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Willie Nelson (Pt 2): Grifters, Con Men, Thieves, and the Reinvention of the Outlaw · DISGRACELAND

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Speaker 1: This episode contains content that may be disturbing to some listeners.
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Speaker 1: Please check the show notes for more information. Disgraceland is
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Speaker 1: a production of Double Elvis. The Ballad of Willie Nelson.
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Speaker 1: His trials and tribulations as an unorthodox songwriter in Nashville,
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Speaker 1: his creative rebirth as a free spirited outlaw in Austin,
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Speaker 1: and his ascension into legend is so complex that we
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Speaker 1: needed two episodes to properly tell this story. If you're
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Speaker 1: just getting hip to this now, I suggest you hit
0:46
Speaker 1: pause and go back to the last episode of Disgraceland,
0:49
Speaker 1: part one of the Willie Nelson story. In this episode,
0:52
Speaker 1: we get into Willy's Texas reinvention as the ultimate Outsider,
0:56
Speaker 1: a metamorphosis from freak flag flyer to mainstream mainstein that
1:00
Speaker 1: is rife with tales of drug smuggling arson in international
1:04
Speaker 1: run ins with Johnny Law. We also get into his
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Speaker 1: association with grifters, con men, and thieves and how that
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Speaker 1: led not only to one of the most publicized busts
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Speaker 1: of a superstar in the twentieth century, but also to
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Speaker 1: an extended family fueled by karma and loyalty. This is
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Speaker 1: a story about how some of the greatest music of
1:22
Speaker 1: the twentieth century, not just country music, was made by
1:26
Speaker 1: a man who did what he damn well pleased because
1:29
Speaker 1: he simply couldn't do anything else Unlike that music. I
1:32
Speaker 1: played few at the top of the show that wasn't
1:35
Speaker 1: great music. That was a preset loop for my melotron
1:39
Speaker 1: called Boots and Cats MK one. I played you that
1:43
Speaker 1: clip because I can't afford the rights to Ice Ice
1:47
Speaker 1: Baby by Vanilla Ice. And why would I play you
1:50
Speaker 1: that specific slice of queen bassline stealing cheese? Could I
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Speaker 1: afford it? Because that was the number one song in
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Speaker 1: America on November Nintheen ninety And that was the day
2:02
Speaker 1: that federal agents placed Willie Nelson under arrest, officially turning
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Speaker 1: him from a superstar to an outlaw. On this the
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Speaker 1: second chapter of a special two part episode Outlaws and Outsiders, Grifters,
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Speaker 1: con Men and Thieves, Drugs, Arson, Johnny Law, and Willie Nelson.
2:20
Speaker 1: I'm Jake Brennan, and this is Disgraceland. Willie Nelson was
2:44
Speaker 1: a deadbeat, a lawbreaker, a modern day desperado. He owed
2:49
Speaker 1: Uncle Sam something like fifteen million dollars. His tour bus
2:53
Speaker 1: had the word hempmobile written on the side. And this
2:56
Speaker 1: is in nineteen ninety, when marijuana was still one hundred
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Speaker 1: percent of the league to possess, even in small quantities.
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Speaker 1: He was practically begging to be put into handcuffs. He
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Speaker 1: surrounded himself with con artists and thieves, and that's so
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Speaker 1: called extended family staged a series of farm Maide benefit
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Speaker 1: concerts that forced the US government to cancel cutting back
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Speaker 1: aid to farmers. It made the government look like fools
3:20
Speaker 1: while he, that shitkicking shit heel country singer was the
3:23
Speaker 1: one getting all the love, and when it came to love,
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Speaker 1: Willie had none for his country. He sympathized with cop
3:30
Speaker 1: killers and that shootout on the Pine Ridge Reservation in
3:33
Speaker 1: South Dakota, the one that left two FBI agent instead
3:37
Speaker 1: Willian Nelson made his true allegiance known when he performed
3:39
Speaker 1: a benefit concert not for the fallen g men, but
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Speaker 1: for Leonard Peltier, the Native American who allegedly pulled the trigger.
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Speaker 1: Willie Nelson served a different master, and now he was
3:50
Speaker 1: going to get what he deserved. The FEDS were going
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Speaker 1: to enjoy giving it to him as well. They were
3:55
Speaker 1: going to savor every minute of this moment, and they
3:57
Speaker 1: began the long, slow walk across the to where Willie
4:00
Speaker 1: Nelson was playing nine holes. Willie teed up another ball
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Speaker 1: and looked out over Perdanelle's country Club, the seventy six
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Speaker 1: acre property in Travis County, Texas he purchased eleven years
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Speaker 1: earlier in nineteen seventy nine. He saw the agents striding
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Speaker 1: across the green from a distance. Before we took his swing,
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Speaker 1: he told his latest favorite joke, what's the difference between
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Speaker 1: an IRS agent and a whore? A whore will quit
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Speaker 1: fucking you after you're dead. Willy's friends laughed, but their
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Speaker 1: smiles soon faded as the Feds got closer. This wasn't
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Speaker 1: a laughing matter, so serious shit was about to go down.
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Speaker 1: His friends felt around for the pieces stashed in their
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Speaker 1: belts and pockets. Willie told them all to chill. This
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Speaker 1: wasn't the time to make a stand or to make
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Speaker 1: a scene. He hit the golf ball with his nine
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Speaker 1: iron and exuded that patent had laid back. Vibe calm,
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Speaker 1: cool collected, and the agents were within earshot. Now one
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Speaker 1: flashed a badge. Willie Nelson, he asked, and then with
4:59
Speaker 1: a smirks said You're under arrest. Nineteen seventy three, Austin, Texas.
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Speaker 1: Bobby Hedderman, the guy who booked the shows that the
5:10
Speaker 1: Armadillo World Headquarters, or the Dillo as the locals called it,
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Speaker 1: was losing his patience. He was still sore about how
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Speaker 1: his staff had been treated at Willy Nelson's Fourth of
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Speaker 1: July Picnic, a music festival that was held that summer,
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Speaker 1: bossed around by guys carrying knives on their hips and
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Speaker 1: pistols jammed in their socks, and that kind of bad
5:27
Speaker 1: mojo only made the divide between the Rednecks and the
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Speaker 1: hippies worse, and now it was jeopardizing Willy's relationship with
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Speaker 1: the venue he'd been playing for almost a year. You
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Speaker 1: got to control your friends, Bobby told Willie. I cannot
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Speaker 1: them pushing around the staff and packing heat in the building.
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Speaker 1: Bobby had a point. The Dilo wasn't some old timey saloon.
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Speaker 1: It was more film wore East than the wild wild West.
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Speaker 1: Willie could get behind all that. Life wasn't so black
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Speaker 1: and white. It was a little good and a little
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Speaker 1: bad in everyone, and life was also short. So Willie
5:56
Speaker 1: Nelson was going to do what he wanted, even if
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Speaker 1: that meant no more shows at the Dillo. It was cool.
6:03
Speaker 1: You go your way and I go mine. Life goes on,
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Speaker 1: especially in Austin. Austin was unlike the rest of Texas.
6:12
Speaker 1: Austin was weird and they kept it that way. Its
6:15
Speaker 1: politics were progressive, and so was its music. Austin wasn't
6:19
Speaker 1: just a country town stuck in the Cepia tone passed.
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Speaker 1: It was ground zero for the blues and R and
6:24
Speaker 1: B Kunto and Diana in some far fucking out rock
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Speaker 1: and roll. Austin was Rocky Erickson taking the elevator to
6:31
Speaker 1: the thirteenth floor. Austin was Towns van Zan living for
6:35
Speaker 1: the sake of the song. Austin was Doug Som, living
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Speaker 1: off mushrooms and alapanos. Austin fit Willie Nelson like one
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Speaker 1: of the faded, well worn T shirts he had taken
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Speaker 1: to wearing. And when he moved back to Texas following
6:47
Speaker 1: the fire at his ranch outside Nashville, the one where
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Speaker 1: he heroically saved two pounds of grass and his trusty
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Speaker 1: guitar trigger, it felt like a major chapter of his
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Speaker 1: life had closed. It also felt like he had failed
6:58
Speaker 1: at doing what he had set out to do. He
7:01
Speaker 1: was pushing forty years old, and though the royalty checks
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Speaker 1: for his songs Crazy and Hello, Walls were still rolling in,
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Speaker 1: he hadn't penned a top ten hit in a decade.
7:10
Speaker 1: His career as a performer was faring even worse. Liberty
7:13
Speaker 1: Records didn't know what to do with him, and neither
7:16
Speaker 1: did RCA. He didn't last long at either label. To
7:19
Speaker 1: succeed in Nashville, you had to conform, and Willie Nelson
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Speaker 1: just wasn't the conforming type. In Austin, he could be improper,
7:27
Speaker 1: none of this fancy showbish. Nashville could keep the nuty
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Speaker 1: suits and string ties and Austin chaos rolled. As long
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Speaker 1: as the chaos was laid back. You grew your hair up,
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Speaker 1: let your beard get good, and wily, wrap a red
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Speaker 1: bandana around your head, and no one was going to
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Speaker 1: say shit. This may seem quaint now in twenty twenty three,
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Speaker 1: but fifty years ago, in nineteen seventy three, Willie Nelson
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Speaker 1: was the ultimate outlaw on a scene full of outsiders,
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Speaker 1: just like his pals Waylan Merle and Chris. The way
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Speaker 1: they look, the music they played, the focks they didn't
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Speaker 1: give not everyone understood it did. Like Atlantic Records. Jerry Wexler,
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Speaker 1: the guy responsible for, among other things, reinventing the careers
8:06
Speaker 1: of Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin at do or Die
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Speaker 1: moments and in their creative lives. There wasn't a living
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Speaker 1: ass at Atlantic. The k new country music er was interested
8:14
Speaker 1: in it, Wexler later said. But he knew it and
8:16
Speaker 1: it interested him, so he took the gamble as he
8:19
Speaker 1: often did, and established a country division at the label,
8:22
Speaker 1: and not just any country division like Austin Atlantic's idea
8:26
Speaker 1: country music would be different. Doug Son was an easy get,
8:29
Speaker 1: but signing Willy felt like that now the best kept
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Speaker 1: secret in the lone star state. First, Wexler brought Willy
8:36
Speaker 1: to New York where he made Shotgun Willie, which, for
8:38
Speaker 1: all intents and purposes, was the first truly brilliant album
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Speaker 1: of his career. Imagine that Willie Nelson was forty years
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Speaker 1: old before he released a stone cold classic LP. Next,
8:50
Speaker 1: Wexer took Willy to Muscle Shoals, where he made Phases
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Speaker 1: and Stages, a song cycle about divorce, with the legendary
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Speaker 1: Swapper's rhythm section backing him up. The performances on VOE.
9:00
Speaker 1: Both records were fast and loose. They were as relaxed
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Speaker 1: and comfortable as Willy's New Austin State of Mind. But
9:06
Speaker 1: although Jerry Wexler's Gamble breathed new life into Willie Nelson
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Speaker 1: the performer, the records didn't sell enough to justify a
9:12
Speaker 1: country outpost at Atlantic Records. The label shut it down.
9:16
Speaker 1: Columbia Records was quick on the rebound. Columbia was still
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Speaker 1: pissed at Wexer in Atlantic Chris stealing Aretha from them
9:22
Speaker 1: back in the sixties, and this was karma. It was deliberate,
9:26
Speaker 1: and with the help of Willy's new manager, Willie's new
9:28
Speaker 1: deal with Columbia was unprecedented. For the first time in
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Speaker 1: his professional life, Willie Nelson had complete creative control, so
9:36
Speaker 1: he did what he wanted. WILLI had an idea for
9:38
Speaker 1: a new record based on an old song that he
9:40
Speaker 1: used to spin when he was a DJ. The album
9:43
Speaker 1: would tell the story of a preacher who comes home
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Speaker 1: to find that his wife has been unfaithful. The preacher
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Speaker 1: murders his wife and her lover in a fit of
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Speaker 1: blind rage, and then wanders from town to town as
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Speaker 1: a fugitive He told his band to lay back, cool out,
9:56
Speaker 1: play what you feel. Their performances sounded like how you
9:59
Speaker 1: feel when he took a super big hit at Columbian Grass.
10:03
Speaker 1: When Red Headed Stranger was released in the spring of
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Speaker 1: nineteen seventy five, Columbia was worried that they'd made a
10:09
Speaker 1: huge mistake. This wasn't the sound of Willy's shit hot
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Speaker 1: live band. This was sparse and strange. Billy Cheryl, the
10:16
Speaker 1: Nashville producer who helped to find the country Politan sound,
10:19
Speaker 1: was blunter than most. He said, it sucked. What the
10:23
Speaker 1: shit did some corporate suits in New York and Billy
10:25
Speaker 1: fucking Cheryl know about what was happening In Austin, Willy
10:28
Speaker 1: was preparing to stage his third annual Fourth of July
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Speaker 1: picnic on a day that Texas Senate have proclaimed would
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Speaker 1: be officially known as Willie Nelson Day. Blue Eyes Crying
10:37
Speaker 1: in the Rain, Red Headed Stranger's first single, sat at
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Speaker 1: number one on the Billboard Country Chart. Willie played Doug
10:43
Speaker 1: Weston's Troubadour in West Hollywood while Paul McCartney and Bob
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Speaker 1: Dylan watched from the audience. The following March in nineteen
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Speaker 1: seventy six, Red Headed Stranger was certified gold. Scuffles with
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Speaker 1: Bobby Hederman at the Dillo were disparaging remarks of the
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Speaker 1: Nashville elite. These were the last things on Willie Nelson's mind.
11:02
Speaker 1: Austin made really weird. It made him an outsider, but
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Speaker 1: it also made him a star. They're weirdos, outsiders, stars.
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Speaker 1: They all share one thing in common. They do whatever
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Speaker 1: the fuck they want. The Feds didn't even let Willie
11:43
Speaker 1: Nelson finishes around at golf. They wanted it all, and
11:46
Speaker 1: they wanted it now, jewels, pricess artwork, luxury cars. But
11:51
Speaker 1: first they take whatever cash was in the safe. Willie
11:54
Speaker 1: walked them inside the Pedernawis Clubhouse, which he converted into
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Speaker 1: a recording studio, and the dial on the safe to
12:01
Speaker 1: enter the combination, and swung the door open. The Feds
12:04
Speaker 1: couldn't believe what they weren't seeing. It was empty. Where
12:08
Speaker 1: is it? They asked, where's all the money? The money
12:11
Speaker 1: was with Willie Nelson's people always had been, not just
12:15
Speaker 1: the musicians on his payroll, or his ex wives or
12:18
Speaker 1: his current wife or his children. They were bus drivers
12:21
Speaker 1: to pay stage managers, lighting directors, bodyguards, and groundskeepers and
12:24
Speaker 1: golf pros and receptionists, nephews and half brothers and friends
12:28
Speaker 1: and friends of friends, and business advisors and attorneys and
12:30
Speaker 1: other musicians who were cool and technically didn't have jobs,
12:33
Speaker 1: but were allowed to live rent free on these breathtaking
12:36
Speaker 1: rolling hills just eight miles away from Austin. Some said
12:42
Speaker 1: it was too many people. The dishonest people fleeced Willy
12:45
Speaker 1: on the regular, but even dishonest people could be loyal,
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Speaker 1: and loyalty was key in a time of need. I
12:50
Speaker 1: know they're stealing from me, Willy said, but at least
12:53
Speaker 1: I know who they are. They have families to feed too.
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Speaker 1: I could clean them out. I get a whole new set,
12:57
Speaker 1: and then I wouldn't know who they are. That came
13:00
Speaker 1: down to it, Willie Nelson didn't mind getting conned as
13:03
Speaker 1: long as he knew that the guy doing the conning
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Speaker 1: had his back. Stick your head out the window and
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Speaker 1: I'll blow it off. Geno mccoslin was waving his pistol
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Speaker 1: at the cars as they crawled by. No one was
13:19
Speaker 1: getting their money back. The investors, the other promoters, they
13:22
Speaker 1: were all sol The box office receipts were gone, just
13:26
Speaker 1: accept it. There were eighty thousand people here at ten
13:30
Speaker 1: bucks ahead do the math Gino there had to be
13:33
Speaker 1: cashed or recouped, didn't matter. Gino was running the show,
13:37
Speaker 1: and Gino said it was gone, and now everyone else
13:40
Speaker 1: needed to get gone too. So Gino waved his pistol
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Speaker 1: some more. Show's over, Get the fuck out. Nineteen seventy six, Gonzales, Texas.
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Speaker 1: Willie Nelson's fourth annual Fourth of July picnic didn't go
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Speaker 1: as planned. First, there was one hundred degree heat in
13:57
Speaker 1: heavy rains. Someone drowned in a nearby stock The Bandido's
14:01
Speaker 1: Motorcycle Club, who were hired to run security, gave off
14:04
Speaker 1: serious altamont vibes as a strong arm of the crowd.
14:08
Speaker 1: People were stabbed and set on fire. And at the
14:11
Speaker 1: end of a long day and an even longer night,
14:13
Speaker 1: after performances by George Jones, Bobby Bear, David allen Coe,
14:17
Speaker 1: Billy Joe Shaver, Doug Som and Leon Russell, who is
14:19
Speaker 1: eight am the next morning and they're out of time,
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Speaker 1: Willie didn't even get to play. But there was an
14:24
Speaker 1: even bigger problem. Promoters were two hundred thousand dollars short
14:28
Speaker 1: of breaking even maybe Geno mccauslyin knew where the money went,
14:32
Speaker 1: and maybe he didn't. Willy didn't stress about it. Gino
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Speaker 1: was cool because Gino was loyal. Willie had known Gino
14:40
Speaker 1: since way back. Gino promoted shows when Willi was a nobody.
14:44
Speaker 1: Mucho's respect and trust. Willi never forgot that, just like
14:48
Speaker 1: WILLI never forgot the other couple of fast talking Texans
14:50
Speaker 1: who got in early on his ascendants. Those guys could
14:53
Speaker 1: do whatever the fuck they wanted in Texas. Willi didn't
14:56
Speaker 1: care if they were taking a little off the top
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Speaker 1: or even a lot. In fact, he expected some skimming.
15:02
Speaker 1: Even the con artists had to earn a living, so
15:05
Speaker 1: we let four guys handle Texas. He told his manager
15:08
Speaker 1: not to worry about it, don't look too hard at
15:10
Speaker 1: the bottom line. And there were no complicated contracts, no
15:13
Speaker 1: red tape. They just had an understanding, an understanding they had.
15:17
Speaker 1: Everyone benefited from Willy's altruistic ways, but no one benefited
15:22
Speaker 1: more than Willi himself. And he didn't need a gun
15:25
Speaker 1: in order to do what he wanted. He had other
15:27
Speaker 1: guys for that. By nineteen seventy eight, Willie Nelson had
15:34
Speaker 1: achieved an unprecedented level of success for a country artist.
15:38
Speaker 1: His duet with Waylon Jennings Mamas, Don't let your Babies
15:41
Speaker 1: go up to beat Cowboys, was a number one country
15:44
Speaker 1: hit that crossed over to the Billboard Hot one hundred.
15:47
Speaker 1: In his twenty second studio album, Stardust, a collection of
15:50
Speaker 1: pop standards produced by his neighbor one time Stax house
15:54
Speaker 1: band leader Booker T. Jones, was a smash. Willie liked
15:58
Speaker 1: singing other people's songs. Writing was hard, Writing was Nashville.
16:03
Speaker 1: Covers were half as hard to put together. Stardust didn't
16:07
Speaker 1: leave the country charts for ten years straight. Now Willie
16:10
Speaker 1: was on the cover of People magazine. He broke Frank
16:12
Speaker 1: Sinatra's attendance record in Vegas. In fact, Old Blue Eyes
16:16
Speaker 1: opened for Willie, not the other way around. His trademark
16:20
Speaker 1: bandana and his guitar trigger were his iconic and easily
16:23
Speaker 1: identifiable as the Nike Swooshe. Willie Nelson pulled this all
16:27
Speaker 1: off in part by cutting down on the chaos. Chaos
16:31
Speaker 1: set it once served to define the life of an
16:33
Speaker 1: ousted outsider, now needed to be refined. In order to
16:36
Speaker 1: push higher into the mainstream. Boundaries were set on drug use.
16:40
Speaker 1: Cocaine was strictly prohibited. You're wired, You're fired was a
16:44
Speaker 1: new mantra for Willy's posse. Weed was cool, and so
16:47
Speaker 1: were uppers and downeries. WILLI knew all about needing help
16:50
Speaker 1: to make it through the night, but coke was out.
16:52
Speaker 1: People on coke and people on weed didn't mix, and
16:55
Speaker 1: it turned gas paychecks into dust literally. Besides, Willie nelson
17:00
Speaker 1: vibe was carefully constructed around one particularly legal substance, and
17:03
Speaker 1: one substance only. Weed was a constant. It took the
17:08
Speaker 1: edge off, made the world mellow and chill. The more
17:12
Speaker 1: Willy smoked it, the more he realized how bad alcohol
17:15
Speaker 1: had been for him in the past and how much
17:17
Speaker 1: marijuana leveled him up. I don't smoke weed to get high,
17:21
Speaker 1: he said. I smoke weed to get normal. But in
17:24
Speaker 1: the late nineteen seventies, smoking weed wasn't normal. He was transgressive, devian, lawless,
17:30
Speaker 1: and a word of Willy's outlaw behavior followed him around
17:33
Speaker 1: like smoke from a roach. When Willy and his tour
17:35
Speaker 1: made and fellow tutsi's regular Hank Cochran stepped off a
17:38
Speaker 1: plane in the Bahamas, only to find their luggage missing,
17:41
Speaker 1: Willie didn't sweat it. There were worse things in the
17:44
Speaker 1: world than hanging out in paradise without a change of
17:46
Speaker 1: clothes for a day or two. When he retrieved his
17:48
Speaker 1: bags a few days later at the airport, Willy wasn't
17:51
Speaker 1: greeted by an airline employee. He was greeted by the
17:54
Speaker 1: badge of a customs agent. Shit. Probably should have just
17:57
Speaker 1: let that suitcase go, but he was here now, a
18:00
Speaker 1: big fucking star and a big fucking pickle. When the
18:03
Speaker 1: agent held up a small baggy of grass, Willy knew
18:06
Speaker 1: the one he was stashed in the pocket of a
18:08
Speaker 1: pair of jeans and a suitcase. The Commonwealth of the
18:11
Speaker 1: Bahamas didn't give a shit that Willy and Hank had
18:13
Speaker 1: a tour to resume, so Willie Nelson's next stop was
18:16
Speaker 1: a jail cell. But what happened then, well, Willie sure
18:21
Speaker 1: did regret it, but he knew just what he was
18:23
Speaker 1: going to do. He was gonna get drunk, even if
18:26
Speaker 1: it was behind bars. The Bahamian government let Willy sweat
18:30
Speaker 1: it out for a bit, then they decided they'd made
18:32
Speaker 1: their point. A guard walked to Willie cell to deliver
18:35
Speaker 1: the good news he was free. To go back home
18:38
Speaker 1: as long as he never stepped foot in the Bahamas again.
18:41
Speaker 1: But the guard unexpectedly found Willy already in a good mood.
18:44
Speaker 1: Empty beer cans were scattered at his feet, a smile
18:47
Speaker 1: plastered on his face. Later, when Willie Nelson met President
18:51
Speaker 1: Jimmy Carter, he may have told him exactly how he
18:54
Speaker 1: smuggled a six pack into a Bahamian jail cell. Or
18:57
Speaker 1: maybe he didn't. Either way, President Carter when Willy told
19:00
Speaker 1: him about his little dust up and paradise during a
19:02
Speaker 1: dinner in which Willy was guest of honor at the
19:04
Speaker 1: White House. President Carter was a fellow outsider, a peanut
19:08
Speaker 1: farmer who was now leader of the Free World, and
19:11
Speaker 1: like Willie, Carter didn't forget a favor. He didn't forget
19:14
Speaker 1: friends like Willy, who had lent their talents to his
19:16
Speaker 1: grassroots campaign. So at the White House, Willie dined, performed
19:21
Speaker 1: in the rose Garden, and then he and his wife
19:23
Speaker 1: retired to the Lincoln bedroom for the night, or so
19:26
Speaker 1: he thought. In the middle of the night, there was
19:29
Speaker 1: a knock at the doors. Willie got out of bed, quietly,
19:33
Speaker 1: went to the door and opened it slowly. Chip President
19:37
Speaker 1: Carter's twenty seven year old, lovable burnout son smiled at
19:40
Speaker 1: Willy from the other side. He held a joint in
19:43
Speaker 1: his hand. Chip led Willy through a series of hallways
19:46
Speaker 1: and then up all the way to the roof of
19:48
Speaker 1: the White House, and they sat down and looked at
19:50
Speaker 1: the Washington Monument. Pennsylvania Avenue was lit up like a
19:54
Speaker 1: Christmas tree, and Willie took a deep hit on the
19:56
Speaker 1: joint and exhaled, while the President of the United States
19:59
Speaker 1: slept somew were down below. No one was the wiser,
20:03
Speaker 1: just the way Willy liked it. It was one thing
20:05
Speaker 1: to be a household name, a star, to be loved
20:08
Speaker 1: by many like Chip Carter, and targeted by others like
20:11
Speaker 1: the Commonwealth of the Bahamas. But what bothered Willly was
20:15
Speaker 1: what is safety? And thus the safety of his extended family,
20:18
Speaker 1: the family he worked hard to support, was threatened. In
20:22
Speaker 1: those moments, he got impulsive. In those moments, he went
20:26
Speaker 1: into true outlaw mode. In those moments, Willie Nelson fought
20:30
Speaker 1: fire with fire. We'll be right back after this. We're We're, We're.
20:44
Speaker 1: Willie Nelson's old buddy Zeke, pulled his pickup up to
20:47
Speaker 1: the pump Willy jumped out of the passenger's side and
20:49
Speaker 1: grabbed the gas can from the truck bed. He filled
20:52
Speaker 1: it up with five gallons of regular, while Zeke ran
20:54
Speaker 1: inside for a complimentary book of matches. As he twisted
20:58
Speaker 1: the cat back on the can, ought some more about
21:01
Speaker 1: this centennial shit. It really pissed him off. Sure, he
21:05
Speaker 1: played a fundraiser to help his hometown of Abbot, Texas,
21:07
Speaker 1: celebrate his birthday, but he didn't ask for this. His
21:11
Speaker 1: name in big bold letters on billboards over by Interstate
21:14
Speaker 1: thirty five, the home of Willie Nelson, they read shit.
21:18
Speaker 1: Abbot was still the one place where Willie could slip
21:20
Speaker 1: back into the old days, be his old self. I'll
21:23
Speaker 1: worry about being hounded by people, the good, the bad,
21:26
Speaker 1: and the ugly, the ones that either wanted his autograph
21:28
Speaker 1: or wanted to put his hands in a pair of cuffs.
21:31
Speaker 1: He still signed autographs, every last one of them, and
21:34
Speaker 1: he always would no matter how famous he got. But
21:37
Speaker 1: this was a step too far. They may as well
21:39
Speaker 1: have drawn a giant fucking arrow on those signs and written,
21:42
Speaker 1: Willy is here, Willia and Zeke, We're gonna take care
21:45
Speaker 1: of this. Like the couple of young at hard hell raisers.
21:47
Speaker 1: They were they were going to burn those billboards to
21:50
Speaker 1: the ground. Zeke and Willie went way back. Zeke was
21:55
Speaker 1: the guy who showed Willy how the only way to
21:57
Speaker 1: live was on the edge. Zeke taught Willie poker, and
22:00
Speaker 1: our life wasn't much different than bluffing at a card table.
22:03
Speaker 1: But this wasn't nineteen forty nine. This was nineteen eighty one.
22:07
Speaker 1: Willy was forty eight years old, well on his way
22:10
Speaker 1: to becoming the highest grossing concert act in the world,
22:12
Speaker 1: and he was currently a tossing gasoline at the legs
22:15
Speaker 1: of a huge billboard. They lit a match, the flames erupted,
22:20
Speaker 1: the fire began to crackle at the base of the sign.
22:22
Speaker 1: A wind blew in, the flames dimmed, and the fire
22:26
Speaker 1: went out. They lit another match and tossed it and another.
22:30
Speaker 1: Each time the flames started up again, and each time
22:33
Speaker 1: they quickly died out. The longer Willi and Zeke stayed there,
22:36
Speaker 1: the higher the chances were that the one cop car
22:38
Speaker 1: and abbot would roll up and catch them in the act.
22:41
Speaker 1: Sometimes life didn't let you go out on the edge,
22:43
Speaker 1: no matter how hard he tried. The next morning, the
22:48
Speaker 1: billboarder was burning again, only this time it was really burning.
22:52
Speaker 1: Abbot PD arrested a local kid. Willy didn't know if
22:55
Speaker 1: the kid had finished what Willy started or if the
22:57
Speaker 1: billboard simply started burning again. In this sport had a
23:00
Speaker 1: reputation bad enough to be the scapegoat. Either way, Willy
23:04
Speaker 1: wasn't about to let some kid take the fall. He
23:06
Speaker 1: called the station. I was the one who burned the
23:09
Speaker 1: fucking sign, he said. The town accepted his confession, as
23:15
Speaker 1: well as the logic that the billboard was his to
23:17
Speaker 1: burn since he funded it. Abbot didn't have the heart
23:20
Speaker 1: to argue with its most famous son, but not everyone
23:22
Speaker 1: in Abbot was about to give Willie Nelson a free pass,
23:25
Speaker 1: especially when it came to murder. Margie Lundy was an
23:32
Speaker 1: old pal. She owned a honky tonk called the night
23:35
Speaker 1: Owl just south of Abbot years back. The night Owl
23:38
Speaker 1: was one of the few places you could catch at
23:40
Speaker 1: Willi nelson gig before Nashville or the rest of the
23:42
Speaker 1: world knew who the hell he was. Margie Lundy had
23:45
Speaker 1: Willie's respect and his loyalty, so when she was arrested
23:49
Speaker 1: and charged with the murder of her brother in law,
23:51
Speaker 1: Willie didn't hesitate to testify on her behalf as a
23:54
Speaker 1: character witness. She said she killed the guy in self defense,
23:57
Speaker 1: and Willie believed her. If Margie killed them, WILLI told
24:01
Speaker 1: the jury he must have had it coming. The prosecutor
24:04
Speaker 1: didn't hide his contempt for Willie. What kind of witness
24:06
Speaker 1: was this guy anyway? A dope smoker, a womanizer, an arsonist.
24:11
Speaker 1: In the end, the jury agreed with Willie and with Margie.
24:15
Speaker 1: Authority figures like the prosecuting attorney just didn't see how
24:18
Speaker 1: to eye with Willie Nelson, and that was okay because
24:21
Speaker 1: the feeling was mutual. Nineteen ninety Petronawis Country Club, Texas.
24:30
Speaker 1: Seeing as there was no cash in the safe, the
24:32
Speaker 1: feds took everything else, framed gold and platinum records, spools
24:36
Speaker 1: of recording tape, golf cards, photographs. They padlocked the whole place.
24:40
Speaker 1: They seized luck the phony western town built on Willy's
24:43
Speaker 1: property for the nineteen eighty five movie adaptation of Redheaded Stranger.
24:47
Speaker 1: They seized Willie's assets in California, Hawaii, Alabama, and then
24:52
Speaker 1: they put everything on the auction block. Everything but trigger.
24:56
Speaker 1: Willy's trusty guitar was the only thing he couldn't stand
24:59
Speaker 1: to lose. And exactly how did Willy's most quintessential valuable
25:04
Speaker 1: assets stay out of the hands of the Feds. That
25:06
Speaker 1: was a trade secret, a trick Willy learned early on
25:09
Speaker 1: in life. It was a bluff at the poker table.
25:12
Speaker 1: It was how he was able to smuggle a six
25:13
Speaker 1: pack into the Behamian prison cell, or how Gino mccauslin
25:17
Speaker 1: and the boys were able to make thousands of dollars
25:19
Speaker 1: disappear from the till everything else was just stuff. Willie
25:22
Speaker 1: had come from nothing once before. He could do it again.
25:26
Speaker 1: So he got himself out of the jam with the Irs,
25:29
Speaker 1: the way he got himself out of every other jam
25:31
Speaker 1: in his life with his music. With Trigger. In the
25:35
Speaker 1: summer of nineteen ninety one, Willy released the IRS tapes
25:39
Speaker 1: Who Will Buy My Memories, a two CD set featuring
25:42
Speaker 1: just Willy and his guitar playing some of the biggest
25:44
Speaker 1: songs of his career. Maybe you saw commercials for the
25:47
Speaker 1: album on TV. You could only order it over the phone.
25:50
Speaker 1: It was probably the first and only album ever recorded
25:53
Speaker 1: with the sole purpose of being a revenue stream for
25:55
Speaker 1: the federal government, and by nineteen ninety three. Following sales
25:59
Speaker 1: of the Double Disc and auctions of his belongings, the
26:02
Speaker 1: Irs declared Willie's debt officially settled. He should have been
26:06
Speaker 1: left with next to nothing, But Willie Nelson was a
26:08
Speaker 1: man who led a life by karma. It was loyal
26:11
Speaker 1: to those around him, no matter if the rest of
26:13
Speaker 1: society viewed them as bad people. His friends, his fans,
26:17
Speaker 1: his extended family. The farmers at the federal government had forsaken,
26:20
Speaker 1: and that Willy helped year after year with farm aid.
26:23
Speaker 1: There were nothing if not loyal. They bid on many
26:26
Speaker 1: of the items on the auction block and made sure
26:28
Speaker 1: that when the dust settled, Willy got back what he deserved.
26:31
Speaker 1: And then he got back to doing what he did, singing, touring.
26:34
Speaker 1: He was busy, as busy as he'd ever been, just trying,
26:38
Speaker 1: as he so modestly put it, to pay the rent
26:40
Speaker 1: and keep the lights on. It was all he knew.
26:42
Speaker 1: It was therapeutic. It helped him forget about the things
26:45
Speaker 1: he didn't want to think about. His mind was full
26:48
Speaker 1: of other things, other people, including someone who needed help.
26:52
Speaker 1: But the one time Willy wasn't able to give it.
27:16
Speaker 1: Don't call him Willie, call him Billy. Billy was his
27:20
Speaker 1: own man. He wanted to be known for his own accomplishments.
27:23
Speaker 1: He could sing, he could raise hell, and he could
27:25
Speaker 1: do both without holding on to his daddy's coat tails.
27:28
Speaker 1: But wherever he went, they all said the same thing,
27:32
Speaker 1: there goes Willy Nelson's boy. Billy Nelson was the third
27:36
Speaker 1: of Willie Nelson's seven children. Like his father, Billy was
27:40
Speaker 1: a musician, but his addictions were always landing him in trouble,
27:43
Speaker 1: and his dad was frequently coming to the rescue. Not
27:46
Speaker 1: physically because Willie was off and away from home on
27:49
Speaker 1: the road doing what he had to do to pay
27:51
Speaker 1: the rent, but he helped financially, like when Billy's condo
27:54
Speaker 1: at the ped Andales Country Club was burned to the
27:56
Speaker 1: ground as a result of a blotch drug deal. Willy
27:59
Speaker 1: had the place and gave Billy fifty grand to get
28:01
Speaker 1: a shit together. But Willy wasn't always able to help,
28:05
Speaker 1: especially not in nineteen ninety one when every last cent
28:07
Speaker 1: he made was funneled directly to the irs. Billy, at
28:11
Speaker 1: the time was at a tailspin. He still wasn't over
28:14
Speaker 1: his mother's death from two years earlier. He was heartbroken
28:17
Speaker 1: when his wife left him and took their only daughter.
28:19
Speaker 1: He was arrested four times for drunk driving. He was broke.
28:23
Speaker 1: His famous father had fallen from grace. In the eyes
28:25
Speaker 1: of many. Willy's tax was turned him into a punchline
28:28
Speaker 1: on late night talk shows. All Billy had was the
28:32
Speaker 1: solace of that old plot of family land out in Ridgetop, Tennessee.
28:36
Speaker 1: Ridgetop was full of good memories of his mom, his sisters,
28:39
Speaker 1: his aunt Bobby Lee and Paul English, who kept his
28:41
Speaker 1: daddy's worlds. He checks coming in steady. Everyone had what
28:45
Speaker 1: they wanted, no one went without. Life was simpler then.
28:52
Speaker 1: It was at Ridgetop that Billy Nelson was found on
28:55
Speaker 1: Christmas of nineteen ninety one, almost twenty one years to
28:59
Speaker 1: the day since the house fire that served as the
29:01
Speaker 1: catalyst for his father's return to Texas. He was hanging
29:05
Speaker 1: from the ceiling of his log cabin home, a cord
29:07
Speaker 1: wrapped around his neck. He was thirty three. Willie was
29:12
Speaker 1: devastated for a parent to lose their child. The pain
29:16
Speaker 1: and sorrow Willy wrote about when he was his son's age,
29:19
Speaker 1: none of it compared to this, The ache, the misery,
29:22
Speaker 1: It was like part of him was gone. It was unbearable.
29:26
Speaker 1: Willie found no solace in spirituality. He'd long believed that
29:30
Speaker 1: death was not the end, that after your body dies,
29:33
Speaker 1: some part of you, your soul, your consciousness, your spirit,
29:36
Speaker 1: lives on. He hoped that believing in reincarnation would make
29:40
Speaker 1: grieving a loved one's death easier. But when it came
29:43
Speaker 1: down to it, when it was time to put that
29:45
Speaker 1: theory to the test in the real world, believing or
29:48
Speaker 1: not believing it didn't do a damn thing. There was
29:51
Speaker 1: only one thing Willie Nelson could do. It felt good
29:57
Speaker 1: to be on the road again. The road stretched out
30:00
Speaker 1: the horizon. It took you far away from here. Sometimes
30:03
Speaker 1: there were shows to play at the end of the road,
30:05
Speaker 1: and other times there were records to cut. Johnny Cash,
30:08
Speaker 1: Toby Keith, and Kenny Chesney were all waiting in various
30:11
Speaker 1: city sure, but so was everyone. Toots in the may Tellers, Winter, Marsalis,
30:15
Speaker 1: Fish Snoop DOGG, We're Can Go Star. Willie Nelson's extended
30:18
Speaker 1: family was beholden to no one genre. On November twenty six,
30:22
Speaker 1: twenty ten, the day after Thanksgiving, Willie Nelson was on
30:26
Speaker 1: I ten, headed back to Austin from California. Around nine am,
30:30
Speaker 1: his tor bus approached a border patrol checkpoint in Sierra Blanca, Texas.
30:35
Speaker 1: The bus slowed down and came to a stop. This
30:39
Speaker 1: was twenty years after the IRS bust and his bus
30:41
Speaker 1: no longer read hepmobile on the side. But the authorities
30:44
Speaker 1: still didn't like what the outlaw William Nelson stood for.
30:47
Speaker 1: The dogs were first to board the bus. Their noses
30:50
Speaker 1: led them right to it six ounces of weed. Willie
30:53
Speaker 1: didn't deny that it was his. It's kind of surprising,
30:56
Speaker 1: said the county sheriff, while seventy seventy year old Willie
30:59
Speaker 1: Nelson sat behind borrows in a local jail. But we
31:02
Speaker 1: treat him like everybody else. He could get one hundred
31:04
Speaker 1: and eighty days, and if he does, I'm going to
31:06
Speaker 1: make him cook and clean. Of course, Willie Nelson didn't
31:11
Speaker 1: cook or clean for anyone. After the prosecutor ridiculously suggested
31:15
Speaker 1: that he perform Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain in
31:17
Speaker 1: lieu of a penalty, Willie Nelson paid a five hundred
31:20
Speaker 1: and fifty dollars fine and walked away. It didn't sit
31:23
Speaker 1: well with the judge. Anyone else would have been charged
31:27
Speaker 1: with a felony, but not Willie Nelson. Willie Nelson walked
31:30
Speaker 1: away from a possession charge in the Bahamas, he walked
31:33
Speaker 1: away from an arson charge in his hometown. In the
31:36
Speaker 1: eyes of the judge, the law made a habit of
31:38
Speaker 1: look in the other way for Willie Nelson, and that
31:40
Speaker 1: was not fair. So in twenty twelve the judge reopened
31:44
Speaker 1: the case, and over ten years later, it remains open.
31:48
Speaker 1: Over a decade after he was busted for six ounces
31:51
Speaker 1: of weed, Willie Nelson, now eighty nine years old, remains
31:55
Speaker 1: one of the most beloved men in popular music and
31:58
Speaker 1: an outlaw in his home state of Texas. In that
32:02
Speaker 1: would be a disgrace if it wasn't so badass, I'm
32:08
Speaker 1: Jake Brennan in this this Disgraceland. Disgraceland was created by
32:27
Speaker 1: Yours Truly and is produced in partnership with Double Elvis.
32:30
Speaker 1: Credits for this episode can be found on the show
32:33
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32:36
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33:16
Speaker 1: Rock a Roller, He's the bed Don Man.