Willie Nelson Picnic book outtakes No. 1
Not all the good stories got in the book. Here's some of the best that was left out
Aftermath of the 1976 Gonzales Picnic. Austin American-Statesman photo
When I wrote my book “Picnic: Willie Nelson’s Fourth of July Tradition,” I conducted more than 150 interviews over a little less than two years, (Hey, if that book sounds cool, you can buy it here.)
Texas A&M University Press asked me to keep it to 75,000 words, but after cutting it down from 90,000+, I turned it in at 85,000 words and they never blinked an eye.
Still, there’s always good stuff that gets left out. Here’s some of the best of the outtakes.
Bobby Earl Smith, member of Freda and the Firedogs, on the 1974 Picnic in College Station
“Our guy who was doing our equipment at the time, he had taken some cocaine up there. I didn’t know it at the time, but he was gonna sell it. He had unloaded us, but when he was coming back through that tunnel, he got stopped of gunpoint and robbed of the cocaine. He had no idea how anybody knew he had it. So there was kind of a wild and wooly side of it, too. My wife was there. She’s down front and walking around and she looks up and these two people are doing the nasty right in front of her in the dirt, completely naked. So it was something.”
Roger Collins, then an Austin bar owner, on the 1975 Picnic in Liberty Hill
“We had our Picnic headquarters at the Hilton (in Austin), the night before the Picnic. We had a big suite and there were six Secret Service agents all passed out on the floor.” (Roger is talking about a group of retired agents who had been part of Lyndon B. Johnson’s detail and now were big fans of Willie Nelson.) “The next morning they drove my car out to the Picnic at Liberty Hill at 8 o’clock in the morning. As soon as we barely got to the outskirts of town, we hit this traffic jam. Gary Green, who was one of the agents, says ‘Roger, don’t worry about it.’ We pull up to a highway patrol officer and he hangs his badge out the window. After that, we were flying down the street passing about three or four miles of traffic all the way to the Picnic.”
Crowd in front of the stage at the 1976 Gonzales Picnic. Austin American-Statesman photo
Melinda Wickman, photographer, on the 1976 Picnic in Gonzales
Melinda was talking about security giving her a hard time while trying to get on stage to take photos. “Waylon Jennings saw what was going on and he just grabbed my arm and said ‘You want on stage?’ I said yes, of course, because he was about ready to play. And he physically grabbed me and led me on stage and no one would question him. And I stayed on stage as long as I could, because of that. … Waylon had a bit of a gravitas. It's like he didn't suffer fools and he didn't deal in pretense. There are some people that you just know that about. And he projected that. Totally a gentleman with me always. ... From then on, he was my hero.”
Scott Newton, photographer, on the 1976 Picnic in Gonzales
“My wife and I have backstage passes, so you know we’re cleared. But when you came through, security was telling people you have to give that backstage pass up, we’ll replace it later with another one. I've been around enough to know now this ain't right, I'm not giving you our backstage passes. (With a little resistance they were let through.) Later on, it turned out that it was well-known that security was ripping off people's backstage passes and giving them to their girlfriends. So this is how crazy it was -- security was the first problem. That was just the level of anarchy that you face when security is the first level of criminality.”
Connie Nelson, Willie’s ex-wife, talking about the Hells Angels
When questioned about Roger Collins’ Secret Service friends, Connie didn’t recall them specifically, but did say the Willie Family had their own security. “We had the Hells Angels around. They protected all the artists and they were like the artists’ Secret Service in a way. (WIllie’s longtime personal security guy was former Larry Gorham, a former Hells Angel.) My kids grew up with Hells Angels. During the summer, Willie would do all of his state fair dates. While he was doing his show, one or more of the Hells Angels would take me and the kids to the amusement park and let them ride all the rides. I never worried about anything because I knew that no matter what might ever accidentally come down, we were protected.”
Crowd at the 1980 Pedernales Picnic. I didn’t put this photo in the book because this woman’s Texas flag is upside down. Damn. Austin American-Statesman photo
Scott Newton, on the 1980 Picnic at Willie’s Pedernales Country Club
“I do remember watching a couple fuck in the pool. They didn't think anybody could see them, but they're right there in the middle of everybody.” (Scott is talking about the backstage area, which was the country club. The crowds watched the show from the golf course.) “(They think they look like) a couple hugging each other out in the middle of the pool, but they’re actually having sex right there. Those of us who could tell were laughing our asses off. I had forgotten about that until just now. All I can think of was good times on that one.”
No, this 1980 Picnic photo didn’t make the book either. Austin American-Statesman photo