Everyone knows about Willie Nelson’s country music legacy, his altruistic endeavors through Farm Aid and other initiatives, as well as his appreciation and advocacy for a certain little green plant. But not enough is made about Willie Nelson the entrepreneur, or Willie Nelson the savvy poker player. Both these things come into play when you ask the question, “Why does every Texas Roadhouse restaurant have a wall, a corner, and/or a booth dedicated to Willie Nelson?”
The easy answer might be that Willie Nelson is synonymous with Texas, and so it makes sense to include an homage to Willie in the restaurant called “Texas Roadhouse.” This is true in itself, but that only tells part of the story. After all, the Texas Roadhouse restaurants aren’t even based in Texas. Their headquarters are in Louisville, Kentucky, and the first ever Texas Roadhouse was opened in a mall in Clarksville, Indiana in 1993.
The founder of Texas Roadhouse restaurants was a guy named Kent Taylor, who was a Kentucky Fried Chicken manager that had a vision for his own restaurant mapped out on the back of napkins that he would pitch to anyone who had money. When he finally convinced a local doctor to forward him $100,000 to start the restaurant, the Texas Roadhouse was born.
After the Indiana location was so well-received, Kent Taylor began expanding the franchise almost immediately, but it still didn’t come to Texas. Instead, the initial expansion happened in Florida. The idea was to give people a taste of Texas outside of the borders of the Lone Star State. There was less of a need to do so in Texas proper.
But 20 years ago today on December 16th, 2004, a Texas Roadhouse was opened in Austin, TX at 9300 South I-35 in the Southpark Meadows development near Slaughter Lane. This one didn’t just include a “Willie Nelson” booth. The franchise is owned (at least partially) by Willie Nelson himself.
The connection between Willie Nelson and Texas Roadhouse founder Kent Taylor has to do with the two’s love for charity giving. Just like Willie, Kent Taylor wanted to use the opportunities bestowed by his success to help others. But it was also their mutual appreciation for poker that stoked their friendship.
Willie’s late night poker tournaments are the stuff of legend, and Kent Taylor is one of the few people Willie would invite into his inner circle to ante up. Other famous names that Willie would regularly run the table on were actors Woody Harrelson and Owen Wilson, former Dallas Mavericks basketball coach Don Nelson (no relation), as well as musicians Jamey Johnson, Jack Johnson, Merle Haggard, and others.
Despite Willie’s kindhearted nature, he’s apparently a ruthless card player. Willie once took Woody Harrelson for $40,000 in just one night, and wouldn’t let him leave until he paid up. One could even surmise that the Willie Nelson-owned Texas Roadhouse in Austin is a payoff for a bad night of blackjack between Kent Taylor and Willie. But in truth, Willie just probably got tired of waiting from Kent Taylor to build one in his back yard, so he took the initiative himself.
Another cool feature of the Texas Roadhouse restaurants is their Artist of the Month initiative. While performers like Silverada, Kaitlin Butts, and Kylie Frey can’t get their music on mainstream country radio, they have enjoyed the benefit of being beamed into the now 655 locations of Texas Roadhouse, including international franchises in Canada, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Philippines, Taiwan, Mexico, China and South Korea.
As many chain restaurants struggle in the post COVID era, Texas Roadhouse has continued to expand, in part due to the continued fascination with Texas culture because of legendary characters such as Willie Nelson. You can consider each franchise sort of like a Texas embassy. Kent Taylor was famous for walking around wearing a pair of fake Willie Nelson braids, which some Texas Roadhouse locations sell along with T-shirts, etc.
Along with each restaurant paying tribute to Willie Nelson, there is also a tribute to Native Americans, as well as homage paid to a local hero, sometimes a sports icon, sometimes a famous first responder. The chain restaurant does its best to import Texas culture, while also keeping a local flavor.
Unfortunately, Texas Roadhouse owner and founder Kent Taylor passed away in 2021 at the age of 65 during the pandemic. In 2020, Taylor donated his entire salary totaling $800,000 to his employees, making him a model of how affluent CEO should handle the mandated COVID-19 shutdowns. But this didn’t keep Taylor from getting COVID himself. The disease resulted in him experiencing severe tinnitus, or ringing in the ears. The noise became so excruciating for Taylor, he ultimately committed suicide.
It was a sad ending to a cool story, and a cool friendship between Willie Nelson and Kent Taylor. But the legacy of Kent, Willie, and Texas live on through the Texas Roadhouse restaurants.
