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Tag: Austin City Limits

  • Willie Nelson to Achieve 5th-Degree Black Belt

    After being inducted into the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame Friday night to much fanfare, country music legend Willie Nelson is also set to receive his 5th-degree black belt in martial arts at the age of 80. Nelson will achieve the high honor in the modern Korean martial art of Gong Kwon Yu Sulon on Monday in Austin, right before his 81st birthday on Tuesday.

    Nelson began studying martial arts decades ago in Nashville, and his training had remained a constant in his life. Nelson told Men’s Health in 2013 that “It’s a good form of exercise, especially as you get older.” As a youth, Nelson was involved in various team sports, and commented, “I went through school playing all kinds of sports. I played shortstop, I ran track. I played football. I was a pole-vaulter.”

    As Nelson was inducted into the ACL Hall of Fame, fellow Texan Matthew McConaughey gave a small speech – “There would be no Austin City Limits without Willie Nelson,” the Academy Award-winning actor said.

    Emmylou Harris and Lyle Lovett then accompanied Nelson on stage for renditions of On the Road Again and Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die.

    Here Nelson does his part in helping to explain the zany antics of philandering, lovelorn males everywhere, with his 1982 Grammy-winning rendition of Always on My Mind:

    Commenting on his ACL induction, Nelson stated, “It means a lot. It’s Austin City Limits and Austin – the music capital of the world.”

    Nelson combines variety of music styles to create his own distinctive amalgam of country music, a hybrid of jazz, pop, blues, rock and folk, which has been highly influential to the new country, new traditionalist, and alternative country movements of the 1980s and 1990s.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Willie Nelson Inducted Into ACL Hall of Fame

    Willie Nelson’s career has taken him all over the place, and most recently, landed him in the Austin City Limits Hall of Fame.

    Fellow Texan and Nelson friend Matthew McConaughey had the honor of inducting the star Saturday night.

    “There would be no Austin City Limits without Willie Nelson,” said the actor.

    Emmylou Harris and Lyle Lovett shared the stage with the music great, joining in on the songs “On the Road Again” and “Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die.”

    Stevie Ray Vaughn and Double Trouble, longtime show producer Bill Arhos and former University of Texas football coach Darrell Royal were also inducted.

    Royal’s “pickin’ parties” with guitar songwriters at his Austin home was the inspiration behind Austin City Limits.

    The country great was the first performer on the show, which started in 1974 and is now the longest-running television music program in the United States.

    Watch his performance, here:

    Blues rockers Buddy Guy and Kenny Wayne Shepherd joined Nelson to close the night with a rendition of “Texas Flood.”

    The induction ceremony was held at the show’s original soundstage at the University of Texas at Austin, instead of the new 2,000-seat downtown venue where the shows started taping a few years ago.

    Austin City Limits is one of the reasons why Austin has become known as the “Live Music Capital of the World.” Originally created to showcase some of the music of Texas, including Texas blues, progressive country, Tejano music, western swing and rock ‘n’ roll, the show now features national and international artists that play a wide range of music, such as alternative rock, jam band, jazz, and folk music.

    The show will air its 40th season starting in the fall.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons