It’s been over 30 years since Nelson’s debut album After the Rain went double platinum, but identical twin rock stars Gunnar and Matthew Nelson are still rocking out.
The 57-year-old brothers — who are the sons of late rock star Ricky Nelson and grandsons of Hollywood icons Ozzie and Harriet Nelson — took to Instagram this week to announce an upcoming concert in Waterville, Maine, and fans couldn’t have been happier to hear the news.
“Hey everybody, how’s it going? It’s Gunnar Nelson here,” Gunnar began, his famous blonde hair tucked into a cowboy hat.
“And I’m his brother Matt Nelson,” added Matthew, who wore a black baseball cap printed with the word “shiny” in sparkly silver letters.
“We want to let you know that our show is coming to town on Saturday, May 31st, 7:30 pm at The Waterville Opera House,” Gunnar added. “We’ve actually been there before, we love the gig, but we’re doing our Nelsons acoustic show.”
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Gunnar went on to explain that the show would be “kind of like a night of Nelsons, which means the two of us with ‘After the Rain,’ ‘Love and Affection,’ ‘More than Ever,’ ‘Only Time Will Tell’ — all the big Nelson hits from back in the day.”
“That’s right,” Matthew chimed in, adding, “and also our dad, Ricky Nelson’s hits, so you got all of them. You got ‘Lonesome Town,’ ‘Poor Little Fool,’ ‘Garden Party,’ ‘Hello Mary Lou,’ ‘Traveling Man,’ all those great songs.”
“Be there, we’re gonna have a lot of fun, you don’t want to miss it,” Gunnar said in conclusion.
Fans in the comments were thrilled to hear the brothers would be performing live in the near future.
“Love ❤️❤️,” gushed one person.
“I know it will be amazing❤️🔥,” declared someone else.
“AWESOME!!!!!!!!!! Hope you come back to Penn’s Peak soon. Would LOVE to see you guys again,” raved another commenter.
Even though the Nelson brothers were born into a famous family, they didn’t have an easy start in the music business. Following their father’s tragic death in a plane crash at the age of 45, they were left with “millions” in debt, as they told Billboard in 2020, and struggled to get a break.
“[We were] turned down by everybody everywhere for a recording contract,” Matthew said. “What got us our recording contract at Geffen was walking into that office and saying, ‘Sit down and listen to this.’ Gunnar and I sang and played the songs we’d written — namely ‘Love and Affection’ — and the A&R guy said, ‘That’s what I’m talking about!’ That’s it — two guys and two guitars singing a great song.”
