Buy the Tour Bus Used by Willie Nelson’s Crew
UPDATE (5/4): The bus sold for more than $80,000, according to seller Tom O’Leary.
Willie Nelson fans hoping to emulate the perpetually itinerant country singer can now buy a tour bus belonging to the singer’s crew.
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Rolling Stone has confirmed the vehicle’s authenticity, with a spokesperson for the singer confirming that the bus belonged to Nelson’s longtime drummer Paul English.
The owner, Tom O’Leary, purchased the bus on eBay in 2010 “on a whim,” he tells Rolling Stone. “I’m not especially a Willie Nelson fan,” O’Leary says. “I mainly just thought it looked cool. It needed quite a bit of work when I got it and I did it all myself: fuel systems, electrical, floors, plumbing.”
O’Leary says he only uses it twice a year, “mainly for NASCAR races and hunting trips” and that “it’s just time for someone else to enjoy it for what it is.”
“Due to the extremely high demand and the amount of offers being thrown at us for this bus, we have decided to take offers all the way to 12:00 AM central 5/3/2014 for this bus,” reads the ad. As of press time, the current offer is $65,000.
The rear of the bus features a drawing of a bald eagle with outstretched wings with the text, “Looking back at myself.” There is also a sign that says “We love Willie” on the front of the bus where the bus’ destination would normally go. The ornate vehicle also features stained glass windows, red velvet curtains, a framed portrait of Jimmie Rodgers and Native American artwork. As the ad notes, the 1983 bus gets seven miles per gallon and has “four air conditioning units on the roof with heat as well.” As Village Voice, the outlet that first spotted the ad, notes, the bus had three owners before O’Leary bought it.
Johnny Temples, one of Nelson’s bus drivers in the Eighties, told the Dallas Morning News that the bus was named The Scout and was one of four buses on the tour, “along with Willie’s iconic Honeysuckle Rose, the crew members’ Warrior and the band’s Red-Headed Stranger.” The bus was later renamed Me & Paul after the 1985 Nelson album of the same name. “Willie rode that bus when he played dominoes,” Temples told the Morning News. “But that was not his personal bus.”
In 2011, Nelson’s 1986 Eagle 1 tour bus sold for more than $43,000 ($47,580 Canadian).