Tracking Willie's whereabouts on July 4 through the years ain't no picnic

It hasn't always been on the Fourth or in Texas, but it's always created memories

By Dave Thomas
AMERICAN-STATESMAN
Sunday, April 06, 2008

The annual Willie Nelson Fourth of July Picnic ...

Nope, cowboy. Wrong. There's nothing annual about it. Where was Willie on July 4, 2001? Or 1981? Playing golf. Cavorting in Vegas.

The somewhat-annual Willie Nelson Fourth of July Picnic, a tradition unique to Texas ...

Sorry, hotshot. Wrong again. What about 1983? Or just last year?

Hey, you tell me ...

OK, I'll be the first to admit it: Trying to put a neat handle on the Fourth of July Picnic – an event where reality drifts into legend almost as soon as it happens – isn't easy.

Memories of musicians, journalists and fans alike are fuzzy, baked by long days in the July sun and — in some cases more than others — by having what Robert Earl Keen has described as "a wonderful time in the Willie way."

But fuzzy memories don't stop the remembering. A grizzled old fan will tell you he was at the picnic in '76 and it sure as hell wasn't where you're telling him it was. A younger musician will swear up and down he was in Luckenbach with Willie a year before the picnic first appeared there.

And, just when you think you have a grip on things, Texas Monthly will come out and say there was a picnic in New Jersey in 1983.

Wh ... what?

But I've made it my goal, not just to nail down what picnic happened where and when, but to document what Willie Nelson was doing on every Fourth of July from 1973 through the anomaly in Washington state last year. I'm doing it now because it's Willie's birthday month — he'll be 75 on April 30 — and because his publicist has just confirmed that this year's Fourth of July Picnic is happening, at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater just outside San Antonio, about 61 miles south of Austin.

And I'm close on the "Where was Willie" history. I've got 29 out of 35 years.

Turns out there was a picnic of sorts in Jersey in '83. It was on July 3 and included a performance by the Stray Cats. Really. Linda Ronstadt, too.

If you're looking for the short answer, here it is: If you consider a Willie Nelson Fourth of July Picnic to be a large event held in a big, dusty field on the Fourth of July, in Texas, with the usual gang ... then there have been 21 picnics. That's five in Luckenbach, three each in Fort Worth and at Southpark Meadows, a pair on Willie's Pedernales golf course and eight one-and-done-and-let's-hope-they-don't-sue-us picnics. That is, if you include the 1986 event at Manor Downs – which really wasn't a picnic, it was Farm Aid II.

If you're looking for the long answer, check out my online "picnic-opedia" on austin360.com.

And if you're just looking for answers, keep reading.

Who is the usual gang?

Leon Russell and the Geezinslaws have played at nearly every traditional picnic since the beginning — if not all of them. Ray Price, Johnny Bush, Billy Joe Shaver, David Allan Coe and Ray Wylie Hubbard have been repeat offenders, as well. Waylon Jennings and Kris Kristofferson were regulars in the early years, and Kristofferson still drops by from time to time.

Who are some of the more unlikely picnic performers?

Jimmy Buffett ('74), the Pointer Sisters ('75), the Stray Cats ('83), Jon Bon Jovi (the Farm Aid II/Picnic in '86), Bruce Hornsby ('87), the Supersuckers ('96), Billy Bob Thornton ('03), Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown ('04) and the Doobie Brothers ('05).

What was the most successful picnic?

It's hard to nail one down. The 1976 picnic in Gonzales drew the largest crowd (more than 80,000) but was a disaster by almost any other measure. The first picnic, in Dripping Springs in 1973, is remembered fondly by Willie, but was a financial bust and an endurance struggle for fans. The Zilker Park picnic in 1990 probably had the least trouble, followed by the later years of the string of picnics in Luckenbach.

What was the most disastrous picnic?

Easily a choice between two wildly different picnics: Gonzales or Carl's Corner. Residents in Gonzales had fought hard to block the 1976 show, or at least limit it to one day. Didn't happen. More than 80,000 came to the picnic, some with more intentions toward mayhem than music. More than 140 were arrested, at least three rapes were reported and one man drowned in a stock tank. At Carl's Corner, 11 years later, there was almost no trouble at all. There also was almost no crowd. Promoters had hoped for up to 80,000. About 8,000 showed up and Willie lost a huge amount of money.

Which picnic had the best lineup of musicians?

The 2003 picnic at Two Rivers Canyon Amphitheater is hard to beat, with the Dead, Neil Young, Shawn Colvin, Merle Haggard and Patty Griffin joining the picnic regulars and newcomers such as Pat Green, Cross Canadian Ragweed and Los Lonely Boys.

But the three-day College Station picnic in 1974 is even harder to beat, adding Bill Monroe, Floyd Tillman, Jimmy Buffet and Lefty Frizzell to a Who's Who of Austin/Cosmic Cowboy/Outlaw musicians, including B.W. Stevenson, Jerry Jeff Walker, Doug Sahm, Michael Martin Murphy and Townes Van Zandt.

What's the year most Texans can't recall?

That would be 1983, when the picnic emerged from its second retirement, only to make a stadium tour of the East Coast. Following a July 2 show at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, N.Y., the picnic played at Giants Stadium in New Jersey on July 3 and at Atlanta International Speedway on July 4.

What are some of the great moments from the last dozen years?

1996: Waylon shows up for his final picnic appearance and his only appearance in Luckenbach. He closes out his ultra-short set with "Luckenbach, Texas" and he and Willie throw their hats into the crowd.

1997: Dwight Yoakam makes a surprise appearance during Joe Ely's set and the pair perform a couple of the most inspired Buddy Holly covers ever heard.

2005: Bob Dylan finally plays a song the whole crowd recognizes – "Like a Rolling Stone" – and the floodlights come on, illuminating not the crowd, but the dust floating in the air, giving everything a ghostly glow.

What are some great quotes about the picnic?

All of these are from the American-Statesman archives:

"If we had arrested all the naked and drunk people I saw, we'd have filled our jail and yours and all of the jails from here to Dallas." – A Williamson County deputy sheriff in 1975.

"Come over here and fight me, both of you. I want you two to kill me and put me out of my pain." – A hungover man early in the morning after the 1980 picnic.

"I defy anybody in the world to make a profit on an outdoor concert." – Willie, explaining in 1981 why he was done with the picnic.

"After it's all said and done, it's about the music. If the party's happening during the music, that's good. But it's all about the music." – Willie, explaining in 2006 why the picnic keeps on going.