In 1990, the IRS took Willie Nelson’s homesteads in three states, padlocked his recording studio and arranged to auction off his gold records and the family piano, Grunge reported.
His answer was about his guitar.
“As long as I got my guitar,” he said at the time, “I’ll be fine … [It’s] just things, nothing that can’t be replaced.”
Inside that padlocked studio in Spicewood, Texas, sat 35 years of his tapes. According to the Willie Nelson site Still Is Still Moving, the IRS granted him access to them, and he built an album out of what the government had seized.
Who’ll Buy My Memories (The IRS Tapes) came out on June 3, 1991, made to help Nelson pay off his debt, with part of its proceeds going to the IRS. The two-disc set holds 25 demos, outtakes and stripped-down recordings of just Nelson and his guitar.
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The Debt Began With the People Handling Willie Nelson’s Money
The trouble started years before the auctions, and it did not start with Willie Nelson. His manager, Neil Reshen, who was neither a lawyer nor a CPA, was not paying his taxes, and Grunge reported that the manager’s negligence left Nelson owing the IRS more than $2 million in back taxes by 1980.
A tax shelter through his accountants at Price Waterhouse added to it. The IRS deemed the shelter illegal and sent him more bills of $1.5 million a year for 1980 through 1982. Eventually Nelson was served a $32 million bill for delinquent taxes, which Still Is Still Moving called one of the largest ever presented to an individual.
Nelson answered by suing Price Waterhouse for $45 million over what the site described as ill-advised tax shelters.
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Losing his property did not come close to clearing the debt. His home and ranch were auctioned off in 1991, and with the Texas real estate market weak, the sale cut what he owed by less than $2 million and left a $15 million obligation, according to Still Is Still Moving. The numbers explain why the auctions alone were never going to be enough.
Farmers Bought Willie Nelson’s Ranch and Sold It Back to Him
The auctions brought out the people Nelson had stood up for. On January 29, 1991, a farmers’ lobbying group bought his Austin-area ranch for the minimum bid of $203,840 and sold it back to him. Grunge reported that the bidder who bought his home did it at the request of farmers thanking him for his Farm Aid concerts, which he co-founded in 1985.
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The rest came back through his own people. His nephew, Freddy Fletcher, bought the recording studio, and his gold records and instruments went to the Willie Nelson and Friends Showcase for $7,000.
“Everyone came to my defense and that was overwhelming,” he said at the time of the auctions.
He had spent six years singing for farmers who were fighting to keep their land, and when his own land went on the block, the farmers showed up for him.
The IRS Tapes Sold for $19.95 Through a Phone Number on Late-Night TV
It cost $19.95 plus $4 shipping, and fans ordered it by dialing (800) IRS-TAPE, at first only by phone and mostly through ads on late-night TV, Still Is Still Moving reported.
Of each sale, $9.95 went to the telemarketing company, about $2.40 went to Sony, $1.60 covered other expenses and Nelson’s cut was $6. Three dollars of every sale went to the IRS toward the tax bill, and $1 went to a war chest for his lawsuit against Price Waterhouse.
The math was steep. Under the deal, the album needed to sell at least four million copies to erase his tax obligations, and the count reported at the time was 160,000 sold since it went on sale in June. Nelson told The New York Times he expected it to sell a lot better once it reached stores, and he explained his thinking on the deal.
“I thought they’d be cr𝐚zy not to take it.”
According to Forbes, it is the only album ever released with an IRS revenue agreement.
Shop Willie Nelson
- Greatest HitsVinylWith “On the Road Again,” “Always on My Mind” and “Crazy”See it on Amazon
- Red Headed StrangerVinylWith “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain”See it on Amazon
- It’s a Long Story: My LifeBook · 2015His memoir, written with David RitzSee it on Amazon
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Nelson settled his IRS bills in 1993, Grunge reported, and in the end the album generated $3.6 million for the IRS. In 1990 the government padlocked a studio full of his songs and put his things up for auction, and he said he would be fine as long as he had his guitar.
The people who loved him bought back the things, and the songs, just Willie and his guitar, helped pay off the government.
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