The Buckin’ Stops Here : Party Is Over at Billy Bob’s, the World’s Biggest Honky Tonk

It was Willie and Waylon and rowdy. Loretta and Reba and Tammy and Dolly. It was Saturday night live and Wednesday night wild, the ultimate beer joint, the self-proclaimed “World’s Largest Honky Tonk.”

But the music stopped Friday when Billy Bob’s Texas bit the dust.

The financially distressed nightclub, recognized last year by the Academy of Country Music as the nation’s top country music spot, closed its doors during an ice storm last week, and employees confirmed Friday that they would not reopen over the weekend as planned. A farewell staff party was planned.

“Billy Bob’s is closed,” founder Billy Bob Barnett said in a brief interview at a lounge called the Pink Poodle. But he predicted that the huge club would reopen somehow.

“It was successful beyond our biggest dreams. Billy Bob’s was successful to the last month,” he said, but added that it was caught up in the development problems of Stockyards ’85.

That corporation, in which Barnett is the major stockholder, leases or owns Billy Bob’s and several related businesses in the historic stockyards area of Fort Worth.

On Friday, Linda Pavlik, whose public relations company was involved in Billy Bob’s 1981 grand opening, was looking for new investors. “They need more money,” she said.

Lawsuits totaling more than $2 million have been filed against Barnett’s interests for unpaid bills and overdue loans following ambitious development efforts in the stockyards area in 1986.

If not the end of an era, the closing represents a sad finale for a landmark that has showcased virtually every major country and western entertainer in America.

“We’re very, very sorry to see that happen,” said Dan O’Brian, a spokesman for country singer George Strait, who sang at Billy Bob’s. “It’s been a wonderful place for people to play. We hate to see any good club or honky tonk go out of business.”

Thousands of fans packed the 100,000-square-foot club to hear Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, Jerry Jeff Walker, Merle Haggard, Dolly Parton, Tammy Wynette, Barbara Mandrell and scores of other country and western stars.

Bob Hope once performed on New Year’s Eve, and a number of rock stars appeared off and on.

A club representative said the 8,000-seat club served an average of 50,000 people a month at its 42 bars, shops and restaurants, not to mention the indoor rodeo arena for live bull riding.

Barnett & Bronco Management Co., which he retained to help him with his financial problems, planned to pay off existing debt and continue other developments by buying the old Livestock Exchange Building and then reselling it to the city.

The plan fell through when Barnett last week failed to pay $82,000 in back taxes and fees to retain a purchase option on the property, which he had leased from New York-based United Stockyards Corp. since 1983.

“I feel like it’s a tremendous loss for the city of Fort Worth,” said Pavlik, publisher of the weekly Fort Worth News-Tribune. “Billy Bob’s was known around the world.

“Every visitor to Fort Worth, whether from Dallas or Japan, immediately asked to go to Billy Bob’s.”

Jerry Flemmons, travel editor of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, agreed.

“Billy Bob’s is the single most recognized name in Fort Worth. Period. People in Spearfish, S.D., and London ask about it . . . because it’s symbolic of Fort Worth and West Texas. It’s what people expected. So large, so typical.

“It’s a great loss. I’ve got to believe they’ll get it back open.”