Lukas Nelson on Being Nominated for Same Grammy as Dad Willie Nelson (Exclusive)

You’d be forgiven for thinking competing nominations in the same category at the Grammy Awards might inspire members of the average family to engage in some friendly rivalry. But the Nelsons — Lukas and his dad, the outlaw country forefather Willie — are no ordinary family. 

“There’s no rivalry at all. Me and him joined teams, so we got a 40 percent chance,” Lukas tells PEOPLE of being nominated for Best Traditional Country Album alongside his pops. “A win for anyone in that group [is a win for me].”

Best Traditional Country Album is a new category for the 2026 Grammys. Lukas, 36, is nominated for his debut solo album American Romance, which came out in June, while Willie, 92, is up for his album Oh What a Beautiful World. And the family fun doesn’t end there — Lukas’s brother Micah, 35, earned a nod too, for producing their dad’s album Last Leaf on the Tree, nominated for Best Americana Album.

“To be on the bill with Dad is such a special thing,” Lukas says. “All three of us… I think that makes Dad real proud, and that makes me real happy.”

Lukas, the second-youngest of Willie’s eight children, has spent his career playing with other people. He performs frequently with his dad, most recently at Farm Aid in September, and for years, he put out albums with his band, Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real. He’s even been recognized at the Grammys before, winning an award in 2020 for his work on the A Star Is Born soundtrack.

But this time is different.

“It feels like my own. This is the first time that I’ve done something on my own that got that recognition by my peers, and I’m pretty grateful for that,” he explains.

With his finely tuned Texas twang, Lukas’s sound leans more traditional than many current country acts — you won’t find songs about tailgates or tan lines in his prolific discography. For a time, his distinct brand of music made him feel a bit lost among the landscape. But now, he recognizes that his identity as a musician transcends genre.

“I mean, I was just writing a love letter to my country with this album, to the country that raised me,” he says of American Romance. “Country music has gone through so many iterations. It’s hard to define what country is. I’m just grateful that my music is recognized, and I’ll let the interpretation be up to other people about genres and things like that.”

His work seven years ago on A Star Is Born — he co-produced the soundtrack, co-wrote a number of songs and appears in the film as a member of Bradley Cooper’s character’s backing band — was a major learning curve when it came to honing his craft, says Lukas, who adds that Cooper is still a friend.

“I learned about creating music for someone else to sing, which I really love doing,” he says, noting that his dad — who wrote “Crazy” for Patsy Cline — has done the same. “I enjoy the idea of writing a song that gets interpreted by other people in a different way. When you don’t have to be the one to deliver the song, you can put yourself in somebody else’s shoes musically, and that’s fun.”

When he was younger, Lukas had dreams of being an Olympic swimmer, but he decided instead to put that tunnel vision focus toward music, as his talents were evident early on. At just 11 years old, he wrote the song “You Were It” on the school bus, and his dad recorded it for his 2004 album It Will Always Be. Now Lukas’s own version closes out American Romance. 

“I was kind of an awkward kid. I wondered who I was in the context of being the son of someone famous,” he says. “Music gave me an avenue to put all my pain into and transform it like alchemy into something beautiful. It really did save my life. It kept me from going down dark paths, and it’s given me a sense of meaning and purpose and confidence.”

With the Grammys coming up, he’s now focused on the future. Lukas says he already has a “whole new batch of songs” ready to go, with “love and life” — including the end of a recent “situationship” — serving as major inspirations.

“I write about things that happen to me or I write about things I imagine happening to me,” he explains. “It’s a gift, the ability to take your pain and turn it into something beautiful.”