www.faroutmagazine.co.uk
by: Joe Taysom
Willie Nelson celebrates his 87th birthday April 30thth so Austin City Limits have shared rare footage of him appearing on their show all the way back in 1976.
Nelson’s wonderful appearance was recorded on October 4th, 1976, and saw the singer accompanied by his family band for a performance of 1975’s Red Headed Stranger from front to back. The episode originally aired as the first episode of Austin City Limits’ second season in 1977 some months after it’s recording and was Nelson’s second appearance on the show after he performed during the pilot episode.
Viewers are encouraged to donate to Farm Aid and it is available to watch now on YouTube following it’s premiere at 4:20 CT yesterday. The timing of the steam is obviously no coincidence, to celebrate 4:20 earlier this month, Nelson hosted a 4-hour-and-20-minute stream which, obviously, will be taking place at 4:20pm, will broadcast via Luck Reunion’s Twitch account in association with Nelson’s Willie Reserve cannabis line.
Nelson, longtime associated with cannabis culture and advocate for the legalisation of marijuana, established his of his own marijuana brand, Willie’s Reserve, the moment weed was legalised in different states across America. “I wouldn’t be alive. It saved my life, really,” he once told Rolling Stone about the impacts of pot. “I wouldn’t have lived 85 years if I’d have kept drinking and smoking like I was when I was 30, 40 years old. I think that weed kept me from wanting to kill people. And probably kept a lot of people from wanting to kill me, too — out there drunk, running around.”
Stream the 1976 show below and feel free to donate if you can afford it.