Billy Currington Gets His Willie Nelson Fix

Billy Currington photo by Danny Clinch, courtesy of UMG Nashville.

March 4, 2009 — Billy Currington owes much of his interest in country music to hearing Willie Nelson played around the house when he was growing up in Georgia. Given Willie’s "On The Road Again" mantra, it would only make sense that Billy’s seen Willie perform a time or two in his life.

And he has — exactly one time. Surprisingly, that didn’t happen until the last couple days in December, when Billy finally caught a show from the Country Music Hall of Famer at a small club called Charley’s in Hawaii.

"It was in a little hidden town in Maui," Billy says. "I think he’s got a place over there or somethin', and when he plays, the word spreads really fast that he might be playin’, and so we heard that that day. And that only happens that day, within a few hours, and of course [I] walked in , the place was slammed full, but it was [really small]. It was his kids playin’ with him, and there was probably 14 musicians on stage playin’ with him in this really small place. It was just the coolest thing in the world, ‘cause that was one of the first guys I ever heard sing on a record. My mom and dad would play Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings all the time, and I became a fan back then."

The Grateful Dead’s Bill Kreutzman was a guest member of Willie’s band that night, and Billy was impressed with the show he finally got to take in.

"I don’t know why it took so long," Billy says. "I’ve always wanted to go see him play, it just never worked out. But it was cool because it worked out that way, because I was only [about five feet away], to just sit there and watch him play, just see him jam out on the electric guitar. That was the coolest thing most of all, ‘cause you see him usually playin’ the gut string, and he rocks out when he’s on that electric."

During the late 1970s, Willie was into a regular jogging routine, so now that Billy has his first Willie Nelson show under his belt, it’s appropriate that he’ll be headlining the annual Country Music Marathon concert April 25 in Nashville. Opening for Billy at that post-run performance will be Ashton Shepherd and the Carter Twins.