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2005 Willie Nelson interview featured in new book

by | Dec 17, 2025 | Music, Willie Nelson

I’m excited that an interview I recorded with Willie Nelson 20 years ago is included in a new book. Willie Nelson on Willie Nelson: Interviews and Encounters, which was edited by Paul Maher Jr., is a compilation of transcripts of 31 interviews he has given over the decades about a broad range of topics. The book was released on Sept. 16 by Chicago Review Press.

Michael Hibblen interviewing Willie Nelson in Plantation, Florida on May 26, 2005. Photo: Candace West/Miami Herald

Michael Hibblen interviewing Willie Nelson in Plantation, Florida on May 26, 2005. Photo: Candace West/Miami Herald

An editor’s note prefacing the chapter that featured my interview said, “One of the many causes supported by Willie Nelson is to combat global warming and crude oil dependence on foreign nations. Here he details to reporter Michael Hibblen his choice to use biodiesel fuel and the formation of BioWillie, his own biofuel company.”

I was working for the Miami Herald when I met Willie on May 26, 2005 as he was refueling three leased tour buses with biodiesel before a show that night with Bob Dylan. 

“It’s fuel that can be grown by farmers, and I’ve been involved with the farmers for a long time. I see it as a way for those guys to have a better life — and at the same time it’s good for the environment. It also reduces our dependency on energy from around the world where we could become more self-sufficient,” Willie said. 

The cover of "Willie Nelson on Willie Nelson," edited by Paul Maher Jr.

The cover of “Willie Nelson on Willie Nelson,” which was released by Chicago Review Press.

At the time, he owned a biodiesel station called Willie’s Place, which was located along Interstate 35 in Texas between Dallas and Waco, about 15 miles from his boyhood hometown of Abbott. Behind the station was a six-acre facility capable of producing 3 million gallons of biodiesel fuel a year. 

“It’s a truck stop that’s been there for a long time. My friend Carl Cornelius — the joke is that I won it in a poker game, and now I’m trying to lose it back. But it’s a great spot to promote biodiesel because we have a pump there, and we got some BioWillie there, and a big sign, and we’re doing a lot of business with XM Radio.”

A 750-seat theater and radio studios were eventually built there, but after a loan default, Willie’s Place went into foreclosure six years after our interview. It would become a standard truck stop known as Petro Carl’s Corner. The theater and radio studios, along with gold records and other memorabilia, are now gone.

After the interview, Willie performed that night with Bob Dylan at Fort Lauderdale Stadium. It was part of a tour that featured them playing at old ballparks around the country, which Willie told me was Bob’s idea. As I mentioned, they would be playing later that year at Ray Winder Field in my hometown of Little Rock, Arkansas. It would close the following year and was eventually torn down. Likewise, Fort Lauderdale Stadium would be demolished in 2019. 

AUDIO: Interviewing Willie Nelson on May 26, 2005 about his use of biodiesel while refueling his tour buses in Plantation, Florida. We also discussed the tour he was on with Bob Dylan, playing mostly in old minor league ballparks.

The text that was republished in the book came from this page on my website, while additional photos are also featured. Audio of the interview was broadcast on South Florida NPR station WLRN-FM 91.3, which had a news partnership sharing content with the Miami Herald. 

Raving about Willie Nelson during Arkansas PBS pledge drive

by | Dec 24, 2024 | Arkansas PBS, Johnny Cash, Music, Willie Nelson

I had the most fun I’ve ever had during a pledge drive on Wednesday, Dec. 11 as Arkansas PBS featured an evening airing Willie Nelson’s 90 Birthday Celebration, followed by a 1990 concert with country supergroup the Highwaymen, which was made up of Nelson, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings and Kris Kristofferson.  

I’ve long been a huge fan of Willie and have seen him in concert more than any other performer — maybe a dozen times since 1990. I spoke about being introduced to Willie’s music at a young age in the 1970s when my mom would play his 8-tracks Red Headed Stranger and Stardust on practically every family trip to see my grandparents. I didn’t enjoy Willie then, but over the years, watching him perform during the first Farm Aid concert in 1985 and many times on Austin City Limits helped me begin building an appreciation. Eventually seeing him in concert, I realized what an amazing performer he was.

So it was a joy to talk about Willie as we were showing a couple of his concerts. Joining me on the air was singer-songwriter Ryan Harmon, who, despite his young age, has an encyclopedic knowledge of country music. Years earlier he had worked in the marketing department at Arkansas PBS, but after being selected for an audition with ABC’s American Idol, took the encouragement he received from judges and is now focused on building his career as a musician. 

If you watch the video below, you’ll see we had a great time on the air. The video only features highlights from our local breaks with none of the concerts we were showing to avoid copyright infringements by posting this to YouTube. 

Among the things I spoke about during the pledge drive was my one experience interviewing Willie for a half-hour in South Florida in 2005. I was working for the Miami Herald, which had a partnership providing local news to PBS/NPR station WLRN. You can hear the interview and read a transcript here.

During breaks in the Highwaymen show at Nassau Coliseum, we also talked about the unveiling of the Johnny Cash statue earlier that year in the U.S. Capitol, which I was excited to attend. His statue and one of civil rights pioneer Daisy Bates, unveiled earlier in the year, now represent Arkansas. Each state is allowed two statues, and Bates and Cash were selected by the Arkansas General Assembly in 2019.

Interviewing Willie Nelson in Plantation, Florida on May 26, 2005. Photo: Candace West/Miami Herald

I also discussed covering the restoration years earlier of Cash’s boyhood home in Dyess, which began when Arkansas State University bought the dilapidated farmhouse as part of its Arkansas Heritage Sites program. Fundraising for the project began with a 2011 with a concert in Jonesboro, which included Kris Kristofferson. Willie would perform the second year, with a dedication ceremony of the home eventually held in 2014.

The preservation of the Cash home and placing a statue of he and Bates in Washington are, by far, my favorite stories to have covered during my long career.