The 2 American Beer Brands Willie Nelson Fans Still Link Him To

He's the outlaw country legend behind albums like "Shotgun Willie" and "Red Headed Stranger;" he wrote "Crazy," the classic country song immortalized by Patsy Cline; and he remains a prolific artist even in his nineties, having released not one but two albums last year. He's Willie Nelson, and he needs no introduction — nor a beer, for that matter, not anymore. He quit drinking some time ago, preferring to stay "California sober" with his preferred recreational substance of marijuana. Still, Nelson has a long history with two different brands of beer: Coors and Lone Star.

There's a seriously iconic black-and-white photo of Nelson opening a can of Coors onstage and getting sprayed with the gushing foam which is emblematic of Coors' status in the country music scene. Although the Colorado-based company may not seem like a rootin'-tootin' cowboy brand, it had a great appeal among outlaw country fans in the 1970s, when it was called "The Beer That Won The West" by Time Magazine. Then called Coors Banquet, it was rather hard to come by in some cases, as its lack of pasteurization meant it went bad pretty quickly. Michael Hallmark, who writes under the name Don Cyoti, described going to see Willie Nelson and lugging along three cases of Coors on the Fourth of July in 1975. "Coors was gold in those days in South Texas, because Lubbock [in North Texas] was the only place where you could get the nectar of the Golden, Co brewing gods."

It makes sense that Nelson, an Austin native and one of Texas' proudest exports, would have an affinity for a beer named after the Lone Star State. In fact, the association came about because Jerry Retzloff (who did marketing for Lone Star and was involved with Nelson and the Austin music scene in general) struck a deal to provide Nelson and his band with beer so long as he drank cans of it on stage. (It's kind of the opposite of Bruce Springsteen's distaste for Budweiser, which he specifically asks to not get on his rider.)

The association continued to the point where Lone Star Beer sponsored the first edition of "Austin City Limits", which turned into a beloved, long-running showcase for musical performances on public television. Nelson wasn't the only country music conduit for the beer — Red Steagall wrote a song called "Lone Star Beer and Bob Wills Music" about how those are the only two things he needs after his woman leaves — but he's by far the most famous. Today, Lone Star Beer is owned by Pabst, one of the eight massive companies that owns most grocery store beer.