Little Known Facts About Amarillo – Billy’s Top 5

In 1998 Oprah Winfrey was unsuccessfully sued by the cattle industry for claims that American Beef was the cause of mad cow disease costing the industry millions of dollars. During the law suit she relocated her show to the Amarillo Little Theatre right here in Amarillo. She stayed in between Amarillo and Canyon.

Amarillo has been the focus of many different musical artists like, "Amarillo by Morning" by Paul Fraser and Terry Stafford. Nat King Cole's wrote "(Get Your Kicks) on Route 66". Bob Dylan's "Brownsville Girl" is about the city though Amarillo not mentioned, Dylan referred to it as the land of the living dead. Rob Zombie's "Two Lane Blacktop" is written about Amarillo.

The song "Is This the Way to Amarillo" written by Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield, recorded famously by Yorkshireman Tony Christie and Sedaka, and revived by Peter Kay through performances in the comedy series Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights and in a charity performance for Comic Relief.

Christie's version, which only managed to reach 18th place when originally released in 1971, made it to the number 1 spot in the UK Singles Chart in 2005 for 7 weeks.

In 2010, Damon Albarn wrote the song "Amarillo" whilst on tour in America with the Gorillaz, although it is not known to what extent the song is reference to the city.

Maybe it's the scenery and amazing sunsets or some of the One Of A Kind restaurants, but film makers have made it a point to grab scenes from our fair city and the surrounding area. Here is a small list of a few films that had shoots in the area: Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade (Harrison Ford) had scenes filmed right outside the city. Switchback 1997 (Dennis Quaid, Danny Glover) had scenes filmed in the area. Waking Up In Reno (Billy Bob Thornton, Patrick Swayze) had scenes film in 'The Big Texan'

Amarillo is home to one the the country's largest nuclear weapons assembly and dis-assembly plants. It employs thousands of people from scientists and computer engineers to guards for the facility. It is said that they are currently under a dis-assembly order to reduce the number of nukes in the world, but some say that they simply take those weapons and upgrade them and store them for any future threat.

Lacey Brown was the 12th place finisher in season 9 of American Idol. Although she didn't finish in the top ten, she has still pursued her career as a country star and is making name for her self on the music scene. Her father is the pastor at Victory Church and she played violin while growing up right here in Amarillo.