Zach Top Joins Willie Nelson’s Son for a Stunning Rendition of His Father’s Classic Country Heartbreaker

Depending on the person, Willie Nelson has written anywhere between a few hundred and thousands of songs throughout his career. And with his career dating back to the 1950s, the outlaw icon had more than enough time to write a hit song or two. He did more than that thanks to songs like “Hello Walls,” Pretty Paper,” and “On the Road Again.” But recently, Nelson was honored with a completely different song when Zach Top joined forces with Lukas Nelson to cover “Last Thing I Needed First Thing This Morning.” 

When Top hit the road, the singer called on Lukas to travel alongside him as his opener. Jumping at the chance, Lukas did more than open for the country star. They also shared the spotlight on more than one occasion. And thankfully, when they harmonized on “Last Thing I Needed First Thing This Morning,” a fan was ready to capture every second. 

With only a few more performances left in 2026, Top has spent the last year covering hits from some of his favorite icons. And again, while Nelson recorded countless songs, there was no other track that compared to “Last Thing I Needed First Thing This Morning.”

[RELATED: “This Ain’t It”: Zach Top Reveals Just How How Hard He Fought To Release His Breakout Hit] 

What Willie Nelson Thought Of Zach Top’s Cover

Aside from singing a Nelson classic, apparently, Lukas showed his father one of Top’s performances. Recalling that moment, Top insisted, “So I’m friends with his son Lukas Nelson, who’s also a great, great artist, great singer. Anyway, he texted me one time, last year, we were doing an old song Gary P. Nunn wrote ‘Last Thing I Needed, First Thing This Morning,’ one of my favorite Willie Nelson songs, we were covering that in our show. And Lukas texted me one day and he’s like ‘Man, I showed your cover to my dad.” 

While Top wasn’t prepared for the text, he anxiously waited for a response on what Nelson thought of his cover. And to his surprise, Lukas messaged back, “I showed your cover to my dad. I just wanted you to know he thought you did really good job on it, and he liked it a lot.’”

For Top, Nelson was one of his influences. And when growing up, Top only dreamed of leaving a legacy like Nelson. Now, he got a chance to do exactly that. But while the future remained bright, Top was simply soaking in the moment. “It’s like, that’s pretty d**n cool. So I would love to get to meet him, obviously.”   

(Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images)