He’s back! Ageless Willie Nelson adds Dallas-area performance to his 2021 schedule
An 87-year-old Willie Nelson plans to return to the stage and, God willing, we will be there to watch and listen in person rather than do it via Zoom.
The iconic Texas country music performer, who will turn 88 on April 29, has been added to the schedule with a post game concert following an FC Dallas home match at Toyota Stadium in Frisco on Saturday, May 22, 2021.
Nelson’s scheduled performance is to take place after the scheduled 2021 National Soccer Hall of Fame weekend’s Induction ceremony, and scheduled FC Dallas match.
You will notice the word “scheduled” is included thrice in the above sentence.
Because seemingly everything that has been scheduled for the past nine months has been delayed, canceled, postponed, etc.
Back in June, we were all pretty sure that anything scheduled in August or September was safe. How dumb we were.
But with vaccinations for COVID-19 just starting to be administered, there appears to be a good chance that a Willie Nelson concert with fans in attendance in May can proceed as scheduled.
“We do have faith in the vaccine procedures, and the news that’s coming out now we have faith we will be able to fulfill the ticket purchases,” FC Dallas vice president Gina Miller said in a phone interview. “We do understand that this is an incredibly fluid situation but as we approach 2021 we are cautiously optimistic we will be able to host games and events again in person.”
Tickets to the show are currently only available as part of the 2021 FC Dallas season ticket memberships. At least right now. Expect that to change in the coming months.
Because of COVID, Nelson was forced to cancel his scheduled appearance with Chris Stapleton at Globe Life Field in Arlington back in March, and as well as the rest of his appearances in 2020. That show has been rescheduled for April 21.
Expect Nelson’s appearance in Frisco to run approximately 90 minutes. The event will follow a Hall of Fame induction ceremony followed by the game.
Although he can’t quite carry “Whiskey River” and “Blue Eyes Cryin’ In the Rain” the way he did 30 years ago, if you have never seen Willie in person it would be worth attending just to say you did.
Willie is one of those rare performers where just to be in the presence of their performance is worth the price of admission. Even if they stink.
I did once, about 15 years ago, and I can always say I saw Willie Nelson sing “On the Road Again.” That night at Billy Bob’s in Fort Worth’s Stockyards, Willie was still Willie.
He has done nearly every single thing a music performer can do, and has won every award there is to be won.
There is no such thing a bad Willie Nelson show, especially in person.
This story was originally published December 14, 2020 at 3:33 PM.
