Orville Peck brings Willie Nelson to the stage for gay cowboy serenade at ACL Fest

At Austin City Limits Music Festival on Sunday, Willie Nelson joined rising star Orville Peck on the gay cowboy anthem “Cowboys Are Frequently Secretly Fond of Each Other.”  The song inspired Peck’s 2024 duets album “Stampede,” he said at ACL Fest.

"Someone asked me if I wanted to do a duet with him, and he's from right here in Texas," Peck said. Cheers from the crowd began to rise as the Austin country music legend made his way to the stage. Peck performed the song last year at the celebration of Willie’s 90th birthday at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles , but "we've never performed the song together live before," he said.

Peck took the lead on the vocals as Willie, sang support, the power of his presence pushing Peck to new heights. The crowd roared as the song came to a conclusion. As the Red-Headed Stranger made his way from the stage, a chant of "Willie! Willie! Willie!" exploded through the crowd. Peck beamed across the sweltering field.

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This is not the first time Willie Nelson has serenaded gay cowboys

Nelson, who acquired a tape of the Ned Sublette original in the mid-to-late '80s, first covered the song in 2006, around the same time as the movie “Brokeback Mountain” was drumming up Oscar buzz. Willie’s song “He Was a Friend of Mine” is on the soundtrack. He debuted the song on the "Howard Stern Show" on Valentine’s Day of that year.

He released the song, in part, to support his manager, David Anderson, who had recently revealed he was gay.

"This song obviously has special meaning to me in more ways than one," Anderson told the Dallas Morning News at the time. "I want people to know more than anything — gay, straight, whatever — just how cool Willie is and ... his way of thinking, his tolerance, everything about him."

Nelson has been a long-time supporter of gay rights

As the drumbeat of calls for marriage equality grew louder in the mid-2010s, Willie Nelson raised his voice in support of the cause.

“I never thought about marriage as something only for men and women. Gay people should be just as miserable as the rest of us [laughs]. Love doesn't discriminate, and it shouldn't be discriminated against,” he told Seattle publication The Stranger right before the marriage equality amendment passed in 2015.

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Nelson has long been a supporter of all human rights, but the issue of gay rights is personal to him. Willie’s nephew, Michael Fletcher, son of his sibling and closest friend Bobbie Nelson, was a gay man who died at the height of the AIDS epidemic in 1989. The siblings dedicated the 1996 gospel album “How Great Thou Art” to Michael.

Willie Nelson is in town for the 50th anniversary of 'Austin City Limits'

Willie, who reshaped our city with his iconoclastic approach to music, is in town to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the date he taped the first episode of the festival's namesake television show on Oct. 17, 1974. "ACL" will celebrate will a big party on the Long Center Lawn next week . Free tickets to the public were assigned via lottery and for music fans who missed out on passes, there will be a livestream that kicks off at 7 p.m. at aclturns50.com .

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Orville Peck brings Willie Nelson to the stage for gay cowboy serenade at ACL Fest