‘Vamoose!’: The time Willie Nelson was in a Fort Worth prison. (But only for a show.)

Willie Nelson dropped in on some old pals yesterday, guys he called ‘friends from all walks of life.”

You could definitely call them The Outlaws.

“Time just brought everybody together again here,” he said.

Here at the Federal Medical Center prison.

Willie Nelson finally went to the federal pen Monday, but this had nothing to do with that $16.7 million bar tab tacked up over the IRS cash register.

The Nelson and Family tour plunked out a two-hour concert for cocaine kingpins and tax cheats and maybe a savings-and-loan swindler or two, behind closed gates at the federal prison in southeast Fort Worth.

But sorry, no music review, because Nelson’s manager told the prison “no reporters.”

I got the boot out of prison. Brought to mind a great song: “Hello Walls.”

Behind bars, not in ‘em

It’s tough to get in prison these days. Or anywhere near it.

At the front door, federal spokesman Tony Perez said: “Willie said no press.”

On a road outside the building, within earshot of Willie doing “Blue Skies,” a patrolling guard said, “Go back to the parking lot.”

In the parking lot, during “Georgia On My Mind,” Lt. B. Byrne said, “You’re going to have to leave now.”

“Vamoose! Scram!” he said. “Or we’re going to charge you with trespassing. You’re history!”

At the fence between the prison and a Fort Worth public park, still within earshot of “Will the Circle Be Unbroken,” guard S. Rothman asked through the chain-link, “You got any ID?”

He spoke into a radio.

Then he said, “Come back inside. They want to see you.”

Goin’ places I ain’t never been

Four men walked out with a deal:

Wait on Horton Street, and Willie will stop the bus for an interview.

Aboard the “Honeysuckle Rose II,” a polished new Silver Eagle, Nelson said why, no — he would never shut out reporters.

“Aw, one of my guys probably only said, ‘We’re not here for publicity,’ “ Nelson offered with a reconciling grin.

“We are always glad to welcome our friends in the media.”

Nelson said his captive audience cheered like a nightclub crowd, a surprise for a 1 p.m. concert.

“I wasn’t sure how their energy level would be, but it was great,” he said.

“It was a normal show, except for the restraint. They weren’t allowed to rush the stage.”

On the road again

Nelson follows Merle Haggard at the Fort Worth prison. Nelson has played four other prisons.

That’ll stop next year when he settles into a Branson, Missouri, theater.

From May through October, he’ll play only in the Ozark Mountains.

“It’ll be different,” he said.

“But I lived in Fort Worth several years solid, and that didn’t seem to bother me.”

Deep in the Star-Telegram files, there is a yellowed clipping from those years. Elston Brooks’ column told about this KCNC/870 AM disc jockey hitting it big as a songwriter with Faron Young’s hit “Hello Walls” and a new Patsy Cline song — “Crazy.”

Yesterday, he was making time for the Star-Telegram again.

“Yeah, I heard you had a problem out here,” he joked, lifting an upraised eyebrow.

“We’d be coming back to do a show here for you.”

I forgot to ask him.

But if I get put him, I hope I can hang out with his friends.