Stab Magazine | Mama Don’t Let Your Surfers Grow Up To Be Babies

Live Now: Cheat Codes With Coco Ho

2694 Views

Mama Don’t Let Your Surfers Grow Up To Be Babies

Son of Willie Nelson, good bud of Matt Meola, Lukas Nelson keeps it real in the water, and the spotlight.

style // Jan 20, 2018
Words by Stab
Reading Time: 5 minutes

“I’ve never really been anywhere in my life for more than three months at a time,” says Lukas Nelson.

Post-soundcheck, with a few minutes to kill chatting, we’re backstage at a Native American casino in the San Diego high desert.

“We’ve always been traveling here or there, for one thing or another. It’s just kind of the lifestyle.”

Which makes sense. His father’s the man that penned “On The Road Again.”

Son of country music legend Willie Nelson, Lukas spent his formative years on Maui, picking guitar, surfing Hookipa and wandering the Valley Isle’s hills with good friend, Matt Meola. They met in Montessori school and have been thick as thieves ever since.

The families have grown tight over the years. The Nelsons have helped in launching the music career of Matt’s sister, Lily, who has the voice of an angel, and appears on a duet with Willie on a recent album.

 

When asked if he calls his haunts around Paia home, Lukas notes, “Maui feels like the most relaxing place I can go. I can really find my breath again. If I feel like I’ve lost something along the way, or gotten so caught up in the mental stuff, with all of the business and music things—you’re kind of forced to be lost in it to a point—it’s nice to be able to go somewhere like Maui, where you can just kind of slowly let it go.”

That sentiment is echoed a lot by Hawaii’s most accomplished surfers. From the Irons brothers when they were at the zenith of their careers, to John John Florence, Carissa Moore, Ian Walsh, Kai Lenny, you name it. Over the years they’ve all noted that life on the road is great and hugely rewarding, but ain’t no place like the aina.

One of the allures, especially for the talent found on the outer islands, is that places like Paia and Princeville offer refuge where one can really hone their craft. Andy and Bruce were just rural, almost sheltered outer-island kids…until they took on the world and won. On Maui, guys like Kai, Ian, Albee Layer, Clay Marzo and the recently wounded Dusty Payne all had the freedom to explore their surfing without a million cameras around all the time.

“Matt and I surfed a lot,” Lukas tells me. “I’ve always been able to hold my own surfing, but I think he chose surfing as his passion and I fell in love with the music. We both have been successful with what we do, in our own ways, and I think that’s a testament to Maui’s energetic vortex and creativity. You have a lot of room to really learn and work—work on yourself—and grow. It’s easier to work on your skills when there’s nobody watching.”

https://player.vimeo.com/video/167234009

And work on his skills he has. When he was 11 years old, he wrote his first song, “You Were It.” His dad reckoned it was so good, he recorded it and put it on his next album.

Kris Kristofferson (the singer songwriter behind “Me and Bobby Mcgee”) told Lukas he should write more songs. So he did.

As a kid, the experience traveling with luminaries such as Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings left indelible prints on his soul.

“I was just around them, and I guess I absorbed their energy in my own way,” he says, his eyes watering up from honey-sweet memories. “I didn’t understand really how important they were until much later. I guess it was just normal for me. But now I realize I was pretty blessed to be around some amazing people. I’m lucky.”

Lucky indeed. Their collective spirits are clearly infused in his music. In 2009, Lukas formed his band, Promise of the Real, and promptly became the backing sound for Neil Young. This year, they will be hitting the road with Neil for select dates, while Lukas and The Promise of the Real have a self-titled album that’s sitting atop the Americana Radio Chart.

 

Lukas 5

“To me, finding music as a way of life is like finding God,” he says, serious as a preacher. “It’s like a religion or a spiritual way of life. It’s a way of taking your pain and changing it into something productive and good and artistic and creative and beautiful. If you get exposed to it at a young age, and you’re open, and you want to be happy—music is kind of the easiest avenue to happiness. If you can find a way to make a living playing music, I mean, you’re a lucky person.”

Photography

Nick Ricca

He just finished a movie project with Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper. And, of course, there’s the 20 or 30 shows a year he does with “Dad.” All of this on top of playing an upwards of 250 live shows a year.

“It’s just a constant,” he says. “There’s a lot of everything. We just finished the movie, with Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper, and we’re in it. It’s called ‘A Star Is Born.’ It’s a remake. I wrote a lot of the music and produced a lot of the music with Gaga. Our band is the backing band in the movie. That’s coming out in October.”

It’s not hard to get lost in the spotlight, or tripped up kicking out the footlights, but Lukas is grounded, grateful and gracious. He knows he’s been dealt a good hand. 

“To me, finding music as a way of life is like finding God,” he says, serious as a preacher. “It’s like a religion or a spiritual way of life. It’s a way of taking your pain and changing it into something productive and good and artistic and creative and beautiful. If you get exposed to it at a young age, and you’re open, and you want to be happy—music is kind of the easiest avenue to happiness. If you can find a way to make a living playing music, I mean, you’re a lucky person.”

He’s acknowledges that surfing serves a similar function, although admittedly he’s been playing a lot more golf lately. Dad got him into the game and he’s been hitting the links hard.

“I have an extreme passion for golfing,” confides Lukas, as if it’s a dirty secret. “I’m working on becoming a scratch golfer. I’ll surf any chance I can get, but in this last six months, if I have free time I’m golfing.”

The comparison to Kelly Slater hangs in the air. Both Lukas and Kelly possess freakish talent in their chosen fields, comparable talent in each other’s (Kelly, guitar; Lukas; surfing) and both retreat to golf as soon as the opportunity allows.

“I’m a huge fan of golf as a meditation,” Lukas says. “Kelly and I have a lot in common in that way. For me, it’s a way of slowing down. Surfing is that same thing for me. They both occupy a similar space in my mind. I love surfing. Every time I go surfing I’m happy I did.”

Lukas’s drummer, Anthony LoGerfo, is a Southern California native that keeps a condo in San Clemente, above Trestles, and just recently moved to Ventura to be closer to the area’s myriad hollow beachbreaks. He’s a “big surfer,” Lukas says proudly of his bandmate.

“I love Trestles,” he adds. “I’ll surf Hookipa on Maui. Any break on Maui is fine with me, unless it’s 20 or 30 feet. I love to surf anywhere I can. Malibu. I’ll go up there sometimes. I’m going to record a new record up there soon, so I imagine there will be a lot of surfing coming up. Rincon’s so close too. We’ll go surf everywhere together.”

We’re winding down the conversation, and Lukas pauses as his phone lights up. “Hold on,” he apologizes. “ Somebody’s blowing me up.”

“Hey Dad,” he answers.

They’re quickly lost in conversation. They talk bending strings, splitting fairways.

“Can’t wait to play tonight, love ya, Dad,” he says, hanging up the phone and heading for the tour bus.

As it’s been said, the road goes on forever and the party never ends.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/dK4pHHLfXpk

 

Comments

Comments are a Stab Premium feature. Gotta join to talk shop.

Already a member? Sign In

Want to join? Sign Up

Advertisement

Most Recent

From ‘Blue Ribbon Cross Country Runner’ to Vogue – How Steph Again Is Back With A Rip Curl Remix

Everything we know about the she-GOATs sponsorship boomerang.

Mar 18, 2024

Stab Interview: Darren Handley On Why You Can’t Buy The Winning Stab In The Dark Model

And his decades-long standoff with Slater.

Mar 17, 2024

Griff Embraces Portugal’s Eternal Time Loop To Vanquish Medina + Ewing, Defay Delays The Inevitable

A redeeming closing act at Supertubos.

Mar 16, 2024

The Secret Behind Lungi Slabb’s Inconceivable Greenmount Funnel

Six broken boards, one leaking forehead, and five days of Superbank mysticism.

Mar 16, 2024

Cheat Codes: 2,000 Hours Worth Of Travel Advice From Coco Ho

Hard-earned wisdom from 989,000 miles in the troposphere.

Mar 15, 2024

Dane Reynolds On The Best + Worst Surfboard He’s Designed, Why The ‘Neckbeard’ Is A Misnomer, And How To Appear Cultured When Sizing Up A New Stick

Plus, an introduction to the newly-minted CI Dumpster Diver 2.

Mar 14, 2024

The Most Cinematic Surf Film Since ‘View From A Blue Moon?’

The best wave of Noah Beschen's life at sinister Chopes and 540s with Tyler, The…

Mar 13, 2024

Watch: ‘Vacation 2’ Presented By Monster Energy

Stab Highway Europe winners visit House of Somos, Costa Rica.

Mar 13, 2024

DHD Wins Stab In The Dark With Kolohe Andino

Plus, which Orwellian Premium members best prophesied our Stab In The Dark winners?

Mar 12, 2024

The Shortest Day At Supertubos

Early bird gets the skunk.

Mar 12, 2024

Watch: Kelly Slater Bails On Onshore Portugal, Gets Supertubed at Kirra Instead

“No ski. No runarounds. No snaps.”

Mar 12, 2024

Rumor: 8x World Champion Stephanie Gilmore To Leave Roxy For Another Legacy Surf Brand

The woman who Kelly Slater called 'God's gift to surfing' ignites a bidding war.

Mar 12, 2024

The Longest Day At Supertubos

Much to love, little to hate.

Mar 12, 2024

Joel Parkinson, Jay Davies, And Mark Zuckerberg Jog Into A Jingoistic Surf Biathlon…

An American's POV of the Australian Boardriders Battle.

Mar 11, 2024

No SuperToobs Today, But We’ll Never Turn Down A Rippable Wedge

Any port in a storm.

Mar 10, 2024

The Serendipitous Tale Of A Barnacle-Encrusted 10’0” That Survived 300 Days + 700kms On The East Australia Current

Paddy Power’s big wave gun was lost at Wedding Cake Island, Sydney and collected (by…

Mar 10, 2024

Was Fiji Last Week As Special As The Thundercloud Swell Of 2012?

“I’ve never seen so many people get so many good ones,” said 2023 SSOTY Nathan…

Mar 9, 2024

SEOTY: Hughie Vaughan Discovered A New Wave In Indonesia — But He Doesn’t Know Where It Is

Watch 'Nibbler' — the 17-year-old's bite-sized 2024 Stab Edit of The Year entry.

Mar 9, 2024
Advertisement