Willie Nelson, 91, on Dying: 'I'm Not Worried About It'

Young musicians looking for longevity would be wise to follow the sensible words of Willie Nelson: Do what feels right, and if you're lucky enough to have a statue built in your honor in your city, remember that it's just something you've "got to go down and clean off the pigeon [expletive] every now and then." The 91-year-old on Friday released Last Leaf on the Tree, his second studio album this year—and also his 76th solo studio album and 153rd album overall, according to Texas Monthly's ranking of his discography. So how many more does he have in him? "I don't know. I hope there's a few more," he tells the AP. Could he even hit 200? "Why not!" he exclaims. More from the interview:

• New album: Last Leaf on the Tree is an album of firsts and familiarities. It's Nelson's first album produced entirely by his son Micah, which includes a few originals and covers of Nelson staples by Neil Young, Nina Simone, and Tom Waits, as well as some less-than-obvious inclusions, like reimaginations of the Flaming Lips' "Do You Realize??" and Beck's "Lost Cause."

• On songwriting: After seven decades of doing it, Nelson says the only way to identify a good song is simply, "You know it when you hear it. When you hear something and you go, 'Damn, I wish I would've wrote that,' it's a good song."
• Kris Kristofferson: There was "no better songwriter" than Nelson's Highwaymen bandmate, who died last month at the age of 88. "He left a lot of fantastic songs around for the rest of us to sing, for as long as we're here." Nelson added, "Kris was a great friend of mine. And, you know, we just kind of had a lot of fun together and made a lot of music together. ... I hated to lose him. That was a sad time."
• New pot-themed cookbook: In a few weeks, the country legend and his wife will also release Willie and Annie Nelson's Cannabis Cookbook, an easy extension of the couple's long-held belief that both marijuana and food hold medicinal properties. Annie says the book was born out of necessity when Willie had pneumonia and couldn't smoke, so she started making edibles to relieve his night terrors. "He was a great taste-tester," she says. Without missing a beat, Nelson jumps in, "Still am!"
• Death: "I'm 91 plus, so, you know, I'm not worried about it," he says. "I don't feel bad. I don't hurt anywhere. I don't have any reason to worry about dying." But, he adds, "I don't know anybody who's lived forever." Still, "I take pretty good care of myself. And I feel like I'm in pretty good shape physically." Mentally? "That's another story," he laughs.

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