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CNN Live Event/Special
CNN Special Event Farm Aid 40. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired September 21, 2025 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(01:00:00)
(WILLIE NELSON & FAMILY SINGING "I NEVER CARED FOR YOU")
(APPLAUSE)
WILLIE NELSON, AMERICAN SINGER AND GUITARIST: Thank you.
(WILLIE NELSON & FAMILY SINGING "ANGEL FLYING TOO CLOSE TO THE GROUND")
(APPLAUSE)
NELSON: Thank you. Thank you all.
We'd like to invite Lily Meola out here. Great talent. She's a golden buzzer winner, and she's going to sing our (INAUDIBLE). We're going to do a song together. Lily Meola.
[01:05:00]
(WILLIE NELSON & FAMILY SINGING "WILL YOU REMEMBER MINE")
(APPLAUSE)
NELSON: Lily Meola.
LILY MEOLA, SINGER-SONGWRITER: Thank you.
(APPLAUSE)
(WILLIE NELSON & FAMILY SINGING "ON THE ROAD AGAIN")
(APPLAUSE)
NELSON: Thank you. Got Mickey over there playing the harmonica. Billy back on the drums.
[01:10:01]
Kevin over there somewhere. There you are. And we got Waylon over there. This is my son, Lukas, right here. And another son of mine, Micah, over here. So let's do "Just Breathe."
(WILLIE NELSON & FAMILY SINGING "JUST BREATHE")
(APPLAUSE)
NELSON: Thank you.
(WILLIE NELSON & FAMILY SINGING "MAMMAS DON'T LET YOUR BABIES GROW UP TO BE COWBOYS")
[01:15:00]
(WILLIE NELSON & FAMILY SINGING "MAMMAS DON'T LET YOUR BABIES GROW UP TO BE COWBOYS")
(APPLAUSE)
NELSON: All right. Thank you.
(WILLIE NELSON & FAMILY SINGING "GEORGIA ON MY MIND")
[01:20:00]
(WILLIE NELSON & FAMILY SINGING "GEORGIA ON MY MIND")
(APPLAUSE)
NELSON: Thank you.
Waylon, play that song your mom, Sammi Smith, had that big hit on.
WAYLON PAGE, WILLIE NELSON & FAMILY BAND MEMBER: Yes, sir.
(WILLIE NELSON & FAMILY SINGING "HELP ME MAKE IT THROUGH THE NIGHT")
NELSON: That's the one, yes.
(WILLIE NELSON & FAMILY SINGING "HELP ME MAKE IT THROUGH THE NIGHT")
[01:25:00]
(WILLIE NELSON & FAMILY SINGING "HELP ME MAKE IT THROUGH THE NIGHT")
(APPLAUSE)
NELSON: All right. We've been watching way too much TV lately, so we did a little review on it. Could you tell them about it, Micah?
MICAH NELSON, YOUNGEST SON OF WILLIE NELSON: It's a love song, sing along.
NELSON: Yes. You all sing along.
(WILLIE NELSON & FAMILY SINGING "EVERYTHING IS BULLSHIT")
[01:30:00]
(WILLIE NELSON & FAMILY SINGING "EVERYTHING IS BULLSHIT")
(APPLAUSE) (WILLIE NELSON & FAMILY SINGING "LAST LEAF")
[01:35:00]
(WILLIE NELSON & FAMILY SINGING "LAST LEAF")
(APPLAUSE)
NELSON: Thank you. Thank you all very much.
(WILLIE NELSON & FAMILY SINGING "ROLL ME UP AND SMOKE ME WHEN I DIE")
(APPLAUSE)
NELSON: I hear you. Thank you all very much.
(WILLIE NELSON & FAMILY SINGING "WILL THE CIRCLE BE UNBROKEN")
NELSON: All right, thank you.
[01:40:40]
(WILLIE NELSON & FAMILY SINGING "I'LL FLY AWAY")
NELSON: Thank you. You all got time for one more?
CROWD: (CHEERING)
(WILLIE NELSON & FAMILY SINGING "IT'S HARD TO BE HUMBLE")
(APPLAUSE)
NELSON: Thank you all very much. That was great. Thank you all.
[01:45:01]
Happy Farm Aid Number 40. Thank you all for coming out and helping is make it a big, huge success.
(APPLAUSE & CHEERING)
NELSON: Thank you. Thank you very much.
All right.
(WILLIE NELSON & FAMILY SINGING "I SAW THE LIGHT")
NELSON: Thank all you all. Thank you very much. You bet (ph).
Thank you, Charles (ph). And thank you all. Hope you had a good day.
(APPLAUSE & CHEERING)
(MUSIC)
JOHN BERMAN, CNN HOST: ?There he is, Willie Nelson, 92 years young, walking off the stage after his 40th Farm Aid. Farm Aid at 40, Willie Nelson, what a show he just put on for these tens of thousands of people who waited. Some of them 12 hours today, all day long, to see it come to an end tonight.
LAURA COATES, CNN HOST: And everyone came back on stage too. All the artists' pure reverence and respect for Willie Nelson and what they have all accomplished collectively for the past 40 years in the name of farmers, in the name of the nation, and trying to make sure that we could all be better for it.
And what an amazing -- that was almost an hour long set that was done by Willie Nelson and his family, bookmarked by his sons. Did I see Daryl Hannah on that stage as well?
THOM DUFFY, SENIOR EDITOR, BILLBOARD: I'm not sure. I wouldn't be surprised.
COATES: It was amazing to do that. You had Neil Young there at the end. You had everyone coming out as well. Talk to us about this culmination. The set changed a little bit in terms of what you've seen in the past years.
DUFFY: It has with the addition of a song called "Last Leaf on the Tree," and the idea is, you know, when I'm gone, I'll be hearing a song. And that's not a direct quote, but that's a beautiful, beautiful thought. And this has just been a remarkable day. And, you know, there are an awful lot of farmers here.
COATES: Yes.
DUFFY: Tomorrow, they go back to the land. Tomorrow, we choose where to get our food and, you know.
BERMAN: Let's get down to Bill Weir, who's been backstage for this entire show, witnessing it from this really the best seat in the house. Bill, how about that?
BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: You know, John, I've been to a zillion concerts and I've felt all kinds of emotions over the years, but I got so moved by that "Last Leaf on the Tree" song, also "Just Breathe." You know, Willie Nelson didn't hit until relatively late in life.
You know, he spent the 50s and 60s writing songs, wrote, "Hello Walls" and "Crazy" by Patsy Cline. It wasn't until the 70s when he went into outlaw country that he really blew up, and really, I think cherished the -- his fandom in a whole new way.
[01:50:10]
But imagine all the art this guy has given the world over those years, the goodwill that these people had and that every time they pan the audience, you could see people tearing up. How was it? You guys like it?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey.
WEIR: Good times?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, there.
WEIR: Hey, how are you? Good to see you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's so great. It was so great.
WEIR: It was good?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was so great.
WEIR: It was so good?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That was awesome.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He is a (INAUDIBLE) for the modern day --
WEIR: Very good.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- issues.
WEIR: Did you get choked up by Willie there a little bit.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, that was very good.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you kidding me?
WEIR: Oh yes.
And but then the way he pivoted it from "Last Leaf on the Tree" immediately into "Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die." And everybody, the tears turned to laughter. It's just the full range of human emotion from this American treasure.
Sorry, I'm gushing about Willie. But as you can see, happy, smiling faces pouring out of here, Farm Aid 40. Who knows how many of these, you know, Willie & Family have left in them. But Micah and Lukas, those apples don't fall far from the tree musically.
Any thoughts? Any reviews?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Fabulous. Best concert I've been (INAUDIBLE)
WEIR: (INAUDIBLE).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The -- on the "Last Leaf on the Tree."
WEIR: Isn't that beautiful?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Beautiful. My dad's 92, also born in 1933. His birthday was yesterday. So --
WEIR: Bless.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He loves Willie.
WEIR: Well, my late father loved Willie and I was just weeping, thinking about how much he would've been --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So that was my favorite. Yes.
WEIR: Thanks for sharing it with us.
Oh, there you go. We're still a little of a clamped over here, but we'll kick it back to you. Thanks for letting me take part in this. It's been a blast.
BERMAN: Bill, it's been so great.
COATES: Yes. So much fun.
BERMAN: Watching it through your eyes there backstage with all the fans, all the great musicians. 92 is the new 40, as they say. That's Willie Nelson tonight.
WEIR: Absolutely.
BERMAN: You know, everyone of this crowd, they were here for the farmers, but I think they were also here for Willie Nelson.
COATES: They were. And of course this show was dynamite. It was all day. We showed you really a sliver of what has been devoted to the Farm Aid cause. 40 years in the making and showing no signs of slowing down. Much like the farmers, frankly.
BERMAN: Yes.
COATES: Who we know are the true stars of the show. Why? Because they really are the future. They are the providers. They are those who keep us whole, fed, and of course fulfilled. And we love that we're honoring them.
BERMAN: And we do. We got a couple with us right now.
COATES: Yes.
BERMAN: That we are just so happy you're here. Nathan Ryder, the Ryder Family Farm from Illinois, and we have Anna Pesek, Over the Moon Farm in Iowa.
And I have to say really, Anna, in some ways like the next generation. We were talking before about how many farmers aren't young anymore. They're aging out and they're not being replaced. But here you are and you're looking toward the future.
ANNA PESEK, CO-OWNER, OVER THE MOON FARM & FLOWERS: Yes. The average age of a farmer in Iowa is 57.5. I'm 30 and I've been farming since I was about 21, so certainly the next generation. COATES: What is that like knowing that there has been this need for Farm Aid for the past four decades and still a need even to this day? Do you ever get discouraged and how do you turn around to continue to stay the course?
PESEK: I would not be farming and I would not be involved in farm activism if it weren't for the organizations like Farm Aid that came out of the farm crisis in the 1980s. I am me, I am farming because of organizations like the National Family Farm Coalition that was born out of the farm crisis from the Family Farm Defenders, from Practical Farmers of Iowa, and I have had the immense privilege and honor for the last decade of my life to be immersed in those groups and to know the stories of the farmer activism that was born out of the 80s and before. And to feel a responsibility to carry those stories forward and to continue advocating for a better food and farm system in my own work.
COATES: Yes.
BERMAN: Oh, I'm sorry. I mean, I was going to say, Nathan, you're a first generation farmer.
NATHAN RYDER, FARMER AND OWNER, RYDER FAMILY FARM: Yes.
BERMAN: We don't hear that much.
RYDER: No.
BERMAN: So what got you into the business? And talk to us about what Farm Aid has meant for you.
RYDER: Yes. Well, it was working in the corporate world and my wife and I were starting to have kids and we wanted to have a better life for them. And we had this desire to grow and produce the most healthy, wholesome food that we could. And so it started on a very small plot in our suburban backyard. And then our neighbors were like, you guys are too good at this. You're like feeding your neighbors too. You need to be professionals.
So we decided, OK, let's ditch the corporate jobs and let's try to be farmers. So yes, it's been tough being a first generation farmer without having access to land, without having equipment to get into, you know, without having somebody to show you the ropes. It's a big challenge.
And we need to do everything we can to help support those first generation farmers, or the younger generation that's coming up to take the reins of our farmers who really need to retire. Like they should have that opportunity to retire.
[01:55:12]
COATES: That's why this must be so uplifting to have this community of people who are replacing that institutional knowledge and infusing it and realizing just how broad it really needs to be because really it's truly a rising tide lifting all boats. PESEK: I really appreciate what you said about institutional knowledge. I feel like every time I've come to Farm Aid a few times, and every time I'm here, it's like a family coming together. It's this beautiful intergenerational moment of connection and seeing farmers a good -- farmer friend of mine Larry Harris (ph) and Denise O'Brien (ph), Larry was at the first Farm Aid. They're Iowa farmers.
And so hearing their stories and feeling like we have this opportunity to all come together is really, really special. And it's really uplifting. And, you know, I think earlier in the press conference, we heard our farmer board members talk about how the farm crisis never ended. And it didn't, no.
BERMAN: Nathan, what are you going to take from this night?
RYDER: Well it's huge. I mean, to be able to see the likes of Willie Nelson, who's a legend of course, to Dave Matthews, I mean, great music, great message tonight. A lot of support and love for farming and agriculture, but we can't let down on the fight. We have to keep fighting for what's right for our farmers, and we have to be providing food that's just inequitable for everybody in our country.
BERMAN: Well, I got to say, Nathan and Anna, every artist we've talked to, every artist on that stage would say, you guys are the stars tonight. So thank you for everything you do. This has been all about you and your efforts. We really appreciate it.
RYDER: Thank you.
PESEK: Thank you.
COATES: Thank you so much. Wow.
BERMAN: It has been such a wonderful night for such an important cause. Moments -- I got to say, I'm not going to forget anytime soon.
COATES: No. Any of it.
BERMAN: Best assignment --
COATES: Wonderful.
BERMAN: -- ever, literally.
COATES: In fact, let's just do this from now.
BERMAN: Let's just do this from now on.
COATES: That's fine.
Thank you all so much for joining us for Farm Aid 40 at CNN Special Event. Goodnight from the great city of Minneapolis.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
