After the Wheeling show I ran into Jody Payne, the other guitarist in Willie's "Family". We talked about a lot of things, he said that Willie's troubles with the IRS stemmed from his accounting firm who I recognized as one of the biggest in the States. Jody said that Willie sued them and won, alleging mismanagement, but in the mean time, he was the one who was in the spotlight. He said that Willie is not a buinessman, let the accounting firm handle everything for him and they messed up.

The nice thing about that time is that most of the things that were auctioned off by the IRS were bought up by Willie's friends and were either given back or were eventually bought back when he settled his Court case with the accoounting firm.

I'm not sure that Trigger was stashed away. I think that Willie was able to keep it, saying that he needed it to make money so that he could pay his tax bill.

I also learned a valuable lesson that night. Never, ever try to drink Tequila with a guy who has been on the road all his life. Jody was a great guy though, I really enjoyed the few hours that we sat gabbing.