February 2019 30 • Waylon Jennings was born on June 15, 1937, in Littlefield, Texas. He was born Wayland Jennings, but his mother changed the spelling on his birth certificate to Waylon when he was young. • Jennings began playing the guitar when he was eight years old after his mother taught him to play “Thirty Pieces of Silver.” By the age of 12, he was playing in a band and working as a radio disc jockey. After several disciplinary issues, 16-year-old Jennings dropped out of high school and moved to Lubbock in 1954. His first band was The Texas Longhorns. • There he found work at local radio stations, KVOW, KDAV, KYTI and KLLL where he met and befriended early rock and roll star, Buddy Holly. In 1958, Holly produced Jennings' first single, "Jole Blon," and Jennings played bass in Holly's backup band, The Crickets, for a time. He was performing with the group on February 3, 1959, and he was supposed to get on a private plane with Holly after their show at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa. Jennings, however, gave up his spot on the plane to rock star J.P. Richardson—better known as "The Big Bopper" who was suffering from the flu. Shortly after takeoff, the plane crashed, killing Holly, Richardson, singer Ritchie Valens, and the pilot. • Heartbroken and haunted by the tragedy, Jennings returned to Lubbock for a time and worked as a radio disc jockey. He then moved to Phoenix, Arizona, in 1960, working in radio again and restarted his musical career, forming a rockabilly club band called the Waylors. The group developed a local following and even recorded some singles through the independent record label Trend. While the band never really took off commercially, Jennings landed a contract with A&M Records in 1963 and moved to Los Angeles, California. He got into a conflict with the record label over the direction of his music. They wanted him to take on more of a pop sound. Not one to be pushed around, Jennings remained committed to his country style. He made only one album for A&M. Just the Facts WAYLON JENNINGS Jennings was quite confused until Reshen explained things to him. When he walked out of his meeting, the RCA folks grew deeply concerned. Thinking he was mad, they surrendered and said they’d give him everything he asked for. • Around this time, Jennings' musical style continued to evolve, taking on a tougher, more bass-driven sound. He worked on songs with such songwriters and artists as Kris Kristofferson and Willie Nelson. In 1973, Jennings released Honky Tonk Heroes, which is often seen as one of the early albums displaying his new so-called outlaw sound. This new style was a distinct break from the slick productions of the more traditional country music and began to develop its own following. Reaching the top of the country charts in 1974, "This Time" was the first number one hit for Jennings and was quickly followed by another chart-topper "I'm a Ramblin' Man." • Jennings got his first taste of crossover success in 1975 when "Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way" made its way onto the pop charts. Around that same time, he was honored by the Country Music Association as Male Vocalist of the Year. Jennings' participation in the compilation Wanted! The Outlaws (1976) helped him become an even bigger name in music. A number one hit on the pop album charts, the recording featured songs by Jennings, Willie Nelson, Tompall Glaser, and Jessi Colter, Jennings' fourth wife. The couple even sang several duets together, including a cover of "Suspicious Minds." The record became the first country album to go platinum. • Jennings began taking pills when he lived with Johnny Cash and eventually became addicted to cocaine. The DEA came after Jennings in 1977 after they discovered a package of cocaine that was being shipped to him. When his secretary brought the package to his recording studio, the DEA agents came knocking at his door. After pointing out a mistake in the DEA agents’ warrant, Jennings and his drummer worked to hide all of the cocaine and pills they had. Jennings emptied vials from his pockets, while his drummer dropped a bag of cocaine down a crack in a wall and flushed another down the toilet. Although there was no longer any evidence, the DEA ended up arresting Jennings anyway. All charges against him were eventually dropped. • Joining forces with Nelson, he recorded Waylon & Willie (1978), which went on to sell several million copies. One of their duets from the album, "Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys," reached the top of the charts and gave Jennings his second Grammy Award. He and Nelson shared the honors for Best Country Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group. • Buddy Holly had purchased an Ariel Cyclone motorcycle, before his death, which Jennings remembered vividly. Holly’s father kept the bike until 1970 but eventually sold it. For Jennings’ birthday in 1979, two of Holly’s Crickets tracked down the motorcycle and decided to surprise him with it. When Jennings saw the bike, he did what any outlaw would do: “I walked into my hotel room after the show and saw it sitting there,” Jennings wrote in his autobiography. “What else could I do? I swung my leg over it, stomped on the kick starter, and it burst into roaring life. First kick. It was midnight, and it sounded twice as loud bouncing off the walls of that hotel room. I knew Buddy wouldn’t mind.” • For the rest of the 70s and into the early 1980s, Jennings continued to make hits, including "Luckenbach, Texas (Back to the Basics of Love)" and "Theme from 'The Dukes of Hazzard' (Good Ol' Boys)." In addition to creating the theme song for the television series, Jennings served as the narrator for the country comedy The Dukes of Hazzard. • Jennings drug habit became worse in the early part of the 1980s, and he eventually filed for bankruptcy. He quit using in 1984, having struggled with his addiction for decades, citing his son as his greatest motivation. Waylon claimed that he often spent more than $1500 a day to support the habit. • In the 1980s, Jennings joined the country super group The Highwaymen with Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, and Johnny Cash, and the group released three albums between 1985 and 1995. • The country singer- songwriter made a cameo in the 1985 live-action film Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird. He played a turkey farm truck driver who gives character Big Bird a ride. He also sings a duet with Big Bird on “Ain’t No Road Too Long” on the soundtrack. • He said his son was his motivation for earning his GED at the age of 52 in 1989, as he wanted to set a good educational example for his boy. • Jennings didn’t like it when the powers to be would cut into his set lists, and he always made his displeasure known. Perhaps the best-known protest took place in 1998 when he walked off the set of Tom Snyder’s Late Late Show. Jennings went into the show and already wasn’t pleased with the way things were set up. He wanted the entire hour-long slot to himself but learned he would be sharing time with another guest, Dr. Laura. Jennings grew more frustrated when Dr. Laura’s segment ran over into his own. Deciding he had enough, Jennings stormed off the set and left before he ever stepped in front of the cameras. His exit left Snyder in shock, and he had to scramble to fill the remaining minutes of the show. “I have never had anybody leave before they came on,” Snyder said. • While he had a tough time getting his music played on country music stations, Jennings remained a popular performer, touring extensively until 1997. He even played a few dates on the 1996 Lollapalooza tour, better known for showcasing alternative rock acts. Around this time, Jennings candidly shared his many ups and downs in Waylon: An Autobiography, written with Lenny Kaye. • Diagnosed with diabetes in the early 1990s, Jennings had trouble walking in his later years. In 2001 he had to have a foot amputated due to diabetes-related poor health. • Jennings died on February 13, 2002, at his home in Chandler, Arizona from complications related to diabetes. Married since 1969, he and Jessi Colter had one child together, Waylon Albright "Shooter" Jennings. Jennings also had five other children from his three previous marriages. Shooter played Waylon in the 2005 movie Walk the Line. • Shooter has continued to follow his father's footsteps, playing in a number of bands. With his backup band, the .357s, he put together an album of his father's music consisting of tracks recorded years before Waylon's death. The recording, Waylon Forever, was released in October 2008. • By 1968, he had several successful singles, including "Walk On Out of My Mind" and "Only Daddy That'll Walk the Line." Jennings won his first Grammy Award in 1969 for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for "MacArthur Park," which he recorded with the Kimberlys. • He was a scheduled performer at the 1970 CMA Awards, and was going to sing “Only Daddy That’ll Walk the Line.” But the show organizers were running short on time and asked Jennings if he could cut his song to just a verse and a chorus. Jennings responded in the way you’d expect him to: “I said, ‘Why don’t I just dance across the stage and grin? Maybe do a one-liner. That’ll give you a lot of time.’ They told me to not get smart. Either I did it or I got out.” When the CMA folks told Jennings they didn’t need him to move on with the show, he decided to leave. • In 1972, Jennings was hospitalized with hepatitis and considered retiring from music permanently since he was also fed up with the music industry. During his hospitalization, Waylon grew a beard and was convinced to keep it to match the image of Outlaw Country. • Jennings didn’t like it when he didn’t get his way. In one instance, his refusal to give in to the folks negotiating his contract with RCA had an unexpected result. Jennings wrote about the whole thing in his autobiography, saying he wanted a $25,000 sum from RCA, which they did not want to give him. When silence fell over the room, Jennings decided to get up and leave: “I rose up, never said a word, walked out. I went to the bathroom. When I came back, my lawyer Neil Reshen greeted me in the hall. ‘You’re a f—–‘genius,’ he said.” In 2000, Jennings recorded several performances at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium for the album Never Say Die Live. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2001. In 1965, Jennings moved to Nashville. He became roommates with country music's man in black, Johnny Cash, which marked the start of a lifelong friendship. That year Jennings had his first country hit, "Stop the World (And Let Me Off)."