Willie Nelson’s son backs another legend: Neil Young

Micah Nelson is the son of legendary country singer-songwriter Willie Nelson, and he was raised around great musicians. But he admits that he’s still somewhat starstruck by Neil Young.

Nelson and his brother Lukas are members of Promise of the Real, a California-based rock group that has served as Young’s backing band on his ongoing tour, which lands at the Arena on Friday.

“You daydream about that for so long that there’s this designated, lucid space in your subconscious,” Nelson said. “Then it actually happens in waking life, and there’s this cognitive dissonance that occurs. It’s like, is this real life? I ask myself that all the time these days.”

Young has been a longtime family acquaintance of the Nelsons. He even co-founded Farm Aid, the annual concert benefiting independent farmers, with Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp in 1985.

“We grew up on his music, so he’s always been a hero of ours and we’ve looked to him forever,” Micah Nelson said. “Neil had always been supportive and started getting connected with us and wanted to hang out. We’d have these hangs on his bus and connect musically, just as people, and we started becoming friends.”

At last year’s Farm Aid, Promise of the Real performed with Young for the first time on his iconic song “Rockin’ in the Free World,” and they all felt an immediate creative spark.

“It just felt natural,” Nelson recalled. “It was really easy to get out of our way and jam. We were playing and singing along with one of our idols, but at the same time, it felt like we were just hanging out with one of our best friends in the garage.”

Young recruited Promise of the Real as the backing band on his most recent album, “The Monsanto Years,” an experience Nelson describes as open, collaborative and inspiring.

“He didn’t really tell us what to do,” Nelson said. “It felt like we were all band members. He would always be open to new ideas. Neil always follows the muse wherever it takes him.

“He’s one of the most fearless people − not just creatively, but in life. And that gets me excited to make music with him. … I don’t take it for granted for a second, and I’m just enjoying the hell out of everything.”

“The Monsanto Years” is one of the most nakedly aggressive protest albums Young has ever produced, and his lyrics put major corporations – especially Starbucks and the agrochemical Monsanto Company – in his activist cross hairs.

“I want a cup of coffee, but I don’t want a GMO,” Young quips on the track “A Rock Star Bucks a Coffee Shop.” “Let our farmers grow what they want to grow.” On the album’s title tune, Young laments the use of pesticides: “Roundup comes and brings / The poison tide of Monsanto.”

“I think it very much is a protest album,” Nelson said. “Some people might say that in a condescending or derogatory way, but I think it’s just as important, if not more so, than any of the other albums he’s made that were all love songs. He’s always written protest music. Look at ‘Ohio’ or ‘Southern Man.’ That’s part of his spirit that comes through, his passion and willingness to speak out.

“The songs on this record were really about the message, but we really wanted them to be musically engaging, too.”

Several tracks from “Monsanto Years” will be present on the current live set list, but Young isn’t shying away from the classics on this tour.

“It’s an equal balance of old and new,” Nelson said. “We basically learned a hundred songs from Neil’s catalog, including the new stuff. … He comes out and his first four songs are his top hits, and at that point he could sing about his pet lizard or the ‘Happy Birthday’ song, and people would be present and listening. By the time we get in the ‘Monsanto Years’ songs, everyone’s there and everyone’s with us. It’s all one song, and it all flows.”