Willie Nelson Auditions for The Hobbit Film Sequel, Turns 80 Today

Willie Nel­son, Amer­i­ca’s icon­ic coun­try music singer, has logged lots of miles. And, today, he turns 80, with more than 60 stu­dio albums, 10 live albums, and 27 col­lab­o­ra­tions to his cred­it. Recent­ly, Nel­son showed that he has a lit­tle more tread on his tires when, while vis­it­ing Conan O’Brien’s show, he shot a short audi­tion reel for Peter Jack­son, hop­ing to land the role of Gan­dalf in The Hob­bit sequel. It’s doubt­ful that, wher­ev­er he is, Ian McKel­lan is break­ing a sweat.

For more Tolkien trea­sures don’t miss:

Lis­ten to J.R.R. Tolkien Read a Lengthy Excerpt from The Hob­bit (1952)

Down­load Eight Free Lec­tures on The Hob­bit by “The Tolkien Pro­fes­sor,” Corey Olsen

Dis­cov­er J.R.R. Tolkien’s Per­son­al Book Cov­er Designs for The Lord of the Rings Tril­o­gy