In a special, icon-on-icon birthday tribute, 13-time Grammy winner and longtime Willie friend, fan, and collaborator Bonnie Raitt talks about their sublime 1993 duet, “Getting Over You.” It was a cornerstone of one of the most important albums of Willie’s career, Across the Borderline, and produced by the brilliant Don Was—who also produced Bonnie’s own masterpieces Nick of Time and Luck of the Draw. Bonnie gets into all that, likening Willie in the studio to both the Cheshire Cat and Yoda, before talking about covering “Night Life” with B.B. King at Willie’s legendary 60th birthday concert, why she thinks Willie is the most unique guitar player alive, and then sending him the most gracious birthday wish you will hear all year.
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Given their nearly fifty years of friendship, and all the Farm Aid appearances, onstage jam sessions, and late-night hangs that implies, it’s weird to think that Bonnie Raitt and Willie Nelson have spent such little time in the studio together. In 1979, the two hooked up with Leon Russell for a loping cover of the jazz-blues standard “Trouble in Mind.” In 2002, Raitt harmonized with Willie on an eloquent reading of a pensive pop ballad about regret, “You Remain.” But the hands-down high point of their studio collaborations, and as beautiful a recording as either ever cut, was their 1993 duet “Getting Over You”—which became the cornerstone of one of the most important albums of Willie’s long career, Across the Borderline.
Even the hardest-core Willie lovers tend to forget how difficult the early nineties were for Willie. Artistically, only one of his first eight singles of the decade cracked the top twenty, and three failed to even chart in the U.S. His record label, Columbia, was talking about relegating him to legacy-act status, and there was a real possibility it would drop him, as it had unceremoniously done his friend Johnny Cash, in 1986. Personally, life was nigh-on impossible. His famous IRS tax battle and the $16.7 million the feds claimed he owed had turned him into a late-night talk show punch line. And in December 1991, his oldest son, Billy, died suddenly. 1992 was and remains the only year Willie didn’t release any new music, going back to 1958.
Then, in March 1993, just weeks after he settled with the IRS, came Across the Borderline. Cut with one of the era’s leading rock and pop producers, the brilliant Don Was, Borderline was an unmistakable reminder not just of how important Willie was as an artist, but of the kind of folks who thought so. The song “Heartland” was a cowrite and duet with Bob Dylan. Willie and Sinéad O’Connor covered Peter Gabriel’s “Don’t Give Up.” Working solo, Willie covered two songs each by Lyle Lovett, John Hiatt, and Paul Simon, with Simon pitching in on guitar and production. And at the album’s heart was Willie and Bonnie singing to each other about the endless frustrations of a breakup, “Getting Over You.”
In this special birthday episode of One by Willie, Raitt takes us back to that session. The song, written by legendary Austin music figure Stephen Bruton, her dear friend and former guitar player, was one with which she was eminently familiar. So too was the producer, Don Was, who’d helped her grow from a blues-championing cult favorite to a million-selling, future Rock & Roll Hall of Famer with his production of her albums Nick of Time (1989) and Luck of the Draw (1991). And then, across the recording-room floor from her, was her other buddy, Willie, whom she likens to the Cheshire Cat and Yoda.
From there, she describes covering “Night Life” with B. B. King at Willie’s legendary The Big Six-O birthday show on CBS, the fact that none of the A-list legends who showed up for Willie in those months ever doubted his “mythic status,” and why she thinks he is the most unique guitar player alive, before sending him the most gracious birthday wishes you’ll hear all year.
Enjoy this bonus track of Bonnie Raitt and Willie Nelson’s moving performance of the late Stephen Bruton’s song “Getting Over You.”
Bonnie Raitt, B.B. King and Kris Kristofferson are inducted into the Hall of Fame. Performers include Willie Nelson, Rodney Crowell, ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons and more. Hosted by Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally.
The 2016 ACL Hall of Fame inductees were celebrated at a ceremony held October 12, 2016, at ACL’s studio home, Austin’s ACL Live at The Moody Theater. Performers included Willie Nelson, Mavis Staples, Rodney Crowell, Gary Clark Jr., Billy Gibbons, B.B. King Band, Taj Mahal, and Eve Monsees. Comedy super couple Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally served as emcees for the evening.
One by Willie is produced by John Spong and PRX, in partnership with Texas Monthly. The PRX production team is Jocelyn Gonzales, Patrick Grant, Pedro Rafael Rosado, and project manager Edwin Ochoa. The Texas Monthly team is engineer Brian Standefer, producer Patrick Michels, and executive producer Megan Creydt, with graphic design by Emily Kimbro and Victoria Millner. And Dominic Welhouse provides invaluable research and editing help.
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