Independence Day is once again upon us, and for old timers like me, it’s hard not to think back on those days when we were a bit younger and attending an outdoor concert lasting more than 12 hours was not the challenge it would be today.
I didn’t make it to Willie Nelson’s third Fourth of July Picnic that was held on a field just west of downtown Liberty Hill, but a lot of locals did and if you ask around, chances are you’ll run into one of those folks…or their children or grandchildren. Gary Spivey, for example, might share the story of how he hooked up his tractor to the Pointer Sisters’ limo and pulled it through the mud so the sisters could get to the backstage area. Others will tell you of the intoxicated and naked folks that some residents claim to have found in various front yards throughout town. It was, for a small rural community, an experience like none other.
If you’re new to Liberty Hill, you’ve probably read of this picnic or the many others similar to it that Willie held over the years in various locations, but even so, I think one may still find it difficult to believe that the Liberty Hill picnic attracted, by some estimates, nearly 90,000 people back in 1975.
Nowadays, the celebrations are a bit tamer, and a bit more organized, but even so, my wife and I are more content to skip Willie’s big day and instead perhaps, drop in a local saloon and listen to one of the musicians who was among those to perform in Liberty Hill that summer day so many years ago.
Charlie Day was a whole lot younger, too, that day, when he was a member of a band backing up Milton Carroll, one of the featured performers of a concert that not only included Kris Kristofferson, but the Charlie Daniels Band and the Pointer Sisters and several other big names. Carroll has since left country music and became a preacher, but not before recording “Falling in Love is Like a 45 Slug in the Head” that earned a bit of a following in Austin clubs back in the 1970s. He later married country singer Barbara Fairchild but the marriage didn’t last, and eventually answered a calling to serve the Lord. His most recent musical efforts are gospel-oriented.
For Charlie Day, three memories stand out—the size of the crowd, meeting Loretta Lynn (“She came on after dark and when the lights came on her, in some kind of gown, she literally looked like an angel,” he recalled) and what he described as “late night festivities” with David Zettner.
Now, Charlie didn’t define what “late night festivities” included, and whether it included a few too many Lone Stars (which back then proclaimed itself as the “National Beer of Texas” and threw its support behind progressive country music, or redneck rock as some deejays called it) or one too many hits off of a substance of which to this day Willie himself proudly promotes the legalization of…well, in either case Charlie recalled Zettner and he found themselves high (no pun intended) above the ground the following morning, having fallen to asleep on the scaffolding that the loudspeakers rested upon.
“I don’t know how we got up there, but it was kind of scary coming down,” said Charlie.
Zettner, who passed away in 2016, was once a member of a band Willie had formed back in 1966 that also included Johnny Bush (who performed at the ’75 Picnic and returned 15 years later as the featured act during a Liberty Hill Chamber of Commerce spring festival) and a steel guitar player by the name of Jimmy Day (Charlie’s uncle). Jimmy Day was among those to play at the Stock Tank, a musical venue west of Liberty Hill that was operated by Pete and Teresa Garner back in the 1980s. The band, originally known as the Offenders, was disrupted while on tour in 1968 when Zettner received his draft notice.
Zettner remained close to Willie and did artwork for Nelson’s tour busses over the years. He also designed the album cover for Willie’s 1983 release, “Tougher Than Leather.”
Charlie Day is a bit more settled nowadays, and he and his wife of two years have recently moved to the Florence area after spending several years in Abilene. They’re in the process of building a home, but still find time to hit the road on weekends and play at various venues and festivals across the state. It’s perhaps Charlie’s way of tipping his hat to Willie when he opens each performance with Nelson’s big hit “On the Road Again.”
Many of those who performed at Willie’s early picnics have since passed on, and it’s a safe bet that some of those scheduled to perform at this year’s picnic…slated to be held in Austin this year, hadn’t been born when the picnics were launched back in 1973.
