About the song
Few voices in American music carry the weight of time, wisdom, and lived experience quite like **Willie Nelson**. With a career that spans more than six decades, Nelson has become something far more than a country singer—he’s a cultural touchstone, a poet of the aging heart, and a quietly profound chronicler of life’s inevitable passages. His 2017 song **“It Gets Easier”**, from the album *God’s Problem Child*, is a poignant meditation on growing older—written not with despair, but with clarity, humility, and even a touch of wry humor.
**Willie Nelson – It Gets Easier** opens with a gentle acoustic guitar and Nelson’s unmistakable voice—weathered, but warm—delivering the kind of lyrical honesty that only comes from someone who has truly lived the life he’s singing about. “It gets easier as we get older,” he begins, but quickly adds the twist: “It gets easier to say ‘not today.’” That duality—between acceptance and resistance, between peace and resignation—is the emotional center of the song.
What makes this track so powerful isn’t just its subject matter, but the way Nelson handles it. There’s no false bravado here, no attempt to mask the realities of aging with sentimentality. Instead, **“It Gets Easier”** is about acknowledging change, confronting mortality, and finding a kind of calm in the face of it all. It’s the voice of someone who’s stopped chasing the rush of youth and instead turned inward, seeking solace in reflection.
Musically, the song is spare and intimate. The arrangement leaves plenty of space for Nelson’s signature phrasing—loose, conversational, almost like a friend sitting across the kitchen table sharing thoughts over morning coffee. The pedal steel and understated rhythm guitar serve only to support, never to intrude, letting the lyrics and vocal delivery take center stage.
For older listeners especially, **Willie Nelson – It Gets Easier** feels less like a performance and more like a quiet confession. It’s a song that meets you where you are—whether that’s facing physical changes, letting go of old ambitions, or simply learning how to slow down. But there’s grace in its message. “I don’t have to do one damn thing that I don’t want to do,” he sings with a smile in his voice. It’s not defiance—it’s wisdom. The kind that only time can give.
In this way, **Willie Nelson – It Gets Easier** serves as both elegy and comfort. It’s a reminder that aging doesn’t mean fading away; it means coming into sharper focus, finding peace in priorities, and choosing what matters most. For anyone navigating the later chapters of life, this song feels like a gentle companion—and perhaps a small gift of perspective.
Video
Lyrics
It gets easier, as we get older
It gets easier to say “not today”
And it gets easier, as we get older
To say “go away and not today”
I don’t have to do
One damn thing
That I don’t want to do
Except for missing you
And that won’t go away
It gets easier to say “some other time”
It gets easier to tell the world to wait
And it gets easier to watch the world fly by
And tell it, “I will catch up, but not today”
I don’t have to do
One damn thing
That I don’t want to do
Except for missing you
And that won’t go away
Except for missing you
And that won’t go away
