SHORT TAKES : Texans Attend Benefit to Help Willie Nelson With Back Taxes
- Share via
AUSTIN, Tex. — Residents pulled out their wallets--and their best dance steps--at a lively fund-raiser to help country singer Willie Nelson pay some of his back income taxes.
About 300 people attended the benefit Sunday night at the Broken Spoke nightclub, where Nelson began his climb to international stardom in the late 1960s and early ‘70s. Nelson was not present at the hall.
“He’s done a lot of things for a lot of people. I think it’s great that people want to help him,” said Will Light, a Nelson fan.
But while the event was expected to raise a tidy sum, with those attending paying $10 apiece for admission, it will not cut too deeply into Nelson’s enormous tax bill. Internal Revenue Service officials say Nelson owes them $16.7 million.
The IRS has seized properties Nelson owns in Colorado, Washington, Hawaii, Tennessee, Alabama and Texas, including his ranch and recording studio outside Austin, to satisfy two liens against him.
Sign up for Essential California
The most important California stories and recommendations in your inbox every morning.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
More From the Los Angeles Times
Podcasts
John Orr was a renowned fire investigator who was also a prolific arsonist, and whose thinly veiled novel helped to convict him. In this episode we hear from the fire captain who first suspected him—and from Orr himself.
Madison McGhee is joined by legendary Dateline host Josh Mankiewicz and esteemed L.A. Times Reporter Richard Winton as the three of them dive into all-things Menendez Brothers, the good, the bad, and the still unknown.
NPR climate editor Sadie Babits talks about why the media has long overlooked the climate crisis, and how that’s starting to change.
