Willie Nelson tells TIME he doesn?t ?know what the Tea Party is,? but he does have some interesting thoughts about what it means to be an American:

America, to me, is freedom. I’m from Texas, and one of the reasons I like Texas is because there’s no one in control. [Laughs.] You can look at that as less government if you want to, but I like America when [there’s] no one in control.

Less government in Texas? Maybe there?s a good song there.