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Abbott, Texas · born 29 April 1933 · on the road since

Willie Nelson

His guitar, Trigger, has no pickguard. Since 1969 his pick has worn a hole right through it, and friends have scratched their names round the hole.

Willie Nelson singing into a microphone, a bandana round his head, playing a battered classical guitar covered in scratched names
1978, with Trigger. Cherie Diez · Public domain
Willie Nelson in a straw cowboy hat, bearded, eyes half closed, singing at a microphone
About 1973. Atlantic Records · Public domain

Hill County and Bexar County, Texas · 1933 onwards

A church he bought back.
A dance hall every Saturday.

A teenage Willie Nelson in a dark shirt, his hair combed up, looking at the camera
Willie Nelson as a junior, from the Abbott High School annual, 1949. Abbott High School · Public domain
A line of trees beside a grass field, with a water tower showing above them
Abbott, Hill County, seen across the fields, 2011. Oyoyoy · CC BY-SA 3.0

Abbott Methodist Church · 116 Bordon, Abbott, Hill County

He was born in Abbott, Texas, on 29 April 1933, and grew up in central Texas on the Opry, Texas honky-tonk, western swing and German-American polka bands.

He and his sister Bobbie went to this church from the time they were born.

In July 2006 the church was for sale at $72,000; he told his friend to offer $2,500 more. Willie and Bobbie played at the party that July to celebrate its reopening.

A working church in a small town off Interstate 35, north of Waco: see abbottmethodistchurch.com for services. The photograph is Abbott from across the fields.

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On a later visit the two of them sat at the sanctuary piano: she played and he sang Family Bible.

A green and white roadside building hung with hand-painted signs for a country store, cafe, dancing and tamales
John T. Floore’s Country Store, Helotes, 2012. Photograph: Larry D. Moore. Larry D. Moore · CC BY 4.0

John T. Floore’s Country Store · 14492 Old Bandera Road, Helotes

By 1973 Floore’s had been a Helotes honky-tonk for 31 years, and he had been playing it for about 20 of them; at one point he played every Saturday night.

A dance hall and café with an outdoor stage, north-west of San Antonio. Ticketed shows most weekends; the Sunday Dine and Dance is free and all ages.

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In 1969 he left his Baldwin guitar on the stage floor during a show in Helotes, and a drunk man stepped on it.

Nashville · from 1960

Three handshakes to a songwriting job.
Shake on it.

A clean-shaven Willie Nelson with short slicked hair, smiling, a jacket slung over his shoulder
Willie Nelson, a Grand Ole Opry publicity portrait, 1965. Grand Ole Opry · Public domain
Willie Nelson in a dark jacket and white roll-neck, smiling, holding an electric guitar
Willie Nelson, an RCA Victor publicity photograph, about 1965. RCA Records · Public domain
  1. 1Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge
  2. 2Hank Cochran
  3. 3Hal Smith, Pamper Music

A Texan new in town, 1960. Three introductions stand between him and a job writing songs.

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A narrow brick bar front painted bright purple, with a rooftop terrace and umbrellas
Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge on Broadway, Nashville, 2015. Ttotallytexan · CC BY-SA 4.0

Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge · 422 Broadway, Nashville

Tootsie Bess ran a bar called Mom’s here, and renamed it Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge when she had the outside painted purple.

Performers and audiences from the Opry’s shows came over after performances.

The bar helped Willie Nelson get his first songwriting job.

A honky-tonk on Lower Broadway with live music on every floor, behind the Ryman Auditorium.

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A pale cowboy hat on a stand in a museum case above a pair of canvas sneakers and a placard
A Lone Star Dude hat the Texas Hatters made for Willie Nelson about 1973, at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, 2021. Dmil3422 · CC BY-SA 4.0

The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum · 222 Rep. John Lewis Way South, Nashville

He was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1993.

It notes that he became a Grand Ole Opry member in November 1964, after records for Liberty and then RCA.

It calls him one of Music City’s most gifted and prolific writers.

Open daily, 9am to 5pm.

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Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum

Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum

Nashville · Open daily 9am–5pm

He was elected in 1993. A hat the Texas Hatters made for him around 1973 was on show in 2021.

Plan a visit

North of Nashville · 1970

The house burned.
He went home to Texas.

A small white clapboard chapel with a short spire on a winter lawn
Ridgetop, Tennessee: the Highland Chapel Union Church on Highland Avenue, 2014. The town, not the house. Nyttend · Public domain

His house burned down; the Hall of Fame puts the fire in 1970, after his second marriage had ended.

Taste of Country places the house in Ridgetop, near Nashville, and dates the fire to 23 December 1969: he came home from a Christmas party in Nashville to find it burning.

After the fire he moved back to Texas.

Private land, named here and never mapped. The photograph is the town’s Highland Chapel, not the house.

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Trigger · a Martin N-20, bought 1969

No pickguard.
Wear the hole.

  1. 1969
  2. 1972
  3. 1973
  4. 1975
  5. 1979
  6. 1985
  7. 1993
  8. Now

1969. New from Shot Jackson: $750, sight unseen, the Baldwin’s pickup moved across. The top is clean spruce.

Through the hole · John T. Floore’s Country Store

By 1973 Floore’s had been a Helotes honky-tonk for 31 years, and he had been playing it for about 20 of them; at one point he played every Saturday night.

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In 1969 he left his Baldwin guitar on the stage floor during a show in Helotes, and a drunk man stepped on it. Shot Jackson, a Nashville repairer, judged it past saving and sold him a Martin N-20 nylon-string guitar, sight unseen, for $750, moving the Baldwin’s pickup into it.

He named it after Roy Rogers’s horse, Trigger. A classical guitar has no pickguard, because it is meant to be played with the fingers; decades of strumming with a pick wore a hole through the top.

More than a hundred friends have signed the top: musicians, lawyers and football coaches. Leon Russell was the first, after asking Willie to sign his guitar. Its caretaker, Mark Erlewine, has re-glued the top to the sides several times, where sweat from Willie’s arm lifted it.

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Close-up of a worn nylon-string guitar top with a ragged hole below the strings and handwritten names scratched across the wood
Trigger’s top in 2007: the hole worn through beside the bridge, and the names scratched into the spruce. Photograph: Paul Familetti. Paul Familetti · CC BY 2.0
A battered classical guitar on a stand on a stage, its top worn pale with a hole under the sound hole
Trigger on its stand on stage in 2012. Photograph: Mike Prosser. Mike Prosser (colmmcsky) · CC BY-SA 2.0

Texas · nine bands, nine stops

The armadillo won’t curl up.
It jumps.

Nine bands, nine Texas stops. Startle it.

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A bronze plaque with an armadillo on it, set on a stone in a car park
The plaque in the car park of One Texas Center, where the Armadillo stood, 2006. Photograph: Larry D. Moore. Larry D. Moore · CC BY 4.0

Armadillo World Headquarters (site) · One Texas Center, Barton Springs Road at South 1st Street, Austin

The Armadillo opened in August 1970 in a converted National Guard armory.

Willie Nelson made his Armadillo debut in 1972.

It closed after a New Year’s Eve show on 31 December 1980, when its lease ran out, and was demolished.

The hall has gone; a plaque in the One Texas Center car park, dedicated on 19 August 2006, marks where it stood.

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A stone and grey single-storey civic building with a flag and young trees in front
Dripping Springs, Texas: City Hall, 2019. The town, not the ranch. Photograph: Larry D. Moore. Larry D. Moore · CC BY 4.0

Dripping Springs · Dripping Springs, Hays County

On 4 July 1973 he held his first Fourth of July Picnic at the same Dripping Springs site.

The Picnic moved round: College Station in 1974, then Gonzales, Dallas, Carl’s Corner, Luckenbach, New York and Washington state among others; Austin has been its most common home lately.

The ranch where the Reunion and the first Picnic were held is private and not pinned. The photograph is the town’s City Hall.

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A packed theatre lit green and blue, a band on stage beyond the crowd
Inside the Moody Theater, home of ACL Live, 2018. Photograph: Jonathan Cutrer. Jonathan Cutrer from San Angelo, Texas, United States · CC BY 2.0

ACL Live at the Moody Theater · 310 West Willie Nelson Boulevard, Austin

On 17 October 1974 Willie and his Family band went into Studio 6A to record the pilot for Austin City Limits.

A bronze statue of Willie Nelson stands at the entrance.

A working concert hall with shows most weeks; the venue sells building tours from its own site. The street outside is Willie Nelson Boulevard.

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Champaign, Illinois · 22 September 1985

Twelve hours on a football field.
For the farmers.

The long brick and stone colonnaded front of a football stadium with fans walking past
Memorial Stadium, Champaign, Illinois: the west front, 2004. EnakoNosaj at English Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0
  • 12 hours
  • 40+ acts
  • $9m+ raised

The first Farm Aid concert took place here on 22 September 1985. Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp and Neil Young organised it.

By 2018 the Farm Aid concerts had raised more than $53 million for family farming.

The University of Illinois football stadium. See the outside any day; inside on game days and events.

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Where it is now

8 places you can visit, in Texas, Nashville and Illinois. The house near Nashville is private, the Dripping Springs ranch and Luck are private land, and the Garland studio is a working studio, so they are named but not on the map.

Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.

  • General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working church in a small town off Interstate 35, north of Waco: see abbottmethodistchurch.com for services. The photograph is Abbott from across the fields.

  • General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A dance hall and café with an outdoor stage, north-west of San Antonio. Ticketed shows most weekends; the Sunday Dine and Dance is free and all ages.

  1. A line of trees beside a grass field, with a water tower showing above them
    Abbott, Hill County, seen across the fields, 2011. Oyoyoy · CC BY-SA 3.0

    116 Bordon, Abbott, Hill County

    Abbott Methodist Church

    He was born in Abbott, Texas, on 29 April 1933, and grew up in central Texas on the Opry, Texas honky-tonk, western swing and German-American polka bands.

    A working church in a small town off Interstate 35, north of Waco: see abbottmethodistchurch.com for services. The photograph is Abbott from across the fields.

    Scratched in the margin
  2. A green and white roadside building hung with hand-painted signs for a country store, cafe, dancing and tamales
    John T. Floore’s Country Store, Helotes, 2012. Photograph: Larry D. Moore. Larry D. Moore · CC BY 4.0

    14492 Old Bandera Road, Helotes

    John T. Floore’s Country Store

    By 1973 Floore’s had been a Helotes honky-tonk for 31 years, and he had been playing it for about 20 of them; at one point he played every Saturday night.

    A dance hall and café with an outdoor stage, north-west of San Antonio. Ticketed shows most weekends; the Sunday Dine and Dance is free and all ages.

    Scratched in the margin

Stay

Sleep in Austin.

A hotel that has had live music since the nineteenth century, a walk from Willie Nelson Boulevard.

The Driskill

The Driskill

604 Brazos Street, Austin

Austin’s hotel since 1886, at 604 Brazos Street: 189 rooms, and live music weekly in The Victorian bar. Not a Willie Nelson address; a walk from ACL Live and Willie Nelson Boulevard. Pictured: the boulevard sign.

Check rooms

Go there

Walk in.

The Hall of Fame, his golf course, the hall Austin City Limits calls home, and Austin by tour.

Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum

Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum

Nashville · Open daily 9am–5pm

He was elected in 1993. A hat the Texas Hatters made for him around 1973 was on show in 2021.

Plan a visit
Pedernales Golf Club

Pedernales Cut ’N Putt

807 Paisley Drive, Spicewood · Daily-fee golf · nine holes

Nine holes he bought in 1979, with the studio where Pancho & Lefty was made. Open for daily-fee play when Golf.com visited in 2020: check before you drive out.

Read before you go
ACL Live at the Moody Theater

ACL Live building tours

310 West Willie Nelson Boulevard, Austin · Tour tickets on the venue’s site

The hall Austin City Limits moved into in 2011, with his bronze statue at the entrance.

See the tours
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Austin live-music tours

Austin

Live marketplace results for music tours in Austin. Check each itinerary for South Congress, the Armadillo site and Willie Nelson Boulevard.

Live marketplace results · itineraries change

Compare tours

What’s on

Still playing.

Floore’s on a Saturday, Christmas week at ACL Live, and his own next dates.

Checking current event dates…

Take it home

Books, a record and a poster.

His own story and the big biography, Red Headed Stranger on vinyl, and an original one-sheet.

Bookshop.org UK · Ad / affiliate

It’s a Long Story: My Life

Willie Nelson with David Ritz

His own account, from Abbott to the road.

Find the book
Bookshop.org UK · Ad / affiliate

Willie Nelson: An Epic Life

Joe Nick Patoski

The biography by the writer who covered the Abbott church’s reopening.

Find the book
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Red Headed Stranger

Willie Nelson · LP, Columbia KC 33482, 1975

The album recorded at Autumn Sound in Garland.

Live marketplace search · listings and condition change

Find a copy
Printed Originals · Our poster store

The Electric Horseman (1979) · US one-sheet

An original 1979 US one-sheet, 27 × 40 in, for the film he made with Robert Redford; rolled, previously folded, near mint.

In stock

View poster

Dates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.

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Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.

12 of 12 places · 16 of 16 Moments

  • Abbott Methodist Church

    116 Bordon, Abbott, Hill County

    • Born in Abbott

      Born in Abbott on 29 April 1933, and raised on the radio Opry, honky-tonk, western swing and polka.

    • Buying back the church

      Told the church he grew up in was for sale, he has his school friend make an offer; it reopens with Willie and Bobbie playing.

  • John T. Floore’s Country Store

    14492 Old Bandera Road, Helotes

    • Every Saturday night

      For about twenty years before 1973 he plays Floore’s, at one point every Saturday night.

    • The Baldwin is stepped on

      At a show in Helotes a drunk steps on his Baldwin; Shot Jackson sells him the Martin N-20 he names Trigger.

  • Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge

    422 Broadway, Nashville

    • A songwriting job

      In Nashville, Tootsie’s helps him to his first songwriting job; Hank Cochran brings him to Pamper Music.

    • Songs for other singers

      Crazy goes to Patsy Cline, Funny How Time Slips Away to Billy Walker and Hello Walls to Faron Young.

  • The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum

    222 Rep. John Lewis Way South, Nashville

    • The Hall of Fame

      He is elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame.

  • The house in Ridgetop

    Ridgetop, north of Nashville

    • The house burns

      His house near Nashville burns down, and he moves back to Texas.

  • Dripping Springs

    Dripping Springs, Hays County

    • The Dripping Springs Reunion

      A country festival at Dripping Springs shows what a country Woodstock might look like.

    • The first Picnic

      His first Fourth of July Picnic, at the Dripping Springs site.

  • Armadillo World Headquarters (site)

    One Texas Center, Barton Springs Road at South 1st Street, Austin

    • The Armadillo

      He makes his debut at Armadillo World Headquarters.

  • ACL Live at the Moody Theater

    310 West Willie Nelson Boulevard, Austin

    • A pilot for Austin City Limits

      His pilot for Austin City Limits starts the show that, in 2011, moves into this hall; his statue stands at the door.

  • Autumn Sound, Garland

    Garland, north-east of Dallas

    • Red Headed Stranger

      He records Red Headed Stranger at Autumn Sound in Garland; it gives him his first number one single.

  • Pedernales Cut ’N Putt

    807 Paisley Drive, Spicewood

    • A course of his own

      He buys the bankrupt Spicewood club, and its restaurant becomes a studio.

  • Luck, Texas

    Willie Nelson’s ranch, about 30 miles from Austin

    • A town called Luck

      A Western town goes up on his ranch for the film of Red Headed Stranger, and stays.

  • Memorial Stadium, Champaign

    1402 South First Street, Champaign, Illinois

    • Farm Aid

      With John Mellencamp and Neil Young he puts on Farm Aid: 12 hours, more than 40 acts, more than $9 million.

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