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Fans of Koe Wetzel have long treated “February 28, 2016” like a holiday. The song has become one of his most recognizable anthems, but for years the full story behind that date lived mostly in legend. Now, on the 10 year mark, Koe has finally laid out exactly what went down that night.
Back in 2016, he was living in Stephenville, Texas, working a regular job and spending his weekends the way a lot of college town twenty somethings do. One Friday night, he showed up to his buddy’s house with a bottle of vodka and settled in for what he thought would be just another night with friends. At some point, he became determined to make a late night Taco Bell run, even though his friends tried to convince him otherwise.
That food mission did not go as planned.
Instead of tacos, the night ended with Koe waking up in jail. Police found him passed out face down in a soccer field near his truck, which had run out of gas. The doors were open, the hood was popped, and according to Koe, the officer who discovered him initially thought he might be dead.
That chaotic night eventually turned into the song “February 28, 2016,” which landed on his 2016 album Noise Complaint. What started as a personal memory turned into a fan favorite that still gets shouted back at him at shows every year when the date rolls around.
A decade later, it is wild to think a night that messy became one of the defining tracks of his career. But that is exactly the kind of real life storytelling that has always connected people to Koe’s music.
Watch him tell the full story above.
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