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\n\tWillie Nelson<\/a> turned 93 on Wednesday, but he\u2019s still not slowing down. Just three days later, on Saturday, May 2, the Red Headed Stranger will headline a concert at the Whitewater Amphitheatre in New Braunfels, Texas. Then he\u2019s off to a string of shows in the southeast before kicking off the 2026 installment of the Outlaw Music Festival Tour<\/a> on July 3.<\/p>\n \n\tNelson will play these gigs despite suffering a string of losses to his road band \u2014 the Family Band \u2014 over the last few years. Guitarist Jody Payne died in 2008, bassist Bee Spears in 2011, and Nelson\u2019s longtime drummer and foil, Paul English<\/a>, passed in 2020. And then there was \u201cSister Bobbie\u201d: Nelson\u2019s piano-playing older sibling Bobbie Nelson left a gaping hole in the Willie ecosystem when she died<\/a> in 2022.<\/p>\n \n\tJohn Spong, host of the One by Willie<\/em> podcast and a contributor to Texas Monthly<\/em>, has his theory for how Nelson carries on through the loss. In a new interview on Rolling Stone<\/em>\u2019s Nashville Now<\/em> podcast, Spong says Nelson\u2019s perseverance is a \u201cspiritual\u201d endeavor, especially when it pertains to Bobbie.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI cannot imagine how much he misses her, but I also can\u2019t imagine that he doesn\u2019t feel her with him when he\u2019s doing it,\u201d Spong says.<\/p>\n \n\tSpong, a Willie scholar who\u2019s interviewed the country music legend countless times and has helped rank his albums for Texas Monthly<\/em>, gets emotional when he thinks about the fallen Family band members.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI don\u2019t want to get too goofy about it, but I don\u2019t think [Willie\u2019s] doing it for them. I think in a real way he\u2019s doing it with<\/em> them,\u201d he says. \u201cStill.\u201d<\/p>\n