stillisstillmoving.com

www.texasmonthly.com has invited Willie Nelson friends and fans to write in about Willie.  Here’s one from Dawn Ditto:

In 1979, I was 14 years old. Willie Nelson was scheduled to appear in Big Spring, Texas, in August of that year. As that Texas summer got hotter, so did a preacher in one of the churches in town. He and his congregation felt that Willie Nelson was a sinful man and as far as they were concerned, his music was sinful, too. The city backed down and was about to cancel the concert. Willie came out and said that he would come to Big Spring and play for free, for anyone that wanted to come and hear him and the city could keep the money from the ticket sales. They moved the concert from the newly built coliseum to the high school football stadium.

The night before the concert a couple of buddies and I crawled over the fence at the stadium. We walked around and talked to the roadies putting up the stage. They were listening to the Pittsburg Steelers and Houston Oilers playing their last pre-season game of the year on the radio.

The next night, the excitement was palpable. Willie was here. No money for a ticket, I stood outside the fence and listened to the crowd, over 10,000 people had come to see Willie. Authorities in Big Spring had never dealt with anything this big. The band left for it’s first encore and they opened the gates to let people leave. Folks started to come out, and I ran in. The next thing I knew, the band was coming back out! Willie was right in front of me, starting the first familiar strains of “Whiskey River.” I smiled and clapped. Willie reached down off the stage and shook my hand and winked at me. After the concert, I ran all the way home and burst through the door. “Mama! Willie Nelson shook my hand!” She grinned. “Look on TV. There’s a camera at the church that didn’t want Willie to come.” The church on TV was totally empty. Mama said, “I expect God was down at Memorial Stadium watching Willie Nelson.”

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 21st, 2008 at 5:36 pm and is filed under Fans, Magazines, Picnic. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.