Willie Nelson has crossed nearly every musical threshold imaginable, one of which is performing on Austin City Limits. Upon its debut in 1975, ACL marked a new era of bringing live music to television. Filmed at the Moody Theater in Austin, Texas, ACL airs on PBS and is now the longest-running music program in television history.
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Nelson is an integral part of that history, as he was a performer in the pilot episode that was filmed on October 17, 1974, and aired on March 22, 1975. “There would be no Austin City Limits if there was no Willie Nelson,” asserts ACL photographer Scott Newton. “Willie is the nexus for the Texas music scene.”
At the time, Nelson had been a working singer/songwriter for roughly 20 years and was mere months away from achieving his first No. 1 hit with his cover of “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain.” For an hour, the Texas titan entertained the crowd of an estimated 1,000 people with nearly 20 songs, opening his set with a cover of Johnny Bush’s classic, “Whiskey River.”
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He was accompanied onstage by his band and his trusty guitar, Trigger. Nelson’s musicianship was on full display as he rolled through signature songs like “Crazy,” which was made famous by Patsy Cline, “Funny How Time Slips Away” and “Bloody Mary Morning,” along with deep cuts like “Devil in a Sleepin’ Bag” off his 1973 album, Shotgun Willie.
His rendition of “Crazy” made it sound like a whole new song with the strong presence of harmonica that gave it a Western feel. He also threw in covers of Waylon Jennings’ “Good Hearted Woman,” Leon Russell’s “A Song For You” and Merle Haggard’s “Okie From Muskogee.” He closed out the show with a vibrant cover of “Roll in My Sweet Baby’s Arms.”
Though he’s now a vital part of the fabric of the history of ACL, Nelson wasn’t supposed to be there opening night. The original singer and songwriter of “My Maria,” B.W. Stevenson, was initially booked for the pilot episode of ACL. But after they filmed his performance, the footage was deemed unusable and never made it to air. Nelson then stepped in for him – and the rest is history.
Since his debut, Nelson has performed on ACL 16 times. He was inducted into the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame in 2014.
Photo by Gary Miller/Getty Images
