year, we started talking about the farmers. i'd heard from my friends in texas about how the farmers weren't doing that good. and i grew up on a farm, and i knew they didn't ever do really great, but i heard it was worse than usual. they weren't getting any money. they were going out of business at an alarming rate. i started checking it out. sure enough. at one time, we had over 8 million small family farmers and now we're less than 2 million. that's not right. >> larry: it's the big companies. >> the big corporate farmers are taking over. that's not good for the food, not good for the land, not good for you and me. >> larry: how do you react -- what do you think about obama? >> i think he's a good man.

yeah. i like him. i know his intentions are good, and he probably thought he could have -- was going to be able to do a lot more once he got in there than he's been able to do. but i think most of us realize that he was going to have some opposition. >> larry: did you support him? >> sure, i did, yeah. >> larry: did you do any concerts for him? >> no. >> larry: but you would link your name to him? >> yeah. >> larry: what do you make of the tea party movement? >> oh, i don't know. >> larry: oh, go ahead, willie. what do you think? >> i don't know. i'm not sure what they are for or what they're against. >> larry: maybe we can nail it down. >> maybe so. >> larry: they don't like big government. don't like taxes, i guess. >> so far, that's two -- that's pretty good. >> larry: what do you think of sarah palin? >> i think she's a likeable person. you know, personally, i like her a lot. >> larry: politically, you're not in tune? >> politically, i don't know. i just don't know.

>> larry: did you ever play alaska? >> yes, i have. >> larry: did you ever play when she was governor? >> i don't know that i did. we played fairbanks and ketchikan. went up there in '61. i know she wasn't governor then. went up there then, me and ray price, and played ketchikan, alaska. >> larry: any state you haven't played? >> nope. >> larry: all 50. you toured europe, asia? >> went to singapore. >> larry: how did that come about, the highwaymen? >> we had done a christmas show in switzerland with john and june, and we were having a photographer -- a photograph session with all of us there. and we was talking about going to switzerland, and the photographer happened to ask

walan, what are you going to switzerland for to do a christmas show. waylan said, because that's where jesus was born. the photographer said, oh, okay. >> larry: lots of you asking about willie's use of pot, which he has always owned up to. we'll ask about that and other things next. >> i feel it. that's what i'm doing. man, you're cool as moot [ muted ], mister. i hate to do it. i have to charge you. that's 60 bucks. >> 60 bucks? >> yeah. >> man, i remember when a dime bag cost a dime, you know what i mean? that's 40,000 more miles than ford. chevy silverado half-ton. a consumers digest best buy and the most dependable, longest lasting full-size pickups on the road. now get 0% apr for 72 months on 2010 silverado half-ton models with an average finance savings around $5,800.

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go to cialis.com. ♪ >> larry: we're back with the great willie nelson. don't forget "country music" cd is now available as of this tuesday.

terrific major country songs. 15 of them recorded by the master himself, willie nelson. and the on the road again tour is in progress. look for it -- definitely he'll be in a city near you. singer/songwriter john mellencamp has worked with you on farm aid. what do you make of the effort to get him to run for the u.s. senate up in indiana? >> he's a great american, and i know he probably will do a great job. >> larry: you think he's got a shot? >> yeah, i think so. he's well liked. well known. >> larry: how good a singer is he? >> i like his singing. he's rock 'n' roll all the way. i like to -- >> larry: you mentioned johnny cash, who appeared in that seat quite a few times. where do you rank him? did you see the movie? >> yes, i did. fantastic. >> larry: that guy was unbelievable. >> yeah. he did a great job, yeah. no. john and i were brothers. he used to call me a lot, you know, whenever -- because i'm always telling him dirty jokes.

so whenever he needed a laugh or pump it up or something, he'd always call me to get a new joke. >> larry: what was he like to sing with? if ever there were two distinct voices in american popular music, country or otherwise, it would be yours and johnny cash. you could not hear either one of you and say, who is that? what it was like to sing with him? >> it was great. you know, every night -- in fact, him and waylan and chris, i was their biggest fans. and i got to stand there every night and watch three of my heroes sing, and me standing over on the other side of the stage and joining in every now and then. but, no, i loved john's singing. and waylon and chris. >> larry: when the highwaymen worked, how did you choose how many minutes each guy would do, and what percentage did you sing all together? >> chris was here, john was here, waylon was here, and i was here. and we had our songs, you know, that we had chosen to do, and we'd record it.

and chris would do one. john would do one. maybe we'd do one together. then waylon would do one. i'd do one. we'd do another one together. >> larry: you would all four sing together? >> oh, yeah. >> larry: did you have a big backup group? >> oh, yeah one of the best groups out of nashville. >> larry: never been a fan of government, right? you're a skeptic. >> yeah. very skeptical. >> larry: you don't trust. but you seem like a regular guy. but you -- most people look at willie nelson and say skeptical? but you are of government, aren't you? >> well, yeah. i think whenever you turn over your money and your life to somebody, you should know a lot about them. >> larry: and you've turned over a lot of money. didn't you once protest taxes? >> not really, no. i was always glad to pay taxes. i always said let me make the money, i'll be glad to pay the taxes. >> larry: to me if you complain about paying a big tax bill, that's a great thing. you're doing well. >> it's a nice problem to have.

>> larry: one of our king's things followers -- do you twitter? >> no. conway twitter? >> larry: con way twitter. not the same thing. anyway, one of king's things followers wants to know, this may seem funny, but i'll ask it. is willie a conservative? >> i don't know. i might be in some areas. >> larry: really? i would always think of you as a liberal. >> i would like to consider myself as a liberal, but i am -- probably certain areas where i'm pretty conservative. >> larry: financial end? >> financially, i have no knowledge. >> larry: no? but you want us to do more for farmers. >> i believe if you make it, throw it away. >> larry: you don't care about keeping it? >> no. >> larry: willie nelson. by the way, are you still an outlaw? is being an outlaw now different than being an outlaw back in the days with waylon jensings and

the guys? >> it's still fun. >> larry: you were outlaws, renegades. >> we were determined to play our music mainly the way we wanted to play our music. and that's really where the term outlaw, i think, came into it. there were certain people that didn't really want waylon to take his band in the studio, because they hadn't -- you know, you go in there with a small budget, nobody gets to cut up a lot of money. go in with a million dollar budget, everybody makes a little, but the music may not be that great. >> larry: you always felt like the money would be there, but you aren't worried. >> i was never worried, but it's always been there. >> larry: willie is famous for telling jokes. we'll see if he's got one for us, that he can tell, on a family network. stick around. i don't want you going out on those yet. and leave your phone in your purse, i don't want you texting. >> daddy... ok! ok, here you go. be careful. >> thanks dad.

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♪ don't knock it until you tried

it, well i've tried it, my friend, i'll never smoke weed with willie again ♪ >> larry: i guess the great willie nelson, don't forget that terrific album will be out tuesday, and on tour right now. a long-time advocate of legalizing marijuana. a lot of people in that ballpark now. the late william f. buckley one of the leaders of that movement. california and other states talking about legalizing it so they can tax it. do you think it will ever happen? >> sure. it's just a matter of time and the economy. and i think the way the economy is now, it's helping it to come along. because if you do tax it and regulate it, there's a lot of money there that can be used for whatever we need it for. for education, for different things. >> larry: the late lenny bruce said once, marijuana will be legal some day because every law student i know smokes it. do you think it will be legal? >> i think so, and, you know, california votes on it in november and there's the old saying as california goes, so goes the nation, so -- >> larry: i think it was maine. >> let's change it to california. >> larry: another twitter question. lots of them, by the way.

we mentioned you, the tweets came in. asking about pot smoking. basically, how much and how often? >> well, you know, i have changed my habits a little bit. my lungs -- and i smoked so much, and i would roll them and smoke them, roll them and smoke them, but i did get congestion from it. and i was wheezing. so i switched over to a vaporizer. you don't get any smoke and you don't get any heat. and for a singer or someone's lungs, it's much, much healthier. >> larry: it's not pot, right? >> oh, yeah. yeah. pot in the vaporizer, but when you -- you know, you puff it in, you're getting vapors, but not heat and not smoke. >> larry: does it have the same effect? >> yeah. it's even stronger, i think. >> larry: did you ever fear it might be harming you? >> well, i kind of questioned myself all the time. and i was kind of like my own

canary in the mine. i was watching. because i smoked cigarettes, one after the other, from the time i was this big. >> larry: still smoke? >> no, i threw those away, and rolled up 20 joints and put it in my chesterfield pack and started changing my habits. >> larry: could you smoke like a few joints and go on stage and sing? >> oh, sure. sure. but i have a huge tolerance for it that maybe everyone doesn't have. but, yeah, i -- it doesn't really -- >> larry: did you ever go with stronger stuff? >> no. no. >> larry: so you would recommend -- it wouldn't harm you, wouldn't bother you if people you knew smoked it. >> you can overdo it. you can hurt your lungs by putting anything in your lungs that has heat and smoke in it. yeah, you can overdo it, but as far as being as dangerous as cigarette smoke, no. >> larry: did you smoke today? >> did i smoke cigarettes.

>> larry: did you smoke pot today, this day? >> yeah, sure. >> larry: before you came here? >> yeah. >> larry: you have pot in your right now? >> yeah. you could arrest me. >> larry: this state. >> give me an enema test. >> larry: willie has quite a tour bus. he parked it outside the studio and gave us a look inside. you can see how he travels and why he loves it. in style. watch. >> this is willie, on the road again and we're stopping in to see ole larry. ♪ on the road again, just can't wait to get on the road again ♪ >> hey, larry, come on. let me show you the bus. this is where i love most of the time. this is the kitchen area. a little coffee whenever you want it. bunks back here. i live in the back. not a big deal. but it's pretty nice. ♪ seeing things i may never see again, i can't wait ♪ i get in o? are you a safe driver? yes. discount!

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♪ don't fight, don't spite, just wait 'til tomorrow, maybe you'll be all right again ♪ >> larry: we're back with the great willie nelson. album "country music" will be out this tuesday. we're having a great time tonight with one of the truly great american artists who's an avid golfer. can you smoke pot and golf? >> sure. >> larry: okay. >> i can't play any worse than i normally do anyway. >> larry: are you a good player? >> no. >> larry: why do you like golf so much? >> oh, i don't know. it's just a place to get out and walk around outside. and that's originally the reason i started doing it. i moved down to lost valley and bandera. they had a golf course there. it was just me and my band, and my house had burnt.

so we moved down there and rented five houses on the golf course. so it was just the thing to do every day. we'd go play golf. >> larry: you know a great definition of golf? a great walk spoiled. what do you make about the tiger woods story? >> oh, you know. i'm not the guy to comment on any other person's marital problems, because i've had enough of my own, and i know it's real personal, and i wish him well. >> larry: what did you make of the fuss made over it, though? >> i thought it was ridiculous, to put that much time, following a guy around and see who he slept with the last few years, because it's really no one's business. >> larry: you think the only business was his wife's? >> him and his wife. >> larry: what are your feelings, willie, about the irs these days? i know you had a problem back in 1990. the government sued. final bill, $16 million. they seized some of your property. you released a mail order album

entitled "who will buy my memories: the irs tapes." how do you stand now? >> oh, i'm fine. i think i'm pretty well paid up. >> larry: was that tough going? how did you come to owe that much? >> well, i had invested in some tax shelters many, many years ago, the cattle feeding things and all those different things that at some point the irs disallowed. and so after advising me, my financial advisers told me to go into all this. then the irs disallowed it. so i was deferring taxes every year and putting the money into the feeding, cattle feeding deal. then when they disallowed it, all those years went by that i hadn't paid taxes. it started out i only owed them $2 million. if i'd have paid them that, i'd have never had a problem. >> larry: how do they tell you you owe $16 million? do you get a call? do you get a letter? how do they do that? >> i knew it was accruing rapidly over the years. >> larry: interest.

>> penalties and interest every day went up $5,000 or $10,000. so it really got up to $32 million. then they chopped it in half, and we negotiated on that. my bass player, somebody asked him if he thought i was in trouble. and he said, well, you know, they let a guitar player get into them that far, if he -- if he owed them $100,000, then he's probably in trouble. but $32 million, they're in trouble. >> larry: that's true. in fact, who's got to worry? they do. willie generated a lot of controversy with some comments about 9/11, next.

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>> larry: willie took part in a great benefit for 9/11 victims and their families. he sang "america the beautiful." i don't think anyone ever sang it better. he's questioned the official story. what prompted you to look into this from another angle? >> well, just logic. i've seen buildings implode before. just saw the texas stadium implode, a couple of days ago. and these two buildings imploded. and the one next to it, where nothing hit it, no plane hit the one next to it. it just decided to fall on its own. so naturally i have questions about how -- >> larry: you think something was done inside? >> yes. >> larry: i'm told that the reason it imploded was because there was so much heat from above and so much fuel on the jets that that caused it to go down rather than go over. >> never before has a building collapsed because it was hit by an airplane, a steel building, never before. >> larry: has any building been hit by a 747, though?

>> i'm sure they have. >> larry: so you think there was something going on inside the building? >> well, i just question the whole thing. i question the story. i question the implosions. it just looks too simple, you know. >> larry: others have questioned it, too, although there was an investigation. >> there was an investigation, and i think there should be more. >> larry: willie nelson. another tweet to king's things. how many guitars do you own? >> oh, i've got probably 12, 15, around the house there in austin. i really play one. and that's the old martin trigger, and i play it -- >> larry: why do you call it trigger? >> i don't know. just my pet name for, like, roy rogers' horse was trigger, so i decided to name my guitar -- >> larry: how many songs -- i guess you don't even know -- have you written?

>> i don't know, 2,000, 3,000, maybe more. >> larry: how many cds have you collected? >> i don't either. there has been a lot of compilations, bootlegs, different ones, i don't know, hundreds. >> larry: which of your songs -- this may be hard with all of them -- are you proudest of? >> well, the ones that "crazy," "funny how times sway," "on the road again." "angels flying too close to the ground." >> larry: how did you come up with "crazy"? a great song, a great tune. >> i don't know where it came from. it was a melody that was there and the word crazy was there. i think i ripped off floyd tillman a little bit somewhere along the way. >> larry: do you hear music in your head? >> sure, yeah. i hear melodies. >> larry: you're writing all the time? >> i could, if i wanted to. i could, you know, sit down and write something right now. you know, who knows if it would be any good or not. it would be something.

any songwriter, if you're a pro, you ought to be able to write on the spot. >> larry: you often perform with your younger sons. are they on tour with you? >> they're starting out with me. lukas is playing opening for me on the next tour that i started. >> larry: must be very proud. >> that's exciting, yeah. >> larry: tell me about bio willie. what is that? >> larry: that is the name of a product, biodiesel, that we developed, made out of vegetable oil from restaurants. and we use it to fuel the trucks, diesel engines. >> larry: cal fussman who wrote my book with me, he has a mercedes that runs on that. >> yeah. >> larry: he gets it from restaurants. >> yeah, absolutely. it is the new thing. >> larry: you're riding on grease. >> vegetable oil, yes. >> larry: you have it on your bus? >> have it on the bus also. >> larry: you seem to have lived pretty much by your own rules. you have any major regret? as sinatra would say, regrets, i've had a few, but then again, too few to mention.

>> that's probably more the truth. i really wouldn't to say, well, i regret this or regret that because i like the way things are now. and i think if i were to say, well, i wish that was different, then it might change in some way the way things are now. >> larry: any song ever offered to you you turned down, you later regret it? >> no. i was talking the other day about the song "gambler" that kenny rogers did. i had a chance to -- >> larry: that was offered to you? >> yeah, i had a chance to do that. >> larry: why didn't you do that? >> honestly, because i knew it was a hit and it was so long, had so many verses that i would have to do it every night. >> larry: go know when to hold them, know when to fold them. you turned that down? >> yeah. >> larry: a lot of pop that day. >> it had a bunch of verses in it i didn't want another long -- >> larry: your good friend kris kristofferson said anybody that doesn't like willie nelson is dead or may as well be dead. why does everybody like you so

much and there is nobody that doesn't. everybody likes willie nelson. >> i like everybody, too, you know? >> larry: you like people? >> yeah. >> larry: what about the plans for the july fourth backwards summer picnic this year. >> we're having it. leon russell, ray wily hover, billy joe shaffer. i tell everybody you got to have three names to get on there. >> larry: in austin, right? >> in austin. >> larry: you're touring all summer? >> all summer. in june we go to europe and come back just in time to do the concert. >> larry: you got a joke? >> i got some. i don't know if they're -- how about a golfing joke. >> larry: a golfing joke? >> yeah, a golfing joke. this lady went to the pro shop and told the pro the bee had stung her and did he have anything for a bee sting. he said, where did it sting you? she said between the first and second hole. he said, well, first of all, your stance is too wide.

>> larry: funny. all right. let's close with a song, you and i. >> let's do it. >> larry: what do you want to -- start us. >> start it off. ♪ sometimes i wonder why i spend the lonely nights ♪ ♪ dreaming of a song and the melody haunts my memory ♪ ♪ and i am once again with you ♪ when our love was new and each kiss an inspiration ♪ >> larry: the nightingale comes in. ♪ but that was long ago and now my consolation is in the star ddust of the son♪ ♪ when the stars are bright and you are in my arms and the nightingale tells a fairy tale ♪ ♪ of paradise where roses grew