Koe Wetzel Has An Idea For Payback After The Infamous 2019 Great Texas Balloon Race Show: “Gonna Get Me A Big Ol’ Hot Air Balloon”

Don't mess with Texas... or Koe Wetzel . Many years ago, when Koe was still coming up in the Texas music scene in 2019, he played a festival in Longview called the Great Texas Balloon Race. And obviously he put on his usual high-energy, not exactly family friendly, rock and roll show. Well, apparently some of the attendees were upset with his performance, so much so that the festival wound up issuing an apology the next day. From there, the story blew up, and we covered it at the time which you can read more about HERE . Anywho, during a recent appearance on Tracy Lawrence's TL's Road House podcast to talk about his new album 9 Lives that drops Friday and much more. And this story came up, which I haven't heard much about in a long time but is still just as funny as it was back then. Koe recalled some of the details, saying: "This one night, we were playing Longview, and this was probably 2018 or 2019. Had 16 or 17 thousand people there, massive crowd. East Texas, that's my spot, man. So I've been going to this damn music fest, it's like a balloon festival... we get there, and they said that they told me not to cuss or whatever. They ain't make me sign sh*t,  I didn't sign nothin'. I guess they told my tour manager, 'Hey, make sure he knows it's a family event.' But at the same time, there's 17,000 people drunk that have been there all day, they're hammered drunk. I go out there, I just put on a Koe show, you know? Granted, I did have a little too much Jack Daniels that night. I put on a Koe show, I'm cussin' a little bit, and we get off the stage and the show goes great. They come up, they're like 'Oh, thank y'all so much for being here, that was a great show! Can't wait to have y'all back.' I was like 'Oh, absolutely, no problem.'" But he woke up to a very different response: "The next morning, I wake up, my buddy is like 'Hey, did you see this?' The festival had posted on Facebook and I was like what are you talking about." They issued an apology and said it would "never happen again," and Koe was taken back saying he never signed anything, and no one ever mentioned anything about not cussing to him before the show: "So I said, 'You know what? F*** that. Repost it, and above it, put 'Thank y'all Longview, Texas for setting the highest attendance record ever at the hot air balloon festival.' And then KLTV, the news station and everybody else, got ahold of it. It was a whole big ordeal. But they were like, 'We told him not to cuss.' I was like, y'all didn't tell me sh*t. We just put on a Koe show and man, it was blown out of proportion." But his plan for payback sounds epic: "But I've always said, I'm gonna get me a big old hot air balloon that says 'Koe f***in' Wetzel' on it, and I'm gonna plant it right there in the middle of it whenever they have the next one." Why hasn't that happened already? And actually, there were over 60,000 people at the festival to see him that day, so it's kind of wild that they were all so upset about it... it's well in the past, but still funny to hear him talk about so many years later because I remember how controversial it was at the time. Yeah, there's probably no love lost between these two parties... And if there's one thing about Koe, he's going to be himself, and he's always been that way. Just an all-time great response: And obviously his strategy has worked thus far, and he's poised to release the biggest album of his career and has already achieved the highest-charting debut single of his career with "High Road," which is also his first official single at country radio. You can watch him tell that story, as well as listen to the entire podcast, here: https://youtu.be/ZqYK-i3T0r4?t=2441 Koe has released four songs from the record, including the aforementioned "High Road," “9 Lives (Black Cat),” “Damn Near Normal” and “Sweet Dreams.” 9 Lives was produced predominantly by Gabe Simon (Noah Kahan’s Stick Season ) alongside a lineup of trusted collaborators like Josh Serrato, Carrie K and Sam Harris (X Ambassadors) and is due out everywhere this Friday, July 19th. 9 Lives Tracklist: “Continued” Skit “9 Lives (Black Cat)” (Ropyr Wetzel, Amy Allen, Gabe Simon) “Depression & Obsession” (cover) “Damn Near Normal” (Ropyr Wetzel, Amy Allen, Gabe Simon, Carrie Karpinen, Sam Harris) “Leigh” (Ropyr Wetzel, Amy Allen, Gabe Simon) “Twister” (Ropyr Wetzel, Steve Rusch, Ben Burgess, Josh Serrato) “High Road” (Ropyr Wetzel, Amy Allen, Gabe Simon, Carrie Karpinen) “Reconsider” (Charles John Brocco, Keith Quenton Gattis) “Hatchet” (Gabe Simon, Mike Coogan) “Sweet Dreams” (Ropyr Wetzel, Amy Allen, Josh Serrato, Gabe Simon, Sam Harris) “Runnin’ Low” (Ropyr Wetzel, Amy Allen, Sam Harris, Gabe Simon, Ben Burgess) “Bar Song” (Blake “Shy” Carter, Breyan Isaac, Dernst “D’Mile” Emile II, Dave Gibson) “Last Outlaw Alive” (Josh Serrato, Ben Burgess, Sam Harris) "High Road" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyAKpowkUDA