Willie Nelson Updates ‘Hello Walls’ for Quarantine on ‘The Late Show’

Willie Nelson and his sons Lukas and Micah appeared on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert this week to perform “Hello Walls,” which was witten by Nelson and was first recorded by Faron Young in 1961. The song became a huge hit for Young and in 1996, Nelson recorded a rock version of the track with the band The Reverend Horton Heat for his album Twisted Willie.

Before Nelson and his sons began their recorded performance on The Late Show, Nelson shared that he wanted to dedicate the moment to Young, who died in 1996. “[He was a] great friend of mine and we had a lot of fun together,” Nelson said. “He made a little bit of fun out of the song. He would go around singing, ‘Hello walls, hello commode,’ and, you know, one thing or another, so he thought it was really funny, so we’ll dedicate this song to Faron Young.”

Nelson, Lukas and Micah performed from their Luck Ranch outside of Austin, Texas, the three musicians strumming acoustic guitars as Nelson began the song and his sons reached for the high notes. The Nelsons traded off lead vocals before Nelson altered the song’s lyrics in the final verse to fit the current climate amid the coroanvirus pandemic, singing, “We got to all stick together or else we’ll lose our minds / I’ve got a feeling we’re going to be here a long, long time.”

On Monday, April 20, Nelson and Lukas hosted a variety show called Come and Toke It, which featured appearances from Kacey Musgraves, Billy Ray Cyrus, Toby Keith, Margo Price, Matthew McConaughey, Jeff Bridges, Tommy Chong, Ziggy Marley, Elle King and more. The show included performances, cooking and cocktail demos, comedy acts and more and gave fans a chance to have a smoking session with Nelson via the #comeandtokeit and #passleft challenge. The show was held just before Nelson’s 87th birthday on April 29th. On July 3, the country music legend will release a new album, First Rose of Spring.