$6 million cabin once housed Hunter S. Thompson’s convertible

John Oates’ Woody Creek ranch just outside Aspen started as a small, rundown cabin, the remnants of a house that burned down years before.

The home saw plenty of renovations since Oates’ initial purchase. Now a five-bedroom, 4½-bathroom ranch complete with a guest home and barn, the home went on the market in June and is still up for sale for $6 million.

In a recent interview with Ryan Warner on Colorado Public Radio, Oates recalled that shortly after purchasing this ranch, he had trouble getting then-neighbor Hunter S. Thompson’s red Pontiac Grand Ville convertible out of his house.

“Inside the cabin was this red convertible. I happened to ask the real

estate agent who owned the convertible, and he said ‘Your neighbor Hunter Thompson,’ ” Oates said. “Why is he keeping his car in a piece of property he doesn’t own? The real estate agent looked at me and said ‘It’s Woody Creek, you’ll figure this out. It’s a different kind of place.’ ”

Thompson’s car was still parked inside the cabin when carpenters arrived to start renovating.

After numerous unanswered notes — and with the keys still in the car — Oates drove the car back to Thompson’s home and left it on the lawn. The two celebrities became friends, but never spoke of the car, Oates said.

The tale is detailed in Oates’ autobiography, “Change of the Seasons: A Memoir.”

With a son living in Washington and his father in Pennsylvania, Oates said he has found it more convenient to live in Nashville. Though he is selling his Woody Creek property, one of his two homes in Colorado, he doesn’t plan to leave the state forever, but he wanted to scale back.