By the time Willie Nelson pulls his bus into Desert Diamond Casino on Jan. 3, the new year will still be sinking in for some and the New Year's Eve hangover will still be pounding for others.
The iconic country music rebel, the elder statesman of country's rougher edges, has stayed away from Tucson just long enough — nearly three years — to make us miss him. He was last here in May 2012, a quick turnaround after bringing his family band with son Lukas Nelson on guitar in March of that year.
On this trip, he's bringing the family back around for a musical stroll through a busting-at-the-seams catalog of perennial favorites from the 81-year-old Nelson's nearly 60-year career. These days it's rare to see Nelson without the family in tow; the whole bunch of them performed on the edge of a Nebraska cornfield in late September with guest Neil Young to protest the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.
Tickets start at $50 and are available at startickets.com or the casino, 1100 W. Pima Mine Road. The show starts at 8 p.m. Jan. 3.
