Page 131 - Been There… Done That!

Been There... Done That!
as long as it doesn’t offend you if I don’t.” With a big smile, he said, “you might want to open a window.” Well, that was Willie and what you see is what you get. The last time I was with Willie was when we were filming the finale of the Wrangler Jeans Talent Contest in Austin, Texas.
I had worked all week as a stage manager at the Austin Opry House with the judges conducting the eliminations. The night before the taping I was summoned to the balcony and told that Willie was pissed and wanted to see me ASAP. The problem was that I had a great little group of girls from New Orleans who sang blues songs had just been eliminated. Willie wanted to know if I agreed with that decision. My response was, I thought they were great and should not have been eliminated, but that was up to the judges, not me. Willie said, “Fuck the judges, the next time they make a decision, tell them to come outside and I’ll tell them if they’re right or not. They are going to be on the TV show and you need to handle that.” I called David Allen at the Marriott and told him what was going on. David said, “You be the hero and make the decision.” I went back to Willie and told him, “you want them on the show, they are on the show.” Willie said, “Let’s go get a drink and a toast to the Cats Meow being on the show.
I learned a valuable lesson that night. You better be tough if you go out on the town with Willie Nelson. We met up with actor Rip Torn and we were on our way to Sixth Street where there were bars up and down the street and people walking from bar to bar. We walked down the street and looked into a bar and there might have been twenty people in there listening to a band playing. Willie said,
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