Just when I think I’ve heard the craziest Willie Nelson story there is…
The country outlaw turned 90 years old earlier this year, and of course, there was a massive and very well-deserved celebration in his honor.
Performers like George Strait, Chris Stapleton, Miranda Lambert, Shooter Jennings and Willie’s son Lukas, and of course Willie himself all graced the stage at the Hollywood Bowl performing his all-time classics, and it had me looking back on so many incredible stories about Willie’s life.
And one in particular I’ve never heard before came from Otis Gibbs, who has a Youtube channel where he tells awesome stories of country music legends and icons.
He’s also friends with Phil Kaufman, who’s one of the most well-known (even infamous) tour managers in history. Phil was actually the tour manager for Emmylou Harris back in the day, when she was opening for Willie many decades ago.
And one day, Willie Nelson’s long-time stage manager, and quite a colorful character himself, Poodie Locke, asked Phil if he could ride on their bus for a while.
When Phil questioned him about what was going on, Poodie told him that Willie and his band members had taken the Gideons Bibles from their hotel rooms, and were shooting the gun at the Bible and taking bets on which chapter the bullet would land in.
It sounds absolutely insane, and obviously pretty unsafe, but it’s true, and clearly, not very conducive to getting much rest if you have to listen to that all night…
“Well, Willie and the boys are back there. They got these bibles from the hotel, The Gideons Bible, and they’re taking bets.
They’ve got a gun, and they’re shooting the gun into the Bible and they’re taking bets on which particular chapter of the Bible the bullet will land in.
So you’ll hear somebody scream out, ‘Deuteronomy!’ and then ‘Bam!’ The gun goes off. There’s a pause and everybody starts cheering. And then you hear, ‘Proverbs!’ Bam! The gun goes off. Pause, somebody starts cheering…
So they’re taking bets and firing a gun into a Bible. And Poodie just wanted to have a little bit of quiet.”
That really beats just about all I’ve ever heard, honestly.
I know Willie’s a masterful poker player, and is pretty damn good when it comes to betting and things of that nature, but this is on a whole other level.
Really, it’s just another Willie Nelson story that is just too wild to make up…
You can hear more about it in the video below:
I mean, hey, they don’t call him “Shotgun Willie” for nothin’…
Willie Nelson Smoked A Joint On The Roof Of The White House With President Jimmy Carter’s Son
The legend that is Willie Nelson continues on.
A recently released documentary dove into the the life and legacy of the 39th President of the United States, Jimmy Carter.
I mean, let’s face it, Jimmy wasn’t exactly known for being the greatest President, so this documentary took the story to a different place… music.
Titled, Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President, the documentary chronicles former President Carter’s love of music, and his friendship with artists like Bob Dylan, Bono, Garth Brooks, Jimmy Buffett, among others.
And it also features his Willie Nelson, who Carter called “one of his best friends.”
“Bob Dylan has been one of my best friends, along with Willie Nelson.”
If you haven’t seen it, it’s probably worth the watch, but the trailer alone also reveals confirmation of another badass piece of Willie Nelson history… the time he smoked weed on the White House roof.
Willie first revealed that he smoked at the White House back in his 1988 autobiography.
He was let on the roof by an “anonymous servant” at the White House, describing it as being up there with “a beer in one hand and a fat Austin Torpedo in the other.”
Years later, in 2015, Willie confirmed that it was indeed President Carter’s son, Chip.
However in the new documentary, Jimmy Carter acknowledges it himself, almost as if he knew all along.
“When Willie Nelson wrote his autobiography he confessed that he smoked pot in the White House and he says that his companion was one of the servants at the White House… actually it was one of my sons.”
Even at 89 years old, the GOAT-ness of Willie Nelson continues to grow.
Toby Keith “Couldn’t Even Function”
It’s no secret that Willie Nelson is the definition of a weed connoisseur.
Hell, I’m not even sure if Ol’ Shotgun Willie can even remember the last time he wasn’t stoned off his arse. We’re talking about a guy who can smoke Snoop Dogg under the table, and the rapper even has a guy he pays more than $50,000 a year to follow him around and roll blunts for him.
Needless to say, he is, and always has been, a major advocate for smoking the devil’s lettuce, and he’s not too afraid to share either.
I was listening to some early 2000s country music today, and forgot about this old hidden gem of a song by Toby Keith, called “Weed With Willie.” It’s pretty much about how Toby got so zooted with Willie one night, that he completely forgot how to function.
Now you may be wondering if this actually happened, or if Toby made an assumption and wrote one helluva fairy tale about it.
With that being said, I’m here to set the record straight:
It did indeed happen, and here’s the proof.
I was digging through the vaults after hearing the song, and discovered this old gem of an interview of Toby back in 2009, where he discussed the first (and last) time he ever smoked with Willie, and how it inspired him to write the song.
Story has it, Keith was in Vegas for Charles Barkley’s birthday party. While he was there, he played a few songs with Willie on stage of his show that night, and Willie asked him to stick around for a little while after the show.
Keith continued:
“Willie’s got that real chronic, medicinal stuff. I’ve never smoked much pot in my life, it’s not my high… we set down and he starts rolling one up, so when in Rome, you know? We burn one, and I couldn’t even function.
It was like, the most hardcore weed that I’d ever had, and I’d only hit it like three or four times, and unlike Bill Clinton I did inhale.
I stood up and said ‘Man it’s time for me to go,’ he was just looking at me and I remember my ears were burning, my head’s throbbing, I was breathing different, and he was sitting there grinning at me.
He knew he got me right. I said I had to go and he says ‘Good timing.’ So I had a car take me to my room, I missed the whole Charles Barkley thing, I went down to sleep.”
So there you have it. That’s the story of the night that Willie Nelson sent Toby Keith to Mars for free, and birthed the song “Weed With Willie.”
Check out the full video here:
“Weed With Willie”
They also teamed up for “Wacky Tobaccy”
Toby Keith’s Monday Night Football Intro From The ’90s Is GOLD
Is it football season yet?
Granted I know we have the final round of The Masters on today, baseball is back and NASCAR is in full swing, but there’s just something about football season that hits different.
And there’s something about Monday Night Football intros from the ’90s that hit WAY different.
Man, can we just spin it back to the ’90s, please? We’re talking the good ol’ days of permed mullets, flannels with the cut off sleeves, the radio actually played country music, and oh yeah… the Dallas Cowboys were actually America’s team.
Speaking of the Cowboys, I struck gold this morning by finding this legendary Monday Night Football video, that has been lost in time.
And who does the video feature?
Toby Keith himself.
Coming off his 1993 hit “Should’ve Been A Cowboy,” the NFL and the Cowboys took the bull by the horns and saw a great opportunity to feature the hit song in their Monday Night Football intro.
In the video, Keith, rocking a badass permed mullet and a sweet vintage Cowboys jacket, twists the lyrics to his own song, as he sings about all the Cowboy greats at the time.
We’re talking Emmett Smith, Troy Aikman, Roger Staubach, and every other player who made the organization the most fun to watch in the league at the time.
Simpler times man, simpler times.
