Dave Stewart Discusses Willie Nelson’s “Energy Follows Thought” Song on The “One By Willie” Podcast
Dave Stewart made a guest appearance on the “One By Willie” podcast where host John Spong talks to notable Willie Nelson fans about the songs they love most. Checkout the full podcast here or wherever you listen to podcasts!
Dave fell in love with the song “Energy Follows Thought” some forty years before Willie Nelson even wrote it. Back in the early-80s, before Eurythmics and their era-defining, global smash “Sweet Dreams,” Stewart suffered a collapsed lung after a car accident, and he actually died on the operating table before being revived. According to Dave, when he came to, he was a different person. Filled with a new-found positivity, he quit worrying about the wishes of record execs and radio programmers, and he set aside his guitar to start noodling on synths. Rather than laboring at songwriting and production, he started focusing on first-takes, intent on capturing moments and moving on. So, when he first heard “Energy Follows Thought,” soon after its release on Willie’s 2022 album A Beautiful Time, he was hooked in an instant.
“How did I find that song?” he says now, “I think the second I heard the first few lines—‘Imagine what you want and get out of the way / Remember energy follows thought, so be careful what you say’—I was, like, ‘Oh my god…this is one of my favorite songs ever.”
Dave had posted his own guitar-and-vocal-only version of “Energy Follows Thought” (in the single-take style of his 2025 album Dave Does Dylan) on Instagram the night before this podcast was recorded. The podcast host, John, likes to think about a possible next Dave Stewart project, Dave Does Willie.
Courtesy of “One By Willie.”