Country singer Willie Nelson’s tour bus is now for sale.
Rolling Stone magazine has confirmed the vehicle’s authenticity, with a spokesperson for the singer confirming that the bus belonged to Willie Nelson’s longtime drummer Paul English.
Tom O’Leary purchased the bus on eBay in 2010 “on a whim”.
“I’m not especially a Willie Nelson fan,” Tom O’Leary told Rolling Stone.
“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.”
Tom 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 bus features a drawing of a bald eagle with outstretched wings on the back with the text, “Looking back at myself”. On a sign on the front of the bus, where the intended destination would be, is a simple, “We love Willie”. 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.”
The bus had three owners before Tom O’Leary bought it.
Johnny Temples, one of Willie 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 Nelson’s iconic Honeysuckle Rose, the crew members’ Warrior and the band’s Red-Headed Stranger”.
The bus was later renamed Me & Paul after Willie Nelson’s 1985 album of the same name.
“Willie rode that bus when he played dominoes,” Johnny Temples told the Morning News.
“But that was not his personal bus.”
In 2011, Willie Nelson’s 1986 Eagle 1 tour bus sold for more than $43,000.
