| Trigger's portage and care are entrusted to a man named "Tunin' " Tom Hawkins. He was hired in 1979 during the filming of "Honeysuckle Rose," in which Nelson essentially played himself in a movie about a musician torn between his family and life on the road.
Hawkins' job was to tune the piano of Bobbie Nelson, with whom Willie Nelson still plays each night, habitually calling her "little sister Bobbie," though at 72 she is his older sister. Hawkins' story seems to be the same as everyone else's in Nelson's entourage: "I just never went away," he said with a shrug, standing in the wings of the Camden stage.
As he spoke, roadies flitted about preparing for the show. Many had cigarettes dangling from their lips, with ashes so long they seemed to defy gravity. Hawkins' 24 years with the Nelson "family" make him something of a rookie; Nelson's best friend and drummer, Paul English, has been with him for close to 40 years.
Hawkins, a stocky man with flowing hair and a Fu Manchu mustache, pulled the guitar out of its black case to tune it. You hold your breath when you see it, not because it is a priceless object, but because you are suddenly gripped with fear that it might disintegrate if you exhale.
The acoustic guitar, a Martin N-20 model, has been dropped, mauled, scratched and carried in the back of a rumbling bus through countless miles of touring -- enough miles that Nelson's "band of gypsies," as he calls his entourage in the song "On the Road Again," wore out Honeysuckle Rose I and II.
Because it is a classical guitar, it is surprisingly small and was not meant to be played with a pick. As a result, 34 years of powerful down strokes have worn a gaping hole in its top, just below the sound hole. Another hole is nearly ready to break through above the sound hole.
The guitar has traveled by plane too. One flight stands out: In 1990, the IRS told Nelson that he owed $16.7 million in back taxes and penalties. The agency began seizing his assets, and Nelson feared they'd take Trigger and try to auction it off. While Nelson recovered, largely through the sales of an album called "The IRS Tapes: Who'll Buy My Memories," Trigger was reportedly quietly whisked away to a home Nelson had in Hawaii.
Nelson demurred when asked about Trigger's whereabouts during those days.
"A couple people hid it for me," he said with a smile.
More than 100 musicians and friends, from Johnny Cash to Leon Russell, have signed and etched their names into its amber face. The late Roger Miller is the John Hancock of the bunch; his scrawled signature dominates the lower third of the guitar. Nelson's fourth wife, Annie, has her name on one corner. A heart is over the I.
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