Willie Nelson Playtime…..And His Birthday Party!

I was about to sit down, in the bar stool in the foreground and I thought….THAT would make a good picture.

Freddy Powers was my best friend and my musical mentor. Freddy was one of Willie Nelson’s best friends. They met in 1954, the year I was born. When I started playing with Freddy, we played 5 days a week in his living room. One day he asked if I could bring an extra microphone with me…..

When I walked into his living room, he and Django Porter were sitting there with Willie Nelson. I sat down, we started playing. I was on bass. We recorded while we played and I have a great Cd from that day. We played “Avalon”, “Sweet Sue”, “Nuages”, “Stardust”, “Kiss to Build a Dream On”, “Out of Nowhere” and many other standards, as well as some Willie Nelson songs I didn’t know, like, “Why Are You Pickin’ On Me” and “Home Motel”, great songs. Willie had just written “It Always Will Be” and we have that on tape, before he recorded it in the studio. That is also where I learned “Goin’ Away Party”, (written by Cindy Walker who wrote “You Don’t Know Me”) and “I’ll Keep On Loving You” and “This Cold War With You” by Floyd Tillman.

On the way home, that evening, I cried a little bit, in my car. I thought…”I MUST be a musician, now”. It was a bit overwhelming. Willie is a large part of why I came to Austin in 1979. Who would have thought this kid from Baltimore would be sitting in the living room, playing with “Willie Nelson”.

I have, since, played his 4th of July Picnic 5 times now. (My daughter, Mina, met Willie there, for the 1st time)

One year I went, with Freddy and Catherine Powers, to Willie’s birthday party. It was held in Luck, Tx…..which is a fake, old west town, movie set, on Willie’s property. He holds it 2 night in a row because he was born at midnight. The first night was all musicians. At one point, I’m walking across the bar in Willie’s Luck Headquarters and I hear Ray Benson (Who I have known since I got here, in ’79) calling out to me “Steve! Come over here and try this!”. He was in the dark corner with Willie, smoking some huge vaporizer that looked like a UFO, with multiple hookah arms, sitting on the table. I thought “This doesn’t suck. Sitting in the dark with Willie and Ray….vaping”. One of those magic moments.

The next night was Movie Star Night, I guess. Woody Harrelson, Owen and Like Wilson and Billy Bob Thornton were there. My daughter, Mina, was with me and she was in “Hog heaven”. She was a fan of Luke Wilson and Owen Wilson. That all changed when Billy Bob spent a long time with us. We talked about tattoos, how Mina had snuck out and gotten one, but, so had Billy Bob’s son. He said he was pissed but held out his colorful arms..”But what could I do?” Mina thinks he hung the moon. He and I talked music, about his band and my experiences with Freddy. What a great guy.