Friends close to country music artist Willie Nelson say he was deeply affected by the loss of fellow artist Ray price, who died at 87 in December 2013. "'He was my best friend,' says Nelson. He was kind of everything in my career. All the way back when I first started writing songs for him, playing bass for him, he just took me in and raised me."

When Nelson was asked how he managed the reality of death, he said:

Oh, we're all going to die. Who was it, Seneca, the thinker, that said you should look at death and comedy with the same expression of countenance? You can't be afraid of living or dying. You live and you die, that's just what happens, so you can't be afraid of it.