Talk about some country music royalty.
At the BeachLife Ranch festival in Redondo Beach, California, over the weekend, Lukas Nelson and Shooter Jennings, sons of outlaw country legends Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings, teamed up for an awesome live performance of their dads classic “Mammas, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys.”
The song was originally written by Ed Bruce with his wife Patsy Bruce and recorded by Ed, and the song was featured on his 1976 self-titled album. Chris LeDoux also covered it for his 1976 album, Songbook of the American West.
Of course, it was made extremely popular by Waylon and Willie, when they covered it for their iconic 1978 duets album Waylon & Willie.
It ultimately became a country classic, peaking at #1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart later that same year, in addition to reaching the #42 spot on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart.
The pair won a Grammy award for the duet in 1979 for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal.
Lukas and Shooter also previously recorded a duet of the tune for The Ranch theme song.
This particular performance was from Saturday night, as the day was strictly dedicated to the music of the outlaw country legend himself (and Shooter’s dad), Mr. Waylon Jennings, which is totally badass and sounds like my kinda festival.
And seeing these two continue to carry on the legacy of their fathers, which Lukas actually talked about pretty in-depth on the Whiskey Riff Raff podcast not too long ago, is pretty damn cool:
The iconic Waylon and Willie version: