Willie Nelson has premiered his new anti-war ballad at an Austin fund-raising concert for Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich.

"(Nelson) brought down the house," said Kucinich's media coordinator Susan Mainzer of the Saturday performance. "People were on their feet applauding."

Nelson has said he wrote What Ever Happened to Peace on Earth on Christmas Day at the Lake Elsinore, Calif., home of his in-laws.

"There was nothing but bad news, and here it was Christmas Day," Nelson told The Austin American-Statesman last month. "I said, 'There sure are a lot of babies dying and mothers crying,' and (wife) Annie said, 'That sounds like a song.'"

The song asks questions such as, "How much oil is a human life worth?"

It is the second protest song Nelson has written. He often performed his Vietnam-era protest song, Jimmy's Road, at peace rallies during the 1991 Gulf War.

Kucinich's two-day tour through Austin started Friday. At a Capitol rally Saturday, Kucinich told several hundred people that ending combat in Iraq is among his highest goals.

Asked if his new song might cause a backlash with conservative country music fans, Nelson said, "I sure hope so. I don't care if people say, 'Who the hell does he think he is?' I know who I am."

Last spring, Dixie Chicks singer Natalie Maines' criticism of President Bush led to boycotts of the group's music.