On the Road with Willie Nelson
An article in the series of Tales of the Road at RTC Sound

"I Could Smell You Coming" - Tour Bus Adventures with Willie Nelson

One security guy came up to me and said in a deep southern drawl, "Hey man , not sure where ya'll been, but ya'll must have run over a skunk or got into something bad...Your bus and ya'll smell like a skunk". Whole bus had this pungent skunk, dank smell that probably would drive out any varmint. Smell started just outside of Nashville. We didn't run over anything... there were no animals on the bus (except the crew), and for weeks we were asked about the "Skunk" and where we'd been... I had police officers ask me what that smell was... multiple times...in multiple cities. I just knew we were gonna get busted! In Clearwater, Florida, after we pulled up to the arena, security guards had all their flashlights out crawling under the bust, knowing they were going to find a dead skunk under the bus.

The smell got stronger by the time we arrived in Jacksonville, "I don't know where ya'll been, but we think their is a "Polecat" in your bus I believe..." A police officer told me as I was entering the back gate at the Fox Theater in Atlanta. I said, "I know, I think we hit one last night maybe" For weeks the smell lingered on the tour buses and there was no covering it up outside of throwing the varmint and source away...that wasn't gonna happen!

So we ran around the southwest for four months, up and down Florida, deep into Georgia, across Tennessee, - smelling like the dankest, smelliest skunk, maybe a whole herd of "Polecats", cause everyone had a bag of this fresh produce from Arkansas stuff and after the shows, and the burnt smell of well... skunk took over making the bus smell like a herd of skunks had released their potent fumes. After a while, it didn't bother us. But everyone kept asking what it was....and we kept laughing about it playing across the southeast.

The skunk was a pound or so of Arkansas Chicken-Shit-Weed! Grown outside Little Rock in your classic poultry nitrogen infused Cannabis, in chicken crap. Fresh from the poultry enriched farm, this weed was far different than your common street marijuana. Back then no one had ever smelled such, ... well except for Willie probably. Dankest smell, and so strong you would think a skunk just peppered the place with a blast. No skunk, nope it was just Willie's Weed that he had shared with the band and crew members across the three tour buses. Never had anyone smelled such dank-smelling grass and of course Willie is known for his love of Cannabis, but this stuff was different and must be what Toby Keith wrote about.

I'm sure Willie has fine friends who supply him with good smoke all over the U.S. Heck he even has his own line in Colorado, but this one tour of the southwest in 1980 was of particular fun. Seems Willie has a friend in Arkansas who grows Cannabis in chicken poop and all the band and crew members were given a large bag of this potent marijuana. I believe that chicken crap must be a great fertilizer. I also think that our bus could be smelled prior to being seen and I just knew we were all gonna get thrown in the tanker due to the stench of this Arkansas product. Time after time for months we were asked what that smell was, many times by security. Heck, they just thought it was a skunk. Nobody had ever smelled anything like it before, so no one knew it was probably a pound or so of an illegal substance, marijuana (remember we were in the south).

OK so you probably have heard that working with Willie Nelson included more fun than anyone is deserving in this life, more beer one could consume in their life-span, and a fair amount of mother natures own herb - Weed! Now traveling with Willie, one could somewhat transform themselves into any state they wish, as beer was flowing freely and always available, and the smell of marijuana was a common occurrence. A lot of good and bad characters hang out trying to get close to "the band", so trouble could follow freely. No Surprise! However, there is one thing that was also consistent on the tour, professionalism and executing the show as the foremost on the agenda for the crew and band.

From Poodie, to Budrock, Mike Garvey, and Pete Stauber, and several others. Willie Nelson's shows in the 80's and 90's and still today are considered "A Family Tour" and the tour crew is a sharp and focused machine operating night after night more efficient than any large corporate project that I was a part of in 25 years. No way you could do 200 plus shows a year without a tight and excellent crew night after night. Willie Nelson's tour was the original "Play Hard - Work Hard" operation and no time and patience for laggards or dummies. This was a business ran by professionals, so don't take light of the accessories available, the show was the focus and was executed every night like no other. Bus might have stunk, but the production was operated with precision and professionalism every night.

Their might be a skunk on the bus, but the Willie family Tour was a smooth running, no bullshit - get it done atmosphere- without question, and being "on the job" meant you needed a clear and concise mindset. Weed was not part of showtime preparation for anyone on the Family Tour, well... well maybe except for Willie.

McNeal
Road Crew - The Family Tour of Willie Nelson 1980 ...