Happy 4/20 to Willie Nelson, who will surely be partaking in the holiday to its full extent.
Arguably, his all-time greatest celebration of the unofficial cannabis themed day took place 14 years ago, just a few miles from his hometown of Abbott, Texas, in the state capital, Austin, where a bronze eight-foot-tall statue was erected of the country music legend. Keeping on theme, Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell hopped on the stage at exactly 4:20 to unveil the figure featuring Nelson perched with his classic braids holding a guitar.
With a couple of thousand hometown fans watching and a pungent marijuana scent wafting through the crowd, Nelson hopped up on the stage, alongside fellow legend Kris Kristofferson, to see the tarp ripped off his replica. Without jumping a beat after his short thank you speech, Nelson grabbed his guitar and led the audience with his reigning 1980 hit, “On The Road Again,” joined by his youngest son, Micah.
The event also produced the first performance of one of his staple blazing anthems, “Role Me Up & Smoke Me When I Die,” which officially dropped a month later on May 15 on his 60th studio album, Heroes. The track ended up being quite the star-studded affair, featuring fellow grass enthusiast Snoop Dogg, along with Kris Kristofferson and Jamey Johnson (Nelson also released a solo version on the B-side of the original vinyl).
With the statue still standing tall in the heart of downtown Austin, and Nelson still chugging along at almost 93 years old, he’s still got rolling up and dropping hits with an inbound duet, “Uncertain, TX” with Kacey Musgraves coming on May 1. Insanely, he’s set to release his 79th solo album, Dream Chaser, on May 29.