Pink spray paint covered the base of the bronze statue, located in front of the ACL Live music venue
Oh, the humanity. An eight-foot bronze statue of Willie Nelson in Austin, Texas, was vandalized over the weekend, Austin’s Fox affiliate reported. Much of the base of the statue was covered in bright pink spray paint on Friday — to which we can only ask, “Why?”
Local cleanup crews were quick to remove the paint and clean the statue since the vandalization. Austin Police hadn’t responded to Rolling Stone’s request for comment on Monday regarding potential suspects or if the vandals had been caught.
Nelson has been synonymous with the city of Austin since the 1970s. Born in Abbott, Texas, Nelson tried to make a name for himself in Nashville in the 1960s before relocating to Austin in 1972, where he embraced the hippie-cowboy culture of the city and its counterculture music venue, the Armadillo World Headquarters, and helped launch the Outlaw Country movement. In 2010, the city honored Nelson by renaming Second Street downtown Willie Nelson Blvd. Nelson’s bronze statue has stood outside of the ACL Live venue in downtown Austin on Willie Nelson Blvd for over a decade, unveiled on 4/20 in 2012 — an appropriate date given Nelson’s notoriety as a prolific pot smoker.
Nelson was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame late last year, with Chris Stapleton, Dave Matthews, and fellow inductee Sheryl Crow taking the stage for his induction. At 90, Nelson remains active on the live circuit and will continue touring throughout 2024.
Last week, the singer’s annual Luck Reunion was announced, with Nelson set to headline along with performances from Tyler Childers, Old Crow Medicine Show, and Madi Diaz during South By Southwest next month. Earlier this year, Nelson released a new duet with Charley Crockett, “That’s What Makes The World Go Around.”