Tuesday, August 22, 2006

The Red-Headed Stranger

A couple of posts ago I wrote about the best birthday gift ever, a surprise trip to KC to visit some important people in my life that I just don't see often enough. Well, that wasn't all I got. J also bought tickets to Willie Nelson's concert at Riverport (UMB Bank Pavilion - whatever) for tonight. They were awesome seats - smack dab in the middle right behind the private boxes. So I was able to put my feet up on the fence and see Willie very well.

He was there with John Fogerty, which (no offense to any Fogerty fans out there) really surprised me that he was sharing the tour with another headliner, and that it was Fogerty. And I was also really surprised that Willie played first. But he did - which was fine, we were there in time to see his entire set. He was just as good as I thought he would be. He played everything I really wanted to hear, "Whiskey River", "Always On My Mind", "Crazy", "Momma, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Cowboys", etc. He even sang "Jambalaya"!

But you know what did surprise me? That he's so little. I guess I just didn't realize that Willie's such a short guy. And it was so cool to see Trigger in real life, too. That's the name of his guitar - he plays the same guitar he's had since 1969. He's played it so much that he's worn a hole in the front, but he refuses to get it fixed. And he's asked people that he likes and admires to autograph Trigger - he says he's got over 100 signatures on it - including those of Leon Russell, Roger Miller, Kris Kristofferson (love him!), Gene Autry, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, lawyers, football coaches and other friends and associates. Willie loves that guitar so much that during his IRS troubles back in the 80s he hid Trigger at his managers house for safe-keeping.

Something else I learned about Willie tonight - he's hoping to open an ethanol refinery here in Missouri.

He sang a couple of new songs, both of which I thought were really funny and totally enjoyed; "I'm No Superman" and "You Don't Think I'm Funny Anymore". The first line of "I'm No Superman": Too many pain pills, too much pot; tryin' to be something that I'm not; I ain't Superman. Enough said!

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