With ‘American Romance,' Lukas Nelson steps into a new chapter of his career, releasing his first solo album and debut project under Sony Music Nashville. Known for his genre-crossing sound and heartfelt lyricism, Nelson uses this record to explore the emotional and physical terrain of a life spent on the road. Across twelve tracks, including collaborations with Sierra Ferrell and Stephen Wilson Jr., the album captures moments of reflection, growth, and longing, all anchored by Nelson’s signature storytelling. The lead single, ‘Ain’t Done,' draws inspiration from George Harrison’s ‘All Things Must Pass,' setting the tone for a record rich in themes of impermanence and self-discovery.
Over the past decade, Nelson has earned his place as a standout voice in Americana, with a string of acclaimed releases including 2023’s ‘Sticks and Stones.' His career has been marked by a spirit of collaboration and a constant evolution—whether performing with genre legends, co-writing for A Star Is Born, or recently sharing the stage with Sierra Ferrell at the MusiCares 2025 Gala. With ‘American Romance,' Nelson offers a deeply personal tribute to the diners, highways, and heartaches that shaped him, reaffirming his role as one of the most genuine and dynamic artists in modern American music. We were thrilled to catch up with him to talk all about it.
Thank you for your time Lukas – it's lovely to talk to you today about your new album, what a fantastic project and listen that is!
Thank you – I appreciate it. I'm proud of it too.
It has been billed as a solo project and your debut with Sony Music Nashville – what inspired you to take this pathway and go in this direction at this point in your career?
I've been doing the same thing with the same musicians for a long time now. Actually, Corey McCormick from Promise of the Real is still playing with me. But really, with Promise of the Real I could see that those musicians were meant to be Neil Young's band – it was all born out of our love for Neil.
I wrote the songs and brought the creative material to the band – it was all rock n roll influenced and there's a certain nostalgia to that but I felt like I wanted to move forward in this next phase and the name Promise of the Real would still have a lot of those Neil Young fans there and people who wouldn't let me move on and do something different, so it felt like a good time to change. It's the same situation, it's all my songs, all my music and I'm still going to play those songs live – I just felt like the name tied me into something that I didn't want to be right now.
The album opens with ‘Ain't Done' which is a deeply spiritual song. I know you've mentioned George Harrison's influence on you on this song. How does that track shape the emotional foundation of the songs that follow it?
It was one of the first ones we recorded in the studio. When those violins come in and the chorus goes down….. it's a very cinematic feeling that I think sets the tone for the rest of the album. We were able to explore those sonic themes throughout the rest of the songs and I credit Shooter Jennings a lot for that.
Shooter has worked with some great musicians and has a style all of his own. How did his approach as producer and your vision for what you wanted coalesce together?
His real job, which he did so well, was to capture sonically a modern interpretation of these songs. I wanted them to compete sonically with what's out there in the world right now. I wanted to be able to hear a Morgan Wallen song and then have one of mine play and them be competitive. Shooter has the ability to understand the levels and what it takes to do that. What I brought to the project was the songs themselves and my performances. I felt very relaxed in the studio and we saw eye to eye throughout the whole project.
Regardless of our upbringings, we both grew up listening to a lot of the same music.
You wrote ‘Ain't Done' with Aaron Raitiere who we are big fans of. Were there any other writers that you connected with whilst putting this album together?
Yes. John Decious, Nate Ferraro, Delaney Ramsdell – this was the first album that I've actually had co-writers on! Every other album I've ever done I've written myself. When I was with Promise of the Real I negotiated royalty splits for them because I was trying to take care of them and I wanted them to get paid. They did help with the arrangements so I wanted to make sure they got paid.
Did you find co-writing easy?
Yeah. I like both. How I like to approach it is to have an idea to bring to the writer. Having a couple of other heads in the room helps to focus the direction of travel and it helps to keep everything real – if the other people in the room think an idea or a song is good it kinda gives you the confidence to move forward with it.
You also collaborated with Sierra Ferrel and Stephen Wilson JR too. What drew you to their voices and their styles that made you want to work with them?
My friend, Brooke Lee, who is also a terrific up and coming artist, introduced me to Stephen's music and then I found out that we happen to have a lot of mutual friends. His manager manages Lily Meola who is another artist that I really love. We connected and started writing together – we wrote a bunch of songs and this one and ‘Disappearing Light' kinda rose to the top as being our favourites.
Anderson East produced ‘Disappearing Light' didn't he? We talked to him about his new album very recently. What was it like working with him?
I love working with Anderson. I know we are going to do it a lot in the future. We actually had five or six songs that we did so we have a lot to release at some point, he's great.
When I'm listening to the album it feels like either a soundtrack to a film or the great American novel! It's that cinematic. There's a strong sense of place and journey running through it – how were the ideas and lyrics inspired by your time out on the road?
You nailed it. That's what I was inspired by when putting the songs together. If you ever read someone like John Steinbeck or watch the films of Sam Peckinpah – that's where the inspirations for the songs came from. I'm a really big fan of capturing real experiences and making them into literature and then songs.
I had a lot of experience to draw from. I was raised on the road by the silos and diners of America, right?
And nature too, yes? Your descriptions of that seem to play a big role in songs like ‘Friend in the End.'
Oh, everyday nature inspires me. It's pretty awe inspiring to see how the natural world unfolds and cradles us in its bosom even thought we dump trash all over it.
It's a very lyrically heavy album and I mean that as a compliment. There are no songs about trucks and beer and short shorts on ‘American Romance' are there? This is an album designed to make people think but also to make them tap their toes and sing along to at the same time.
Oh my god! You just nailed exactly what I wanted to do all my entire career! (laughing) That's all I wanna do – make people dance and think at the same time – maybe, actually, help them to not think for a little while and then let it sink in and think later.
You can't listen to tracks like ‘Montana' and ‘Born Running Out of Time' with there being some after effects and thinking going on, surely?
‘Montana' is just a love song but the melody brings out an emotional weight – I want people to feel more than think, actually, that's my goal. I want them to feel a certain thing and go back and read or digest the lyrics.
It's like when you look at a painting for a long time – when you first look at it you just feel something and then after a while some of the little details begin to reveal themselves and they make you think about it even more. That's what I'm trying to do on this album.
Talking about feeling things – you've chosen to end the album with ‘You Were It' which is the most raw, stripped back song on the album. That song wasn't going to go anywhere else, was it?
No – that was the first song I ever wrote! It could have been the first track or the last but we decided on the last. I was on a school bus on my way to school when I heard this music playing in my head and then the lyrics started coming to me. I was probably about eleven years old and going through a lot, personally, at the time.
My dad heard it and put it on one of his old albums which gave me the confidence to write some more. Kris Kristofferson came down and said that I was going to be a songwriter when he heard this song! All these things kinda led me down this path and I felt like I had a purpose and a sense of meaning in life so it was an important song for me.
You played a show at Chief's on Broadway during CMA Fest week – that's a lovely performance space that Eric Church has created there. What's been the favourite venue that you've played at in your career so far?
That's a good question – there's been so many places. Internationally, there's a place in Sweden called Dalhalla and it's a meteor crater which they made into a limestone quarry. There's a pool backstage and you can take a little boat and go around it! The audience sits outdoors, surrounded by a dense forest!
Red Rocks in Colorado is always great although it can be cold depending upon the time of year you play it. The Gorge in Washington is fantastic. Hollywood Bowl in L.A. is one of my favourite places to play because it's a great setting – a goal of mine would be to sell out the bowl one day!
Go check out Lukas Nelson's fantastic new album ‘American Romance' which is out today! You can find our review of it right here.
