The “Old Gal” Willie Nelson Considers His All-Time Best Friend: “When Everybody Else Is Against You, She’s Usually There”

When you’ve been around for as long as Willie Nelson has, you’re liable to meet countless friends, acquaintances, bandmates, and even enemies, but Nelson only calls one person in his life his all-time best friend. Just when you thought the country star couldn’t get more wholesome, it gets better.

Nelson talked about his best friend during a May 2023 interview with Sammy Hagar as part of Hagar’s “Rock & Roll Road Trip” series. The two music industry vets talked over a cup of coffee in Nelson’s tour bus, which is when Nelson revealed his heartwarming answer to who he considers his best friend.

Willie Nelson’s All-Time Best Friend

So many interviewers talk about Willie Nelson’s age, his musical legacy, and his affinity for marijuana, which is what made Sammy Hagar’s best friend question so refreshing. Looking at a piece of paper on the tour bus dinette, Hagar said, “I wrote down a bunch of crazy questions here, but, you know, just talking to you is an honor. But—who’s your best friend in this world today?”

Nelson’s eyes widened at the unusual question, but it didn’t take him long to come up with an answer. “Probably the old gal back there, you know,” Nelson replied, pointing toward the back of the tour bus. “Ann Marie.” When Hagar commented that he should start saying the same thing about his wife, Nelson said, “Well, it’s true. When everybody else is against you, she’s usually there, [telling] you what you want to hear,” Nelson laughed.

Hagar asked Nelson how the country star managed to outlive so many of his other friends. Nelson replied, “I wonder that myself. I keep hearing about ‘em dying every day. All these old, good buddies of mine. I don’t know why I’m still here. I haven’t done anything extraordinary to stay here.”

Willie and Annie’s Touching Love Story

As sweet as Willie Nelson and Ann Marie D’Angelo’s love story seems today, it didn’t start without conflict. Nelson is nothing if not a true outlaw country star, and that type of man proved hard to pin down from the 1950s to the late 1980s. Nelson had been married three times before marrying D’Angelo in 1991. He was still with his third wife, Connie Koepke, when he fell for D’Angelo, who was working as a makeup artist on the set of one of Nelson’s films.

“My love for Annie was all-consuming,” Nelson recalled in Me and Sister Bobbie. “But winning her over wasn’t easy. She had to be sure my marriage was over. She didn’t care about me being a celebrity, she was whip-smart, with a keen appreciation for all forms of art. It didn’t hurt that she was pretty and radiated enough energy to light up any room she entered. She also had a sharp political sense. Later, she’d be a great partner in pushing the progressive causes so important to me.”

Nelson later described D’Angelo as his “pet rattler” in a May 2023 interview with People. “She’s my lover, my wife, nurse, doctor, bodyguard.” And, according to his conversation with Sammy Hagar that same month, his very best friend.

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