{"id":382845,"date":"2026-07-22T20:26:36","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T20:26:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/382845\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T20:26:36","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T20:26:36","slug":"long-closed-iconic-austin-music-venue-to-get-documentary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/382845\/","title":{"rendered":"Long-closed iconic Austin music venue to get documentary"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Woody Harrelson is among a team of producers behind an upcoming documentary on Austin&#8217;s Armadillo World Headquarters. The historic venue closed in 1980 and helped foster the city&#8217;s reputation as the Live Music Capital of the World, welcoming huge names including Willie Nelson, Linda Ronstadt, ZZ Top, Ray Charles and Bruce Springsteen.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Armadillo wasn&#8217;t just a music venue,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/2026\/07\/woody-harrelson-documentary-armadillo-world-headquarters-1236999688\/\" data-link=\"native\" class=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Harrelson told Deadline<\/a>, which first reported the documentary. &#8220;It was where all kinds of worlds came together: artists, outlaws, hippies, students, dreamers, everyone under one roof. Careers got started there, genres mixed, and what really sticks with me is how it made people feel like they belonged.&#8221;\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Armadillo World Headquarters was located at 525\u00bd Barton Springs Rd. from 1970 to 1980. Over 10 years, it helped establish Austin&#8217;s progressive country, or &#8220;Cosmic Cowboy,&#8221; sound. But it also was the center of several notable events in music history:\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>However, the Armadillo World Headquarters constantly faced financial difficulties and filed for <a href=\"https:\/\/kutx.org\/this-week-in-texas-music-history\/armadillo-world-headquarters-closes\/\" data-link=\"native\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">bankruptcy in 1976<\/a>. The building was sold out from under owner Eddie Wilson, forcing the club&#8217;s closure. A high-rise office building soon replaced the old armory that was AWHQ.<\/p>\n<p>The documentary is still in development and does not have a release date but will be directed and edited by Los Angeles-based filmmaker David Brodie. Harrelson, a Texas native whose Austin-set series with Matthew McConaughey premieres in September, noted the kinship found at AWHQ as a big draw for him.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;People came for the music, but what they found was each other,&#8221; Harrelson said, according to Deadline. &#8220;The Armadillo represented something we don&#8217;t see much anymore, and that&#8217;s a big part of why I wanted to be involved with this film.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Woody Harrelson is among a team of producers behind an upcoming documentary on Austin&#8217;s Armadillo World Headquarters. The&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382846,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,135091,2466,1704,85744],"class_list":["post-382845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-chroncelebrities","tag-chronculture","tag-chronstaff","tag-chrontexas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382845\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}