One of Austin’s most storied music venues is getting the big screen treatment, and a notable Texan is helping make it happen.
Woody Harrelson is among a team of producers behind an upcoming documentary on Austin’s Armadillo World Headquarters. The historic venue closed in 1980 and helped foster the city’s reputation as the Live Music Capital of the World, welcoming huge names including Willie Nelson, Linda Ronstadt, ZZ Top, Ray Charles and Bruce Springsteen.
“The Armadillo wasn’t just a music venue,” Harrelson told Deadline, which first reported the documentary. “It was where all kinds of worlds came together: artists, outlaws, hippies, students, dreamers, everyone under one roof. Careers got started there, genres mixed, and what really sticks with me is how it made people feel like they belonged.”
The center of the Live Music Capital of the World
The Armadillo World Headquarters was located at 525½ Barton Springs Rd. from 1970 to 1980. Over 10 years, it helped establish Austin’s progressive country, or “Cosmic Cowboy,” sound. But it also was the center of several notable events in music history:
- “Austin’s number one, long-hair, honky-tonk,” as Texas Monthly called it in 1973, was a major base for Willie Nelson. His first show in 1972 is often marked as a turning point for Nelson and the Austin music scene.
- AC/DC played their first-ever U.S. concert there on July 27, 1977, as the opener for Canadian band Moxy.
- The Clash performed with Joe Ely on October 4, 1979, a photo from which was featured in the jacket of the band’s album London Calling. (The band later returned to Austin to film the video for “Rock the Casbah.”)
- Several live albums were recorded there, including albums from Waylon Jennings and Frank Zappa.
- Its closing show on Dec. 31, 1980 featured a raucous party of Asleep at the Wheel, Maria Muldaur, Turk Pipkin, Kenneth Threadgill and headliners Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen. “The energy was absolutely off the charts,” Pipkin later said. “The champagne and Ray [Benson]’s weed has fogged my memory, but I don’t think the show ended till something like 4 a.m.”
Trouble (and a rebirth) of the Armadillo World Headquarters
However, the Armadillo World Headquarters constantly faced financial difficulties and filed for bankruptcy in 1976. The building was sold out from under owner Eddie Wilson, forcing the club’s closure. A high-rise office building soon replaced the old armory that was AWHQ…