“Bring us your tired and weak.”

The opening lines of Willie Nelson’s “Living in the Promiseland,” written by David Lynn Jones, paraphrase Emma Lazarus’ words from a plaque in the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. The national landmark was undergoing a renaissance when Nelson took “Promiseland” to No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart dated June 28, 1986. It was still waving the flag at No. 15 on the July 5 list, ahead of his performance of the title on a statue-related TV special that aired on July 6, and held in the top 40 through the July 12 tally.

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Jones penned most of the song in 15 minutes, inspired by immigrants from Vietnam and Cuba in the 1970s and ‘80s. He finished it five years later, after a new publisher discovered the incomplete demo, and bassist Bee Spears subsequently passed a copy to Nelson on the golf course.

Nelson has called it “the best patriotic song I ever heard,” and he recorded it on Thanksgiving 1985. It debuted on the March 29, 1986 chart and sailed to country’s promised land 12 weeks later.

The timing was fortuitous. The Statue of Liberty had undergone a two-year restoration, and the scaffolding came down as the Lady in the Harbor officially reopened during Liberty Weekend, July 3-6, a week after “Promiseland” peaked. Nelson sang it as a duet with Jones during Farm Aid II on Independence Day in Austin, and he performed it again during the weekend’s closing ceremony, aired as an ABC special from Giants Stadium in New Jersey.

“Promiseland” returned to TV this year when Chris Stapleton, the final country artist featured on CBS’ The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, sang it on May 6 with support from harmonica player Mickey Raphael, who backed Nelson on the original recording. Plus, a “Promiseland” clip launched Nelson’s set when he played this year’s Fourth of July Picnic in Austin.