Bob Dylan Gets Canceled and Willie Nelson Gets Subpoenaed
1976-05-08, Hofheinz Pavilion, Houston, TX
The Rolling Thunder Revue had big plans for Texas. After a second show in Houston, the tour was scheduled to continue on to play, among others, Dallas, Lubbock, Abilene, and Amarillo.
Nope, nope, nope, and nope.
All of those shows, plus the planned second Houston show and a planned second Austin show, were canceled—in most cases after tickets had gone on sale. They were selling, but not enough people were buying. When I interviewed bandleader Rob Stoner, he remembered this as a low point. “[The cancellations were] kind of discouraging. You’re coming off this heady Rolling Thunder thing and suddenly…people aren’t showing up. That takes the wind out of your sails.”
Blame circulated throughout the local press. Remember how the tour started with so many shows in such a small area of Central Florida? They essentially tried to do the same in West Texas, packing too many shows in too small a region. Demand simply wasn’t there.
One newspaper writer concluded, “Even though it may have been the people holding his strings (and not Dylan himself) who were responsible, such total disregard for the thousands of area Texans who had shelled out $9 apiece to see The Man in person has caused ill feelings to the extent that one Lubbock writer says people are cursing her because the concert was canceled. Most, however, are cursing Dylan. Indeed, Dylan’s blood on the tracks has turned to bad blood in West Texas.”
Others quoted Dylan lines back to him:
Over in East Texas, though, one of the two planned Houston shows did go on—but just barely. Even for just that one, ticket sales were so slow that a ringer had to be brought in last-minute: Willie Nelson, riding in to save the day with his only Rolling Thunder appearance. Rolling Stone reported:
It was the Rolling Thunder Revue’s second stop here this year, just five months after the less-than-successful Rubin Carter Astrodome benefit, and Bob Dylan was taking no chances. To insure that this assault on Texas would start on a high note, he’d invited the Lone Star State’s favorite son, Willie Nelson, to share the stage May 8th at the Hofheinz Pavilion. But faced with competition from a pair of John Denver shows and a sold-out Johnny Winter/Weather Report concert, the revue managed to fill only three-quarters of the 10,700-seat arena.
Big of Willie to step up and help sell tickets, right? Well, sort of. His then-manager told Rolling Stone, that, when they first were asked to join the bill, “Dylan’s people offered only expenses. I passed. CBS [records] called up and offered in excess of $10,000 as payment to insure Bob Dylan sold the date. We played.”
A couple years ago, I unearthed a soundboard of most of Willie Nelson’s previously uncirculating set. He sounds great, less than a year after releasing his seminal Red Headed Stranger album. Even back then, he has so many hits he has to cram ‘em into medleys, like this one of “Funny How Time Slips Away,” “Crazy,” “Night Life” (a combination he still does today!):
A newspaper review notes Willie got bigger cheers than Dylan. Sounds like the Outlaw Tour!
It wasn’t all good news for Willie though. Backstage, before he took the stage, he got subpoenaed as part of a Dallas investigation into narcotics trafficking*. A news article about the incident notes, “The two plainsclothes [sic] U.S. marshals who served him stuck around for autographs.”
(* Any Hold Steady fans out there? The chorus to one of their most popular songs goes “Subpoenaed in Texas…”)
The next month, he had to appear before a grand jury in Fort Worth. Afterwards, a reporter asks him if he knows anything about drugs. “Nothing at all,” he replies. Then he turns and grins toward the camera.
Back in Houston, Willie stuck around for a surprise encore, singing “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” on a microphone with Dylan and Baez. Wouldn’t you know it, the circulating audience tape cuts off just before that. I guess it was a surprise to the taper too!
1976-05-08, Hofheinz Pavilion, Houston, TX
1976-05-08, Hofheinz Pavilion, Houston, TX [Willie Nelson set]