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Waylon Jennings
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Waylon Jennings is one of a handful of towering figures behind the phenomenal success that country music is enjoying today. At a time when country's audience easily embraces diversity and when platinum albums are getting to be more and more common, Waylon stands as a true forerunner. He was among the first to pull north and south, rural and city, college kids and blue collar workers into a unified movement and was the first, both as a solo artist and on the collaboration "Wanted: The Outlaws," to go platinum as a country artist. Modern Country music owes much of its broad-based appeal and rugged individualism to Waylon, a man whose career stretches from the mid-'50s, when he was a protégé of Buddy Holly, through four decades whose music he has helped shape. He has influenced instrumental and vocal styles, shaped attitudes and launched major trends, all by staying true to himself and his vision. Along the way, he has won Grammies and CMA awards while connecting with his audience in a way that few have, becoming one of the industry's true all-time legends in the process.
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Recorded on April 1, 1989 this performance by Waylon Jennings was no April Fools joke. This was the “new” Waylon, both personally and professionally. He had kicked a 20-year drug habit, split with RCA and signed a new deal with MCA Records. He discovered a passion for songwriting, teamed with legendary producer Jimmy Bowen, and produced some of the best work of his 30-year-plus career. He credited his wife and soul mate, Jessi Colter, for much of his inspiration.
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Waylon Jennings had a long career on the country music charts and he's a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, but he made his name as a Nashville outsider. A radio DJ and guitarist since his teens, he moved to Lubbock, Texas and joined Buddy Holly's band in 1958. (Jennings was schedule to go on the plane that crashed and killed Holly in 1959, but gave up his seat to J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson.) Jennings formed his own band in 1963, and Chet Atkins brought him to RCA in 1965 to become a mainstream country artist. He had a hit and won a Grammy for his version of "MacArthur Park" (1969), but his career really took off in the 1970s, after he developed a more rock-influenced, stripped down sound and cast himself as an "outlaw" of the Nashville music scene. Doing things his own way, he had success on the pop and country charts in the late 1970s, thanks in part to his 1976 album Wanted: The Outlaws, a collaboration with Willie Nelson, Tompall Glaser and Jennings's wife, Jessie Colter.
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By 2000, Waylon Jennings had over 40 years of experience on stage. Health problems took their toll on Waylon in the 1990s. He suffered from emphysema, diabetes, and had a mild stroke, but Waylon wanted to get back on stage.
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With the help of a few other like-minded artists, Waylon Jennings birthed the Outlaw Country movement and paved the way for the country music boom of the '90s some 20 years before the fact. The first country artist to go platinum, he was responsible for making the music industry understand that country music's appeal stretches further than record executives realized. Jennings toiled in the trenches of the music industry for the better part of a decade before he hit with the smash "Only Daddy That'll Walk The Line" in 1968. Jennings' real superstardom came after he started using his road band to record and produce his own records. This move stood the Nashville establishment on its head, paving the way for a lot of other idiosyncratic artists to break out of the established formula. Jennings was an immensely charismatic performer whose booming voice took full ownership of any song he sang, whether it was Jimmy Webb's "MacArthur Park," Steve Young's "Lonesome On'ry & Mean," or one of his own compositions.
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One of the most prominent figures in country music, Waylon Jennings formed his first band at the age of 12, and began working as a disc jockey at a station in Littlefield by the time he was 14. Eventually he moved to Lubbock and took a job at KLLL, where he befriended up-and-coming musician Buddy Holly. The two began a close working relationship, with Holly producing Jennings' first single and taking him on the road with him as a temporary bass player for The Crickets. This relationship was to be cut short by the plane crash that claimed Holly's life in 1959 - a flight that Jennings was originally scheduled to be on as well, but had decided to give his place to J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson instead. Following the deaths of his friends, Jennings abondoned his musical pursuits for a year while he struggled to come to terms with his loss.
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Waylon Jennings