Taking matters into his own hands.
Willie Nelson is rightfully credited with pioneering the country outlaw movement of the 1970’s, and of course, there are plenty of outlaw stories that certainly prove that title.
And this one might just top them all…
In his 2015 memoir It’s a Long Story: My Life, Willie explained that once he started making a lot of money and becoming a household name, he had a longing for home that he could obviously only find in his hometown of little Abbott, Texas.
He ended up buying the home of the physician who brought him into the world, as he tells it, where he always kept a months worth of clothes in case he ever wanted to go back home and live the simple life.
But seeing as he was a massive star, someone there thought it was a good idea (for marketing purposes, I’m sure) to put up a billboard on Highway 35, which is a heavy traffic interstate that runs from Dallas to Austin, that read:
“Abbott, home of Willie Nelson.”
Abbott sits right off 35, and Willie explained that the last thing he wanted was for random strangers to pull off the highway and come looking for him. It was supposed to be his little corner of peace, and he wanted to keep it that way.
One night, Willie was playing poker with his childhood friend Zeke Varnon, complaining to him that the billboard blew his anonymity… and when Zeke asked Willie what he wanted to do about it, Willie had an idea:
“Burn the f*cker down!”
Zeke thought it was a good idea, and “like two teenagers,” they snuck out to the interstate to set the billboard on fire. They stopped to get a gas where they ran into a cop:
“We stopped to buy a can of gas. A cop came by, recognized me, and said, ‘Hey, Willie. What are you guys up to?’
‘We’re going to burn down a sign,’ I said. He just laughed and went on his way. He didn’t believe the truth.”
Funny how that works…
And they still went through with their plan, soaking the sign in gas and lighting it with a match. Willie says:
“We then drover over to the sign, soaked it with gas, and lit it with a match. It started to burn but then stopped. Must have been treated with some anti-inflammatory fluid. Pissed me off.
So we poured more gasoline and lit another match. Still no go. We went home frustrated.”
What he didn’t know at the time was that the sign actually did end up burning down after they left… and police arrested some random teenager having no clue it was Willie. Of course, he owned up to it and told them to let the poor kid go:
“Next day I learned that the sign actually did catch fire some time after we left and had to be extinguished by the lone Abbott fire truck.
Not only that, but an innocent teenager was picked up and charged with arson. I called the police and told one of the boys to let the kid go.”
Obviously, the officer wanted to know why they would do that, to which Willie replied:
“I didn’t like the sign. I didn’t want the attention.”
And the cop told him they would’ve just taken it down had they known he was upset about it…
“You should have just told us that, we would have taken it down.”
And Willie of course had the perfect response:
“Was more fun to try and burn it,’ I said. The kid was set free and – at least for a while – I didn’t have to worry about unwanted visits from strangers.”
Those Texans are a different breed…
Willie Nelson Releases New Album, ‘The Border’
He does it again.
Today, the legendary, inimitable Willie Nelson released his 75th solo studio album The Border (to go along with his 26 collaborative studio albums), and it marks his 152nd career album in total.
The Border was produced by Willie’s longtime collaborator Buddy Cannon, and includes four new original songs written by the two of them. In 2023, Nelson released two studio albums, I Don’t Know a Thing About Love and Bluegrass.
In 2022, he won the Grammy Award for Best Country Album for his A Beautiful Time record.
At 91 years old and already an icon in the music world and beyond, it’s hard to say anything new about the icon that is Willie Nelson at this point, but there’s a reason he’s been doing it for so long and staying at the top of his game.
On The Border, which features two previously-released tracks in “Made In Texas,” as well as the title track that served as the lead single, Willie once again tackles life, love and everything in between on standouts like “I Wrote This Song For You,” “Kiss Me When You’re Through” and many others.
Per the usual, he has delivered solid tunes that still blow all the youngsters out of the water. Hey, you don’t get to be a country icon without being the best with every single release, no matter your age.
His masterful songwriting is once again on display, which is a theme throughout his career and has been his superpower from the start, At his core, Willie is a storyteller and a songwriter above all else, and it’s truly a gift that he continues to share that once-in-a-lifetime talent with the world.
As he’s proven time again (and is extremely evident on this record), age really is just a number, but it comes with a lot of wisdom and unique life lessons that put Willie a cut above everybody else… and always will. Long live the red headed stranger.
The Border Tracklist:
01 “The Border”
02 “Once Upon A Yesterday”
03 “What If I’m Out Of My Mind”
04 “I Wrote This Song For You”
05 “Kiss Me When You’re Through”
06 “Many A Long And Lonesome Highway”
07 “Hank’s Guitar”
08 “Made In Texas”
09 “Nobody Knows Me Like You”
10 “How Much Does It Cost”
Check out some of my early favorites below:
“I Wrote This Song For You”
“Kiss Me When You’re Through”
“What If I’m Out Of My Mind”
