They don’t call him “Shotgun Willie” for nothin’…
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 too damn wild to make up…
@whiskeyriff Really, it’s just another Willie Nelson story that is just too wild to make up… // Read the article detailing the story further at WhiskeyRiff.com #whiskeyriff #countrymusic #willienelson ♬ original sound – Whiskey Riff
You can hear more about it in the video below:
“Shotgun Willie”
