Stay All Night, Stay a Little Longer: Experience Willie’s 1975 4th of July Picnic with an attendee

Willie Nelson performing before a large crowd at the 1975 picnic

During Willie Nelson’s 1975 Fourth of July Picnic a flood of 70,000 fans invaded the rural community of Liberty Hill, dragging ice chests and tents behind them. Extreme heat baked the audience in the treeless pasture, until a surprise evening thunderstorm transformed it into a mud pit. A weary deputy exclaimed,  “If we had arrested all the naked and drunk people I saw, we’d have filled our jail and yours, and all of the jails from here to Dallas.” Rain delays overwhelmed the schedule and Willie didn’t take the stage for the final set until after five in the morning. He was charged with violating the Texas Mass Gatherings Act. 

J Scott was a student at the University of Texas, and one of the attendees camped in the field. In this first person narrative he explores what it was like to be there for the memorable show. Follow along as he and his trusty sidekick enjoy a party with some of the decade’s biggest stars including Kris Kristofferson, Charlie Daniels, Doug Sahm, and Willie himself.

  • Part One: Getting There

    Part One: Getting There

    “We’re here!” I announced as I pulled off the blacktop bringing the old Pontiac to an abrupt stop. The sudden jolt, and my exclamation, startled my passenger Mike into the beginnings of consciousness.   “Where?”, Mike groggily asked. “It’s only been an hour since we left Austin, have you forgotten where we were going?” I replied.…


  • Part Two: Things Get Weird

    Part Two: Things Get Weird

    “Who was that guy?” Mike asked. “He sounded like we should have seen him at the Prison Rodeo in Huntsville last fall. I’m exhausted just watching him and I’m definitely hotter. Hand me another beer man.” “I don’t know much about him.” I replied. “That song, You Never Even Called Me by My Name, was…


  • Part Three: Riders On the Storm

    Part Three: Riders On the Storm

    We arranged our tarp into a small tent. With our backs against the ice chest, the tarp came over our heads and gave us coverage down to our feet. We were dry and relatively comfortable and could still see out to watch the crowd celebrating the rain and the drop in temperature. “Man, if you…


  • Part Four: Help Me Make it Through the Night

    Part Four: Help Me Make it Through the Night

    After a short rest and some food and beer, we began to make our way toward the stage. This proved more difficult than we imagined. The rain shower had been intense and long so that the parched ground had absorbed a good amount of moisture. With the thousands of people tromping in and out of…


  • Part Five: Homeward Bound

    Part Five: Homeward Bound

    I woke with a beam of sunshine streaming through a hole in the tarp into my face. I blinked my eyes a few times and silently went through some multiplication tables. That success gave me confidence to face the day. It was eerily quiet as I backed out of the tent. I stood up, stretched,…


Cosmic Culture Club logo that includes an armadillo

Featured albums from the Listening Lounge

Read My Lips front album cover

Read My Lips might be the purest example of Austin blues music available, and a statement album from one of the city’s biggest stars. Lou Ann Barton dominated the Austin Music Awards in the eighties. She won female vocalist of the year three times in five years before they gave up and put her in the hall of fame. Her voracious style was something legendary music journalist Margaret Moser liked to describe as “a voice that can peel chrome from a trailer hitch.”

Under the Double Ego album cover

Under the Double Ego was Kinky Friedman’s melancholic goodbye note to the music industry. It would be thirty-two eventful years before he recorded another studio album. When he recorded this one he was disillusioned and chose to work with the Austin based Sunrise label, despite their limited distribution network, rather than deal with corporate record executives. The album was produced locally by Sammy Allred (member of the Geezinslaws and long time radio personality who would eventually be included in the Texas Radio Hall of Fame.) The Texas Jewboys disbanded before the album was recorded leaving Kinky to assemble studio musicians from the crowded local talent pool, which included recruiting Chris O’Connell from Asleep at the Wheel fame.

On a cold February night in 1978 The Skunks played what is widely regarded as the first punk rock show in Austin, and for the next six years they continued to be a definitive presence. The three piece lineup evolved over the years, with bassist Jesse Sublett serving as the anchor. They pioneered a new sound leading acclaimed journalist Margaret Moser to declare, “In Austin’s punk rock history book, the Skunks are the first page.”

Verified by MonsterInsights