Willie Nelson’s Longtime Harmonica Player Mickey Raphael Recalls He & Willie Getting A Ride To A Venue From The Hells Angels

This week, the legendary Mickey Raphael is a guest on the Drifting Cowboy podcast, and of course, he is Willie’s longtime harmonica player, and has been in Willie’s band since 1973.

He was there since Willie returned to Texas and started making a name for himself in Austin and beyond, as the pioneer of the country outlaw movement alongside his fellow country icon Waylon Jennings.

So of course, back in the glory days of the ’70s when Willie’s career was exploding, Mickey had some wild stories about some of their times together, which involved riding to a venue in California with the infamous motorcycle club, The Hells Angels.

Mickey recalled sitting on Willie’s bus before a show, and hearing a low rumble in the parking lot… and they were there to meet the Red Headed Stranger:

“They wanted to meet Willie, and they pulled up, I’m sitting on Willie‘s bus. I think it was outside of San Jose or Santa Clara, California, and we hear this low rumble in the parking lot, and look out and it’s about 10 motorcycles.

And there’s a knock on the door, open up the door, and it’s Hells Angels. They say they wanna meet Willie. Willie comes to the door to meet them, and starts talking to them and they chat for a little bit.

I guess Willie signed some autographs, and Willie goes, ‘Well boys, I gotta go. I gotta go to the gig.’”

So they offered to drive him and Mickey to the gig, which was about 20 minutes down the road, and they took them up on the offer.

Mickey figured, if he was ever going to ride a motorcycle, these were the guys to do it with, and he explained that it sounded like F-18s going down the 405. They were in formation and everything:

“And they said, ‘Well come on, we’ll take you.’ So we got off the bus, and I got on the back of one of the guy’s bikes, Willie got on the back of the other, and we rode down the 405 to the venue, about 20 minutes.

I had never done anything thing like that before, and this guy was so big I could’ve lit a cigarette sitting behind him, you know, he was blocking the wind so well. It was a big boy… I figured if I’m ever gonna ride a motorcycle, this is the place to do it. This is the time to do it.

This is just thunderous noise going down the highway, in formation. It could’ve been 10 F-18s. So anyway, we go to the race track we’re playing, and pull up to the backstage entrance.”

But the cop standing guard didn’t believe they were with Willie Nelson, and even though there was a squad of Hells Angels walking up to him, he was unfazed… and Willie had to break out his American Express card to prove it was really him:

“And the security guy stopped us, says ‘You can’t come in here.’ It’s like 10 angels and they’re wearing their colors and it’s obvious who they are. and the front bike pulls up and says, ‘This is Willie Nelson.’

And the cop goes, ‘Sure it is.’ and then Willie had to pull out his American Express card to prove who he was before they let him in.”

What a story… that’s exactly the kind of thing I imagine happened all the time with them out on the road, and I’m sure there’s plenty more where that came from. And it certainly proves my theory that everybody loves Willie.

You can watch him tell the story below.