Waylon Jennings
was born on June 15, 1937.  He was the first son of William and Lorene Jennings, young sharecroppers in the West Texas town of Littlefield.  His  beginnings were humble, straight out of an old country song, with dirt floors and cotton fields.   There was every chance he would become just another grain of sand beneath the wide open Texas sky.  But he didn't.  Waylon A. Jennings always had a mind of his own.
 

"There's nothing I have ever heard in my life as mournful as the whistle of a steam freight train in the distance when you're kneeling down in a field.  It sounds like death.  I'd be out in the cotton patch, dragging a sack twelve foot long and half full, putting in dirt clods to bring up the weight, and that lonesome howl would just go plumb through me.  That train was on its way out of town and I wasn't on it.  I knew that there was a better way somewhere else.  I didn't know where, but all I had to do was go looking for it."  - Waylon, An Autobiography , p.8
 
 

Young Waylon.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Waylon had music in his blood probably from the day he was born.  His father loved music, and was performing in a one man band when he met  the woman who would one day become Mrs. William Jennings.  Waylon can recall  "bounching in my jumper swing, reaching for my dad's guitar."  His mother taught him some chords, and his father inspired him to the picking style of Jimmie Rodgers.  The first song he taught himself to pick was "Spanish Fandango American Style".  Little did anyone know that one day there would be a whole new style:  Waylon style.

Waylon wanted to be involved in the music business any way he could.  Despite being expelled from music class in high school, he remained obsessed with the guitar, and with becoming a musician.  He played for family, and anywhere else there was a contest or a chance to perform for an audience.  Always head strong and independent, Waylon decided to quit high school at the age of sixteen.  That was when his father taught him one of the most important lessons of his life:  "If you're smart enough to quit school, you're smart enough to go to work."

And go to work, he did.  While continuing to perform, he worked for KVOW radio and then KLVT, before moving to KLLL in Lubbock.   It was the KLLL studio that became a hang-out for Buddy Holly, the young rock and roll star who was both friend and mentor to Waylon.  What Waylon learned from Buddy remains the very core of his music.
 

"Don't ever let them tell you what to do ... Don't ever let people tell you you can't do something, he'd say, and never put limits on yourself.  Don't back up."  - Waylon , An Autobiography , pp. 65-66

Buddy believed in Waylon, and was determined to make him a star.  He produced Waylon's first two professional recordings, "Jole Blon" and "When Sin Stops Love Begins".  The recordings were by no means a success, but that didn't stop Buddy from asking Waylon to play bass for him on a three week tour in January of 1959.  Buddy took Waylon to New York, and gave him a taste of the big city.  Like a lot of things in life, that first taste was bittersweet.  New York was rough, but Waylon knew he had to go to bigger places to reach bigger things.  Buddy went as far as to ask Waylon if he would go to England, and open for him on his next tour with The Crickets.

Waylon and Buddy Holly.

Waylon went on tour with Buddy, J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, Ritchie Valens,  and Dion and the Belmonts.  It was a low budget tour, and they found themselves travelling by bus through Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa during the coldest month of the year.  To make matters worse, the bus kept breaking down.  On the night of February 3, 1959, the tour stopped at The Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa.  It was a successful show, but Buddy was tired and The Big Bopper had come down with a flu.  The tour was scheduled to stop at Moorhead, Minnesota on February 4th, and Buddy decided to charter a plane and fly ahead to Fargo, North Dakota.  Waylon was supposed to be on that plane with Buddy, but The Bopper asked if he could have Waylon's seat.  Waylon told him he could, if it was all right with Buddy.  The plane left the Mason City airport in Iowa at 12:30 am on February 4th, with Buddy, The Big Bopper, and Ritchie Valens on board.  Flying into a storm front, the plane crashed, killing everyone aboard.

Irving Feld, of General Artists Corporation, had booked what would become Waylon Jennings' first professional tour ... and Buddy Holly's last.  Feld promised the remaining members of the tour that they would be flown back to Lubbock for the funeral if they agreed to keep the performance date in Moorehead the next night.  But that promise was never kept.  The performers were forced to finish the tour, and never made it to the funeral.  The bitter experience nearly finished Waylon's career, before it ever really began.  He went home, and considered giving up music.  But music, and the search for work, took him to Pheonix, Arizona.  There, he went to work for Jimmy D. Musiel, the owner of the brand new night club, J.D.'s.  Waylon became the headliner for J.D.'s, and that was where he made his first big noise.

At J.D.'s, Waylon became an expert at performing "covers" of popular songs.  Covering classics and hits of the day are a fact of life with small, regional bands.  But as Waylon's popularity as a local artist grew, he took more liberties with the songs he performed.  He was starting to develop the signature Waylon sound, and the addition of Richie Albright on drums helped tremendously.  But this was the time when Waylon the songwriter was on the verge of being born.

Waylon got a call from his old friend,  Don Bowman, who had worked with him at KLLL.  Don had been signed to RCA records, and was working on a song called "Just to Satisfy You".  Waylon helped him finish that, and they wrote a number of songs together.  In a bid to help his old friend out, Don took some demos of Waylon to another friend, Jerry Moss, who was forming the new A&M Records with Herb Alpert.  Jerry and Herb decided to give Waylon a try, and he recorded songs such as "Kisses Sweeter Than Wine", "Just to Satisfy You" and Bob Dylan's "Don't Think Twice".  The only song to really stand the test of time was "Just to Satisfy You", and none of them garnered Waylon more than regional success.  His experience with A&M was another bittersweet one.  Another "near miss" in his career.  But Waylon has been known to say that the way to achieve success in Country music is not to go knocking on doors in Nashville.  The way to succeed is to find some place, settle in, make some noise, and get Nashville to notice you.  So in 1964, Waylon recorded an album of his most popular material at J.D.'s.  The album contained songs like "White Lightnin'", "It's So Easy" (a Buddy Holly song), "Don't Think Twice", and two Roy Orbison songs, "Crying" and "Dream Baby".  Waylon's voice on "Crying" is particularly strong, and shows the power  he would later flaunt on his legendary 1970's albums.

Lightning finally struck for Waylon in 1964.  Another friend of Bowman's, who was also signed at RCA, heard "Just to Satisfy You" on the radio while driving through Pheonix.  That friend was Bobby Bare, who was a commercial success in Nashville with songs like "500 Miles Away From Home" and "Detroit City".  Bare was so impressed with Waylon, that he convinced his producer to invite Waylon over to RCA Records and sign him on.  That manager was none other than Chet Atkins.  While he was playing at J.D.'s, the Waylors gave Waylon his original 1953 Fender Telecaster, with the famous leather tooling.  Now he had the look, he had the sound, and he had the contract.  The rest was ... all uphill.

Waylon and Chet Atkins.

A lot happened for Waylon in the late 1960's, and he made some connections that would last the rest of his life.  While still working in Pheonix, and pondering the move to Nashville (and RCA), he first met Willie Nelson.  Nelson was up and coming, himself, mostly as a songwriter.  When he found out the kind of money Waylon was making with his steady gig and J.D.'s, he jokingly advised Waylon to forget Nashville and stay there.  Or, let him have the gig at J.D.'s.  But Waylon was determined to move to Nashville and give it a try.  When he did, he shared an apartment with a fellow performer who would become one of his best lifelong friends:  Johnny Cash.

Waylon met Roger Miller during this time, the virtuoso songwriter who inspired Waylon with his ability to write songs around good "hook" lines.   He would later record Miller's "I've Been A Long Time Leavin'" on his "Dreaming My Dreams" album.  And he met Sue Brewer, a single mother who worked in a bar by day, but turned her own apartment into a way station for country music singers and songwriters by night.  She called her place the Boar's Nest, and it was there that Waylon crossed paths with people like Kris Kristofferson, Faron Young, George Jones, Merle Kilgore and Jack Clement.   They had "guitar pulls", where a handful of performers would gather together and pass a guitar around, taking turns performing songs.  It was a place to try out new songs, glean inspiration from others, and show what you had.  In 1984, Waylon put together a television tribute to Sue, which was basically an all-star guitar pull.  And on his TNN specials in 1996, appropriately titled "Waylon Jennings and Friends", he included a guitar pull in each episode.

Chet Atkins produced the best of Waylon's early albums, and they recorded hits like "Stop The World And Let Me Off" and "Love of the Common People".    He genuinely liked Waylon, and respected his talent, but Chet was a consummate professional and a straight shooter.  He was troubled by the drugs and wild lifestyle of his star performers, including Waylon.  He turned Waylon over to producers Danny Davis and Ronny Light.  In the long run, it was the best thing to do.  Waylon was sent tumbling headlong toward destiny.

In 1967 Waylon was the star of "Nashville Rebel", which he describes as "...one of those movies that go straight to the drive-in."  But the title fit his growing persona, and before he became known as "The Outlaw" he was known as "The Nashville Rebel".   The producers he worked with after Chet Atkins left RCA had no idea where Waylon was, musically, or where he wanted to go.  The Nashville Sound, as the country music industry called it, was pretty much cast in stone.  Waylon worked hard to sneak his own ideas into his music.  His style shows through on songs like "Only Daddy That'll Walk The Line" and "Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I'll Ever Do Again)".  But post production was still polishing most of the edge off his songs, and RCA didn't want him using his live band, The Waylors, on albums.  They insisted on using staff producers and musicians.  Waylon felt like he was stuck in quicksand, creatively.  He was recording songs, but he wasn't making music.  Not his way.

In 1969 Waylon discovered a group called The Kimberlys, and a song called "McArthur Park".  After helping the group get a contract with RCA, he recorded an album with them called "Country-Folk".  "McArthur Park" was on that album, and it earned Waylon his first Grammy Award, which he shared with The Kimberlys, for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group.  Also that year, he married Jessi Colter, the greatest love of his life.
 
 

Waylon and Jessi.
Married October 26, 1969.

By 1972, a lot of things were wrong in Waylon's life.  He was burning out on working in the Nashville system.  He was dragged down by touring and recording for pennies on the dollar of what rock and roll artists were making.  He was abusing pills and sleeping erratically at best.  He was already a legendary wild man.  And when a bout with hepatitis landed him in bed, he found himself literally sick and tired.  The tragic death of his friend, Buddy Holly, and the ignominous treatment by General Artists Corporation, almost soured him on a musical career in 1959.  In 1972, years of self abuse and butting his head against Nashville had brought him back to rock bottom.  But there were those with his best interests in mind, who wouldn't let him quit.

Waylon's friend and drummer, Richie Albright, told him "There's another way of doing things, and that is rock and roll."  And those words became prophetic.  In fact, Waylon was from a generation born out of rock and roll.  His earliest mentor was Buddy Holly, and his contemporaries included Kris Kristofferson and Johnny Cash.  As a kid in Littlefield he listened to black music, and he knew that there was a fine line between blues, country and rock and roll.  The rockabilly songs that made Elvis a star in the 1950's were basically country songs that slept with the blues.  And rock and roll was a big business.  It was time Waylon started conducting some big business with Nashville.

With persuasion from Richie Albright, Waylon took on Neil Reshen as his lawyer.  Reshen helped Waylon negotiate a new contract with RCA that gave him creative freedom and a lot more money.  WGJ Productions was born.  Waylon went to work on an album titled "This Time".  He moved production out of RCA Studios and into Tompall Glaser's studio, affectionately called "Hillbilly Central".  When he presented the finished album to  RCA, he told them, "This is all you got."  Waylon single-handedly shook up the whole system of union engineers and studio control over production.  The title song was one RCA had previously rejected , but it became a #1 hit in June of 1974.
 
 

"This is all you got."

"This Time" was preceded by another ground breaking album that was released in 1973.  True to his form, Waylon liked good songs, and good song writers.  He recorded "Honky Tonk Heroes", working with Tompall Glaser and a song writer named Billy Joe Shaver.  Shaver was (and would remain) a terribly underrated song writer.  Waylon wanted to record new songs that were mythologically American.  The songs were gritty and surrealistic at the same time, a paean to  lovers, loners, drifters and disenchanted dreamers.  It's a "concept" album but not contrived.

                                Honkytonk Heroes

"Ride me down easy, Lord
Ride me on down.
Leave word in the dust where I lay.
Say I'm easy come, easy go
And easy to love when I stay." - Ride Me Down Easy

What followed was a creative onslaught.  In 1975, Waylon recorded "Dreaming My Dreams", which remains to this day his own favorite Waylon Jennings album.  The title song is about letting go of lost love, and finding a place to put the past, where you can honor it while moving on with your life.  Also on the album is his friend Roger Miller's song, "I've Been A Long Time Leavin'".  Also that year, Waylon won Best Male Vocalist of the year at the CMA Awards.
 
 

In 1976, Waylon crossed more boundaries.  He recorded a collaboration album with Jessi, Willie Nelson and Tompall Glaser.   It was an eclectic collection of songs, many previously recorded on earlier albums.  But it was a union of raw talent and powerful songs, and it burned up the charts.  It became the first country album in history to sell over a million copies.  The album was "Wanted: The Outlaws".  Waylon now had an image that would stick with him permanently:  Outlaw.  At first, he would see it as an insult.  He never wanted to destroy the country music industry, or hurt anyone.  He just wanted to have a chance to make his own music his way.  Later in his life he would come to appreciate the term Outlaw.    He always was one to work outside the system, cross lines and kick down doors.

 I've always been crazy, but it's kept me from going insane.

In 1977, Waylon recorded "Ol Waylon", which included his most widely popular song to this date, "Luckenbach Texas (Back to the Basics of love)".  It was a song he didn't like, personally, but he could smell "hit" all over it.  Besides, it fit that vein of maverick mythology that he had gone for on the "Honkytonk Heroes" album.  He was older, wiser, and much more successful, but still an Outlaw.  The song fit.  1978 brought "I've Always Been Crazy" and the first of several collaborations with Willie Nelson, called "Waylon and Willie".  The hits kept coming, including number one songs.  Waylon and Willie received a Grammy for their duet rendition of "Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys".  And his "Greatest Hits" album of 1978 has gone on to reach multiple-platinum sales since it's release.  Waylon's career was on fire, and he was enjoying his highest level of commercial success.  He and Jessi had a son together, who they nicknamed "Shooter".  "Shooter", says Waylon, because his daddy's a pistol.
 

 

There were special projects, as well.  One which remains special to Waylon was "White Mansions", a concept album about the American Civil War.  Waylon was the narrator, a character called The Drifter.   Jessi took the character of Polly Ann, the heroine of the story.  The work they did on this obscure album is among their best.  On the other end of the spectrum, Waylon did voice-overs for the television series "The Dukes of Hazzard", beginning in 1979.  The theme song he wrote and recorded for the show became his first million-selling single, and he eventually appeared as himself in one episode.  The albums kept coming, at least one a year, and there was no sign that Waylon Jennings would ever slow down.
 
 

Go to - Waylon Jennings Tribute - Page Two

 

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