Willie Nelson Family Tribute – South Wood County Arts Council – September ‘25

Hello world, welcome to WFHR's Rapids Report, probably brought you by Crockett Sceptic for

the September 22nd, 2025.

Have your host, James behind the mic, and we are joined by our friends from the Arts

Council right now.

We have our good friend, Sally Kissner, with us Executive Director over at the Arts

Council.

Sally, good to see you.

Good to see you.

Thanks a lot for being here with us, and we want to send a big thank you to our good

friend, Michael Moore, who is calling in on the phone lines right now.

Michael is a part of Willie and Family Live, a tribute to Willie Nelson, a show that is

coming right here to town on October 9th, 730, right at the Performing Arts Center.

Michael, how you doing?

Good morning everybody, and Wisconsin.

Appreciate the time, Michael.

I have to tell you right out the gate, just getting to watch a lot of your previews and

watching some of the stuff that I've seen of yours online and everything.

You yourself are an amazing musician.

You yourself are quite an artist.

I want to get into why you went to Willie Nelson and some of those things in a moment,

but I want to rewind first and get to know you a little bit.

Michael, can you tell us a little bit about your background?

Well raised in the Dallas, Texas area, naturally a Texas boy, now living in Tennessee, over

in the Smoky Mountains, that grew up down there in Willie Nelson country, and it's just

a natural down there.

You hear him all the time on the radio, and it's kind of in bread into us, I guess, for

lack of a better term, but yeah, I can remember being a kid.

To live with my grandmother and hearing his vocals coming out of her old AM radio, coming

out playing out of Dallas there, so yeah, that weren't from, yeah, kind of just in your

blood down there, I guess.

Yeah.

Michael, when you were young and first getting into music, did you have a first instrument

you picked up?

Actually, yeah, I grew up in actually playing drums.

I've been a drummer and still am.

I still play a little bit with some other groups and things I do on the side.

I can actually just grow up playing drums.

I was always a big Elvis Presley fan, and his drummer at the time was Ronnie Tutt, so

inspired heavily by that, and somehow I got talked into the Willie Nelson thing, I don't

really know how that happened, but a buddy of mine taught me into it, and nobody's taught

me out of it yet, so here I am.

When it comes to that first, so this is something interesting that I came across a while ago.

When it comes to music, music is a time machine.

Those early songs that we listen to, that our parents or our grandparents or our brothers

or sisters or somebody played, those songs will always enjoy, but it's the music we first

pick ourselves.

When you're first going out there and buying your first album, buying your first CD,

whatever it is, that music, you could go 30 years without hearing it, it shows up on

the radio, and you are instantly brought back to being a kid again.

You're instantly literally in your brain, you're brought back there.

It's a time machine.

There's something about that, I'm curious, is instruments that way.

You've mentioned how much you love the drums.

You find yourself just continuing to go back to them because of that love?

Well, I do.

I still play here at home.

I have a big sound studio here at my house, and I still just go in there just for the enjoyment

of it, and because it does take me back to being that seven-year-old kid again, every time

I sit down on them, it really does take me back to that time, so although it's been a

lifetime of doing it now, but yeah, I do it because I still enjoy it, and it's what

I started out on, so I think we kind of like the idea of going back where we started

from time to time.

Yeah.

Michael, before we get into, and you touch on this a little bit, before we get into

Willie and his music library, and just him in general, what are some other influences

you have?

I found this really interesting looking into you and your website.

Oh, musical influences are all over the place, man.

You know, in mid-20s, 30s, I was a heavy metal maniac out of Dallas, played drums and

some metal bands there, but I'm also a big carpenter's fan.

I love Andy Williams, youth man, Ronnie Mills South, Ray Price, and just all over the place,

of course, Van Halen, just everywhere, and anything that's good music, I think is good

music, regardless of where it's coming from.

Well, you know, so I'm reading that, and I had looked at your website and then kind of

went through there to see some of your videos and see some of the music.

It listened to some of the music you and the band have played and everything, and it just

all clicked.

It all seemed to make sense.

Not only you doing this music because you do it so well, but Willie himself, Willie Nelson,

if you've heard him talk about his music influences, you hear Willie talk about the people

that he grew up enjoying.

You've seen Willie's career, and Willie is duetted with an artist and almost any type of

genre.

It's something that really fits you covering this artist and you being that kind of guy

really makes sense to me, at least, just from looking at it from a third perspective.

Well, that's true.

Like I said, good music is just good music.

It doesn't really need to be painted into a box, really, so if it feels right, things

are right, and the people will let you know right away if they like it or not, so there

you go.

When it comes to this, every musician, no matter what kind of they're playing, they're

all playing the same notes.

There's only six notes, and it makes sense to me, it makes more sense that people would

be influenced or would have other influences than just listening to one certain style of

music or anything that I don't know that would add up to me, so that makes sense that

you do.

And I appreciate that.

So now, again, you touched on this a little bit growing up with it.

It sounds like one of the older musicians you've listened to in your lifetime is Willie

Nelson.

But what makes you, all of a sudden, puts such an effort into this, not only to give people

this kind of attribute, but to kind of give people this kind of experience with the

Red Headed Stranger?

Well, it's not a new thing.

I've been doing this show probably thirty-five years.

I remember being in high school and coming home from visiting with my uncle all weekend

who did, playing Willie Nelson, was about all he did play back then, out of his old

egg track player and he's pick up truck, so I'd go home singing the songs at the end of

the weekend, so that's kind of how I got started doing the voice.

And of course, through my years of being in metal bands and all that, but I'd always had

long hair anyway.

But grew beard and I don't know, man, like I said, a buddy of mine talked me in to do it

at one time.

He was an Elvis guy and I was playing drums for him and nobody's taught me how to do it

yet.

But if I was going to do it, I wanted to try to get it as authentic as I could.

In other words, I didn't know how to play any guitar then, but I had to sit down and learn

how to play some guitar.

And I didn't want to just kind of half do it.

I wanted to be able to stand out there and be as authentic as I could be.

I respect that a lot.

I think that's really cool.

I also think it makes it's part of why this experience really stands out compared to

other kind of tribute shows or certain things.

You really do a great job, not only embodying that, but really embodying the vibe, the

energy of a Willie Nelson show.

In the time you've been doing this and in the homework you've done on it, which I'm an

actor, Michael, so I'm loving all this prep and everything that you put into playing

Willie and being Willie and all that.

I love all that stuff.

Thank you for that.

But when it comes to that work that you've done, the homework you've done on Willie,

is there anything that surprised you or is there any song that you may have not known

before or didn't even like that much, but now that you've been playing it, you're enjoying?

Oh, Lord, yeah.

There's a lifetime of discovering songs that I didn't know.

And I'm still discovering stuff that I haven't heard before that he's done.

He's recorded so many songs over the years.

I think he's just finished his 78th album.

Yeah.

So there's a lifetime of music there, and of course he's been doing it since the 60s.

So yeah, there's a lot of stuff out there that I probably haven't heard yet.

And one of the things that I also noticed about your show, and I don't know if this was intentional

or not, but part of this is also helping me appreciate Willie, the songwriter, not just

Willie, the performer, but certainly appreciating him as a lyricist.

Oh, sure.

Yeah.

I think it's one of my favorite words that he's with is unmatched by anybody.

We'll be going through the years and pulling out some of the old songs from the old Nashville

Vault days and doing a lot of songs that people, but we had to forgot that they knew.

So be a long evening of going down memory lane, if you will.

Is that the kind of thing that people can expect with this show, Michael, did that trip down

memory lane?

Yeah.

I think so.

I've also got a lead guitar player with me that's a chicken pick and guitar maniac out of the

smokey mountains over here.

He'll be out front singing some duets with me and doing some stuff on his own.

His guitar playing is lightning fast and he's a very skilled player.

So they can enjoy that as well.

He's a very good singer in his own right.

So it makes for a great evening of great classic country.

I love how Michael even sounds like Willie, like even just talking to us here and everything.

And I'm not trying to lump Southern voices together.

I don't mean to do that.

They're very different.

They're unique, but you just happen to also sound a lot like him, sir.

So that's fantastic.

I want to encourage people to go to tribute to Willie dot com tribute to Willie dot com

fantastic website.

I was able to do a lot of homework on Michael here and also notice Michael when I was looking

at your touring, you are doing something with a group of highway men as well.

Yeah.

I put together a version of the highway men that we've been out there.

Like I said, 30 years doing that show as well.

It includes a whale engineings and a Johnny Cash.

And it's a real fun show as well.

Now both of the these shows are backed by a video media show.

So there's things going on on the screens behind us and all kinds of playing videos and

photos and all kinds of things going on that help kind of put you in the mood for what

we're doing out front.

So they're pretty nice shows.

I'm real proud of them.

Very cool.

I encourage people to again go to that website to your homework and get ready for this amazing

show.

Coming up on October 9th, 730th, the performing arts center, Willie and the family live.

It should be to Willie Nelson.

Michael, I cannot thank you enough for the time.

This was a lot of fun, man.

Well, that's not pleasure.

I'm looking forward to coming to Wisconsin up there.

There's always a lot of fun and I'm going to come up there before freezing the death.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's a good time.

Does it well to play by you?

Michael, thank you again for the time and have a great show.

Safe travels out there.

We'll see you at the pack.

All right, guys.

I certainly appreciate it.

Thank you.

Big thank you to Michael Moore, Jordy Gus there from Willie and Family Live, A tribute

to Willie Nelson.

Sally, you get the greatest guests for us.

We appreciate you so much.

Thank you.

There's a lot of fun.

That is a lot of fun.

And I imagine that it's been a lot of fun putting this season together.

I want to just focus on this show, of course, but I didn't want to just touch on maybe the

next show as well.

But for this show, Sally, got a lot of great things coming together for this one and it's

going to be a really good time.

But, well, who doesn't know and love Willie Nelson?

I mean, come on.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

I was going to say to Michael, he was talking about how, you know, growing up, he literally

grew up with Willie because of his grandma and playing it so much in the South.

He just couldn't go anywhere without hearing Willie.

I was going to tell him, look, South Chicago, wasn't that different man?

Like I remember here, Willie was one of the earliest voices.

Our member is Willie Nelson and hearing that and I grew up in the city.

So that's to your point, that's just how universal this guy is.

Right.

When we started looking at our country show, of course, we have to have a country show

in our season every year.

It was kind of like, you know, we've had headliners the last couple of years and we thought

we'd try to attribute and Willie Nelson just kind of kept popping up.

You know, and one thing I didn't have a chance to say to Michael, but I will be honest

with everybody that I can help stop thinking.

I last week on our WIRI, our country station, I was doing the sunrise show and I was going

through our day in history stuff and I see all the far made things and it got me thinking

a lot about that event and some of the people that have been at it for many years certainly

started by a number of individuals.

Willie Nelson being one of these people and I saw the 2024 bit of it where Willie was

there with his sons and performing and but I really do love this human being.

I love Willie Nelson.

I appreciate Willie Nelson and seeing him at this age, you can't help but also be reminded

that, you know, we don't know how long we have of these individuals.

So getting to hear this music, getting to be a part of it, I think is not just a great

time, but also celebrating somebody while we still have them and letting them know, even

from here in Wisconsin, rabbits, look how much we still love you, Willie, we're going

to this show.

We're celebrating your music, leading up to this show, I guarantee his music is going

to be downloaded and listened to a ton in this area, little on all around wherever Michael

and his gang are performing and stuff.

That's pretty cool.

That's a pretty cool part of this.

Right.

And I think it's an honor to Willie Nelson to have people wanting to be a tribute to

him, even, you know, he's still around, but still wanting to do that.

The show itself, Sally, let's go over the details of this.

You bet Thursday, October 9th at 7.30 pm, it will be at the beautiful performing arts

center of Wisconsin, Rapids.

Tickets are $49 for adults and as always, 15 for students, you can purchase them through

the arts council at saverthearts.com or give us a call, 715-424-2787 or swing by our

office at 1048 Street South, sweet 101 in Wisconsin, Rapids.

Grab those cowboy boots, get your cowboy hat and be ready because this is going to be a

really good time.

We're going to have some fun with this one and I don't, I know that he's going to want

you to sing along.

He's going to, in his concerts, it is shows, he's really about that.

It really loves the audience participation.

So we want to make sure to include that with it and have a good time, everybody.

You can get those tickets at saverthearts.com, I also can pick them up, right, so.

You bet.

Yeah, we'd be happy to see you, our hours are 10 to 2.30 Monday through Thursday.

I'd also like to do a shout out to our sponsors, one of which is station, W-I-R-I.

How about that?

How about that?

Also, Steve Foll, the cost wealth management team and WSAW channel seven.

Thank you to all of them putting into this, not only this community, but putting into

the arts.

We greatly appreciate that.

I love to, any shout out you and Eric and everybody else that works so hard on these

shows.

We're so thankful for it.

The economic impact these shows have on our area is almost un, you know, unmeasurable.

It just is a very, very big impact and they have so many layers to it.

We greatly appreciate all of that and of course, the great entertainment that this brings.

Kelly works so hard finding these artists and unique artists and bringing to our area.

And, you know, take a look around, everybody.

That ain't easy.

We've got a very unique area here that loves a lot of different types of music.

It's not like, oh, we just like this type of one thing.

No, there's a lot of different arts and a lot of different things we like and somehow

Sally, every year puts together a schedule for everybody.

I really appreciate that.

To that point, Sally, just touching on a little bit of our next event after this one,

because we had, it's already been a really fun season.

I heard great things about an evening of harmony that happened in everything that that went

really well.

And of course, coming up after Willie and family live on October 9th, November 6th, the

Dewap project echoes of the street.

This one's right up my alley, Sally.

This is right up my alley.

That one is really awesome.

And we're also having a meal beforehand associated with that at Lake Air.

You can buy your tickets through the Arts Council for that.

So just a fun night.

I should mention also before the Willie and family live, we're doing a reception for season

ticket holders and sponsors, just a thank you for supporting us kind of thing.

So from six to seven, we're holding that at the high school.

So if you have not responded, RSVP to that, please let me know.

Because we're getting more and more into gift giving season and people preparing gifts

and getting those ready and stuff.

I don't know about anybody else out there, but I love to have, like before November, I

want that done.

I want to have all my gifts taken care of and everything.

It rarely happens, but I try, I try to.

One of the things that I've noticed more and more is how much people are looking for

experiences.

They've got enough things.

They've got enough clothes.

They've got enough, these kind of stuff.

They want experiences.

I don't know that you can find a better way to give somebody an experience while also

supporting your local community, adding to the arts in this state.

It's a win-win-win kind of situation, getting a ticket for somebody, maybe for one of these

great events coming up and having that be a gift.

It's a really nice gift I can think of and it's a gift to your community as much as it

is to that person.

So I encourage you to do that and of course get your tickets for Willie and family live

coming up October 9th over the Performing Arts Center.

Make sure tickets for that everybody at saverlyarts.com, saverlyarts.com and as Sally was mentioning

earlier, you can always stop by at 1040 A Street South, sweet 101 right here in Rapids.

They're open Monday through Thursday, 10 to 230.

Tickets are also available online and you can give them a call, 715-424-2787-424-2787.

Sally, thank you so much for the time.

Oh, thank you.

We'll talk again real soon because you're going to be coming around again more now.

You better believe it.

Looking forward to it, thank you, Sally.

And a big thank you to Michael as well.

His website again that you can check out.

It's tribute to Willie.com.

Be sure to check that out, everybody.

Big thank you to Crockett Sceptic Sponsor and this and to all of you for joining us for

another edition of WFHR's Rapids Report.