LEGENDARY MOVE: The Day Willie Nelson Outsmarted the IRS and Saved Trigger — “They Weren’t Taking My Guitar” 🎸🇺🇸
It’s one of the most iconic stories in country music history — the day Willie Nelson, cornered by debt and chased by the IRS, pulled off a daring act of defiance to save the one thing he valued more than gold: Trigger, his beloved guitar.
In the early 1990s, Willie Nelson found himself in the middle of a financial firestorm. The IRS claimed he owed over $16 million in back taxes, and in an aggressive move, they seized nearly all of his assets — homes, ranches, recording equipment, bank accounts… nothing was safe.
But there was one thing they didn’t get.
Not because they overlooked it — but because Willie outsmarted them.
“I told my daughter, ‘Get Trigger out of here… right now,’” Willie recalled. “They can take my house, they can take my bus — but they’re not taking that guitar.”
Trigger, a beat-up Martin N-20 classical guitar with a hole worn through its body and a soul soaked in history, had been Willie’s companion since 1969. He once said, “When Trigger goes, I’ll quit.” To him, Trigger wasn’t an instrument — it was an extension of his voice, his spirit, his story.
As IRS agents prepared to seize his assets, Willie secretly sent Trigger to his daughter Lana, who hid it in her home in Maui, Hawaii. There, it stayed tucked away in safety — while Willie faced the biggest fight of his career.
“They didn’t know where it was,” he later laughed. “And I wasn’t about to tell them.”
What followed was Willie’s brilliant response: he worked with his label to release the “Who’ll Buy My Memories?” album — a stripped-down acoustic collection of songs recorded specifically to help pay off the IRS. Fans across the country rallied behind him, and slowly, dollar by dollar, the debt was chipped away.
Eventually, Willie settled with the government, and Trigger returned to its rightful place — slung over the shoulder of a man who’d just reminded the world that outlaw country wasn’t just a style… it was a way of life.
Today, Trigger is still with Willie — bearing the scars of thousands of shows, signed by friends and legends, and handled with a kind of reverence usually reserved for relics. It lives in a custom-built road case, and only a few trusted hands are allowed to touch it.
“I’ve outlived a lot of things,” Willie once said, “but I’ll never let Trigger go.”
Because in the end, the IRS may have taken his money, but Willie Nelson kept his soul — and his guitar.