Willie Nelson Once Burned Down A Billboard Because He Didn’t Want People To Know Where He Was Living

Can’t be giving away his location like that.

Celebrities have a hard enough time keeping their private life out of the public eye. From paparazzi waiting to snap pictures to fans who are always around trying to record videos on their cell phone any time they see someone famous out in public, there’s no doubt that it can be tough when you want to just get away and live a normal life for a little while.

And you definitely don’t want a billboard advertising your location.

Willie Nelson is one of the most recognizable people…well, in the entire country. And once he became a household name, he wanted a place where he could get away from the spotlight and live a normal life, so he bought a small home back in his hometown of Abbott, Texas. (It was actually the home of the doctor who delivered him).

As he explained in his 2015 memoir It’s a Long Story: My Life, he kept a months worth of clothes in the unassuming home so he could go back whenever he wanted to get away. But the city saw their most famous resident as an opportunity to promote themselves, and put up a billboard advertising Willie’s location:

“Abbott, home of Willie Nelson.”

The billboard was on Highway 35, a heavily-traveled interstate that runs from Dallas to Austin, and Abbott sits right off I-35. Well as Willie explained, he didn’t want tourists to start coming to his hometown to try to find him. And one night while playing poker with his childhood friend Zeke Varnon, he began complaining that the billboard blew his anonymity.

Varnon asked Willie what he wanted to do about it, and the country music outlaw didn’t mince words:

“Burn the f—er down!”

Well his friend was all in, so they headed out “like two teenagers” to complete their mission. And they even told a cop about their plans while stopping to get gas:

“We stopped to buy a can of gas. A cop came by, recognized me, and said, ‘Hey, Willie. What are you guys up to?’

‘We’re going to burn down a sign,’ I said. He just laughed and went on his way. He didn’t believe the truth.”

I mean, if you’re a cop and Willie Nelson just straight up tells you he’s going to go commit arson, you would probably assume he’s joking too, right?

Well they weren’t joking, but when they got to the billboard they ran into another problem: They couldn’t get it to light.

“We then drove over to the sign, soaked it with gas, and lit it with a match. It started to burn but then stopped. Must have been treated with some anti-inflammatory fluid. Pissed me off.

So we poured more gasoline and lit another match. Still no go. We went home frustrated.”

The next morning though, they realized the sign DID actually end up burning down after they left – but the police thought it was some teenager who did it, and ended up arresting the poor kid for Willie’s crime.

But Willie made sure that the kid was cleared:

“Next day I learned that the sign actually did catch fire some time after we left and had to be extinguished by the lone Abbott fire truck.

Not only that, but an innocent teenager was picked up and charged with arson. I called the police and told one of the boys to let the kid go.”

Obviously, the officer wanted to know why they would do that:

“I didn’t like the sign. I didn’t want the attention.”

The cop told said they would have just taken the sign down if Willie had told them he didn’t want it up. But that wasn’t really Willie’s style.

“Was more fun to try and burn it,’ I said.

The kid was set free and – at least for a while – I didn’t have to worry about unwanted visits from strangers.”

God bless Willie Nelson.The post Willie Nelson Once Burned Down A Billboard Because He Didn’t Want People To Know Where He Was Living first appeared on Whiskey Riff.