Family of Paul English to hold auction
Memorabilia from Willie's longtime drummer up for bids on May 17
How would you like to own the drums Paul English played onstage with Willie Nelson for decades? The same drums he played in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, during the recording of the “Willie and Family Live” album?
As a matter of fact, how would you like to own the masters of that album? You could kick back and listen to unreleased songs.
The family of Paul English is holding an auction of some of his personal items on May 17 at Burley Auction Gallery in New Braunfels. The auction will include such museum-quality items as Paul’s drums and the “Willie and Family Live” masters, but also will include one of his capes, some tour jackets, passes, photos, posters, tickets and other memorabilia.
One of the more interesting items are lyrics to a Willie song, handwritten by Willie on stationary from a hotel in Oslo, Norway. The pages include notations written by Paul.
I recently visited Paul’s widow, Janie English, at her home in Dallas and met two of her sons, Paul Jr. and Evan. I hope to write an official preview of the auction for somebody, but I can share a little bit now.
Janie spoke of meeting her husband in the late 1970s, when things could be pretty rowdy still. She remembered going with him to a show in Houston where someone threw a beer bottle at Willie during the show. The bottle missed, but Paul wouldn’t. He kept his eyes on the guy who threw the bottle the rest of the show.
“The minute that show was over, he went off the front of the stage and punched the guy,” Janie told me. “It ended up being a big thing and he broke his thumb doing it.”
Paul would end up going to the hospital and Janie stayed right with him.
“I think that’s when we really got to know each other, those weird few days he was in the hospital for getting into a fight.”
That other guy was lucky. Paul carried a gun. Sometimes two. Heck, maybe more. Paul’s son Evan knows his dad was a gangster and a pimp in a lawless Fort Worth in the 1950s. But once Paul met Willie, he was the tough guy in a different world.
“Especially in the early days, he was sort of the enforcer where they were playing these clubs, or a lot of times they might not have wanted to pay you,” Evan said. “He made sure they got paid, usually at gunpoint.”
Paul died five years ago of pneumonia, and the family said they are having the auction to help keep his legacy alive. Paul Jr. said he doesn’t know where his dad’s stuff will end up, but he hopes it goes to someone who lives the music and appreciates his dad’s contribution to it.
“I’d like to see it go to anybody who can help us kind of perpetuate his legacy a little bit,” he said. “Getting this stuff into the hands of the people who truly love it is the right thing to do.”