A devastated Jennings returned to radio in Lubbock, and eventually moved to Phoenix where he and his new band became a local sensation playing popular covers and potent Waylon originals. "Mainly what I learned from Buddy," Waylon would later recall, "was an attitude. He loved music, and he taught me that it shouldn't have any barriers to it." In 1964, he was signed to A&M Records in Los Angeles and recorded a series of pop-folk singles that flopped. Through it all, he continued to refine his sound on the nightclub and honky-tonk circuit while beginning to redefine the excesses of life on the road. Along with his band The Waylors, Jennings was proving that Rockabilly, Blues, Rock and Country were just about a beat apart. And he was proving it nightly. "Everything I know," Waylon would write in his 1996 autobiography, "I learned in front of an audience."

Been driving these highways, been doing things my way
It's been making me lonesome, on'ry and mean

"I used to work the same southwestern club circuit that Waylon did - clubs like the Caravan in Albuquerque, the Four Aces in Industry, California and too many others." recalls Junior Brown. "I thought he was great; truly a one-of-a-kind performer. When he started to hit big, I opened some shows for him." Brown's vocal on the Harlan Howard-written "Nashville Rebel" is an uncanny tribute to Waylon's distinctive style on one of his earliest hits as well as the theme to his 1966 movie of the same name.

From the moment he signed with RCA and settled in Nashville in 1966 (at first sharing an apartment with fellow rebel Johnny Cash), Waylon began battling with label executives over the glossy 'Nashville Sound' formula imposed on his sessions. And while he would record some classic singles with producer Chet Atkins, Waylon constantly demanded to play his music his way, choosing his own songs and arrangements and using his own band. "The Waylors may not have been great musicians," he would later say, "but neither was I. Neither was all that slick shit I was hearing."

Jennings wanted nothing more than the basics: bringing the music back to drum, bass and guitars for a 'live' feel and rhythmic kick that gave his records their distinctive edge. "Waylon was ahead of his time in that he used a lot of half-time rhythms, almost like a Country-Funk sound," explains the album's co-producer Dave Roe, a respected Nashville musician as well as Johnny Cash's bass player for the past decade. "And his attitude was pure Punk. Everything about Waylon - his songs, his arrangements, even his presence - was extremely radical for the time."

"People were trying to tell him what he should be, but he always knew what he was," says co-producer Chuck Mead, who is also a member of the band BR5-49. "Throughout his career he seemed to be just a little ahead of the curve without ever consciously meaning to be. It was all so natural for him to just do what he was doing. I think it came from knowing deep down inside that he had something to offer that was uniquely his. The artists on this album all share that same spirit."

"Waylon Jennings is one of a very few who blurred the lines between styles of music and in the process came up with a truly original hybrid," says John Doe, who contributes "Only Daddy That'll Walk The Line." "And it was a combination that completely kicked everyone's ass." By 1972, Waylon would gain control over every aspect of his music, producing his records his way. Jennings had begun to change the way the things were done in Nashville. Consequently, he would change Country music itself forever.

In my own way I'm a believer
In my own way, right or wrong
I don't talk too much about it
It's something I keep working on
I don't have much to build on
Just a faith that's never been that strong

With his unprecedented creative control, Waylon was free to continue recording the songs of such brilliantly idiosyncratic writers as Shel Silverstein, Tony Joe White, Roger Miller and Billy Joe Shaver. It was Shaver's distinctive songs that became the basis for the landmark 1973 album HONKY TONK HEROES, from which Waylon and Billy Joe's classic "You Asked Me To" is performed here by Nanci Griffith.

"A song is where it starts," Waylon once said. "If you don't have a song, you don't have anything." Whether his own compositions - like the slyly autobiographical "I've Always Been Crazy" covered here by Carlene Carter - or those of another writer, Jennings could instinctively communicate the poetry of a great lyric. Steve Young's menacing "Lonesome, On'ry And Mean" - now given a 'Psychobilly' makeover by Henry Rollins - would become one of Jennings' true signature songs, while the sweet yearning of Bobby Emmons & Chips Moman's "Wurlitzer Prize (I Don't Want To Get Over You)" is pure classic Country heartbreak. "It was an honor to pay tribute to the great Waylon Jennings," Norah Jones says. "We had a wonderful time recording this song."

But it was Kris Kristofferson whose lyrics Waylon credited with bringing a new maturity and sophistication to Country. The two men would continue to inspire each other for over 35 years. "'I Do Believe' is one of the last songs Waylon wrote and is probably my favorite because it is the essence of the man I knew and came to love like a brother," Kristofferson says of the extraordinary song he performed at Waylon's funeral and has recorded for this album. "The first time I heard him singing a Harlan Howard demo in the studio where I was a janitor, the power and the emotional timbre of his voice hit me like the first time I heard Hank Williams singing 'Lovesick Blues' on the Grand Ole Opry, and I was a fan for life. Over the years we became close friends (Hank Jr. and I were riding on his bus while he was writing 'I've Always Been Crazy') fighting our battle for respect for Country Music and having as much fun as we could in the process. The simple eloquence of 'I Do Believe' has the ring of truth and is the perfect expression of the heart and the honesty of one of the sweetest souls this side of his friend and kindred spirit, Muhammad Ali. It's an honor to sing this song."

"Waylon was real," declares Cowboy Jack Clement, the legendary Sun Records producer and longtime Jennings friend. "And Waylon was special. I even suspect he might have been King Of The Cowboys for a time whether anybody knew it or not. And his music will endure for a long time to come. What a talent. What a pal. I miss him a lot." Pam Tillis sings on Jack's "Let's All Help The Cowboys (Sing The Blues)," originally recorded on DREAMING MY DREAMS, the classic 1975 project co-produced by Clement and Jennings that became Waylon's first #1 album. But with Waylon's next record, everything he'd been working towards would rock Country like never before.

It's the same old tune, fiddle and guitar
Where do we take it from here?
Rhinestone suits and new shiny cars
It's been the same way for years
We need to change

The 'Outlaw' explosion of 1976 was little more than RCA's marketing finally catching up with what Waylon had been doing for the past decade. The album WANTED: THE OUTLAWS was a collection of mostly re-packaged tracks - some more than three years old - by Jennings, Willie Nelson, Jessi Colter and Tompall Glaser. The song "Good Hearted Woman," written by Waylon and Willie and performed here by Guy Clark, became a #1 hit on both the Country and Pop charts. The album became the first Country record ever to be certified platinum. Almost overnight, the conservative industry establishment realized that Levis, leather and drugs could easily replace their cozy rhinestone shine. Longhairs, rockers and rednecks all suddenly saw Waylon as their hero. But beyond his larger-than-life badass image, the key to it all remained the music. By standing outside the lines of Country, Waylon and his fellow 'Outlaws' had re-drawn them. And what the press now called the 'Outlaw Movement' was nothing more than the audience and industry finally moving to the place where Waylon always knew it should be.

Jennings had now become a hardcore icon that would influence an entire generation of both Country and Rock fans. For many future artists, Waylon's music could define a time and place in their lives like no other. "I lived in Southern California and my best friends were Pancho and James Luna, brothers who lived in a small barrio called La Colonia Juarez," recalls Alejandro Escovedo who contributes "Lock, Stock And Teardrops." "We used to spend a lot of time with their grandmother who raised rabbits, pigs and chickens. She loved three things: late night wrestling, sage cigarettes which she would roll for us, and Country music. Her favorite singer was this cool-looking Texan by the name of Waylon Jennings. We spent many a day sitting on her big brass bed smoking sage cigarettes, watching wrestling with the sound turned off and listening to Waylon."

"When I was 16," remembers Radney Foster, who performs the classic "Luckenbach, Texas" with fellow Texas singer/songwriter Roger Creagar, "we blasted Waylon Jennings' music as loud as we could in John Wardlaw's El Camino up and down Avenue F. If that doesn't make you love Country Music, nothing will." Allison Moorer, who performs Jessi Colter's beautiful "Storms Never Last," remembers being affected by Waylon's tender side. "I grew up listening to Waylon Jennings," she says. "His and Jessie's work was and continues to be an influence on me." And Robert Earl Keen, who brings his own unique style to Jennings' hit manifesto "Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way?" will always consider him a hero. "I love Waylon," he says. "And being part of this project is one of the coolest things I have ever done."

I've always been different with one foot over the line
Winding up somewhere, one step ahead or behind
It ain't been so easy but I guess I shouldn't complain
I've always been crazy but it's kept me from going insane

By the time his outlaw bit done got out of hand, Waylon was faced with legal, label, financial and health challenges that came dangerously close to destroying his career. And while public self-destruction may have been a time-honored Country tradition, Waylon took control of his life the same way he'd approached his music: with a single-minded dedication to the truth as he both saw and heard it. "I don't have a reverse gear when it comes to what I believe in," he once said. And once again, Waylon moved it all forward like no one else.

"Waylon Jennings was always a rock and roller to me," says Dave Alvin, who performs a haunting rendition of "Amanda." "Not just because he played in Buddy Holly's band or recorded Rock & Roll and R&B songs throughout his career or wore black leather jackets - although all that didn't hurt - but because like all great Rockers, he was unafraid to take chances while always sticking to his artistic guns. The way I look at it, being a rock and roller has nothing to do with what style of music you play but the way you play it. Waylon played it tough, but straight from the heart. That to me puts him in same league as other great non-rock and rollers like Jimmie Rodgers, Robert Johnson, Hank, Muddy, Miles and Merle. And maybe that's why when all the one-hit Pop and Country wonders have vanished, Waylon's world wise survivor's voice will still be around, as loud and proud as ever."
Storms never last, do they, baby?
Bad times all pass with the wind
Your hand in mine stills the thunder
You make the sun want to shine
By the mid-80's, Waylon had chosen to embrace a life of sobriety, sanity and sanctuary he'd built with his beloved wife Jessi and their son Shooter. And as the business of Country changed in the '90s, Waylon life commitment to music evolved to include such projects as a children's record and the 'supergroups' Highwaymen and Old Dogs, as well as some often-brilliant albums of his own. Through it all he continued to tour, performing for the audiences who had taught him everything he knew about the music he loved.

"Waylon took his talent very seriously, always honing it to keep himself on the cutting edge," remembers Sonny Curtis of The Crickets, one of Waylon's all-time heroes and a friend for almost five decades. "He was constantly in the pursuit of perfection. And we are all the beneficiaries of his vision."

Over the course of his career, Waylon Jennings sold more than 40 million albums and singles worldwide, including sixteen #1 Country hits. He won two Grammy Awards and was nominated for twenty-nine CMA Awards of which he won four, including 1975 Male Vocalist of the Year. In 2001, he was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame, but did not attend the ceremony. Waylon Jennings didn't believe in awards. He only believed in the music.

Gary Hertz
New York City, 2003

Acknowledgements:
Waylon: An Autobiography
by Waylon Jennings with Lenny Kaye

Courtesy of: http://imusic.artistdirect.com/showcase/country/waylonj.html

Waylon Jennings
1937 - 2002

Waylon was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in October 2001!
Jennings has recorded more than 60 albums and had 16 No. 1 country hits. He joined the Country Music Hall of Fame in October, but did not attend the induction ceremony, sending his son in his place to accept the honor.

Waylon Jennings is one of a handful of towering figures behind country music’s current phenomenal success. 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, a pioneer who was among the first to pull north and south, rural and city, college kids and blue collar workers into a unified movement and who 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 Grammys 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.

Born in 1937 in Littlefield, Texas, he grew up listening to folk songs and the music of seminal artists like Jimmie Rodgers, and later, to singers that ranged from Hank Williams, Ernest Tubb and Webb Pierce to B.B. King and Bobbie "Blue" Bland. He was a disc jockey at 14, and had already formed his own band at the age of 12, making guest appearances on local station KDAV’s "Sunday Party," where he met Holly in 1955.

"Mainly what I learned from Buddy," Waylon says, "was an attitude. He loved music, and he taught me that it shouldn’t have any barriers to it."

Holly produced Waylon’s first record and used him as a bass player--it was Waylon who gave up his seat to the big bopper on the plane that would crash, killing Holly and Ritchie Valens as well. By the early-to mid-’60s, Waylon was headlining a club called JD’s in Phoenix, putting out a sound that combined his "chicken-pickin’" Telecaster guitar style, his rough-edged, soulful vocal style and an eclectic repertoire that often borrowed from rock and rockabilly.

This combination was as popular as it was groundbreaking.

"We got long-haired people, lawyers, doctors, and all the cowboys," he says. Word got around, and after a short stint at Herb Alpert’s A&M Records, he was signed to RCA by Chet Atkins.

By 1968, he had hit the top five with "Only Daddy That’ll Walk The Line" and "Walk On Out Of My Mind," and a year later he would win a Grammy for a version of "MacArthur Park," recorded with the Kimberleys, and record several songs for the soundtrack album of Ned Kelly, a feature film starring Mick Jagger.

Still, the Nashville "system," in which producers often stamped their own ideas and formulas onto artists, was something Waylon was struggling against mightily.

"Every business has its systems that works for 80 percent of the people who are in it," he says, "but there’s always that other 20 percent who just don’t fit in. That’s what happened to me, and it happened to Johnny Cash and it happened to Willie Nelson. We just couldn’t do it the way it was set up. It wasn’t until I started producing my own records and using my own musicians and working with people who understood what I was about that I first started having any real success."

When it came though, it came hard and heavy. Albums like 1973’s Lonesome, On’ry and Mean and 1974’s This Time, which he co-produced with Willie Nelson, caught the attention of critics outside of country circles and reasserted him as one of the genre’s truly innovative stylists. He also teamed up with Nelson for the first of the Fourth of July picnics in Texas that solidified the demographic mix that would turn into country’s modern audience.

In 1975, Waylon was named the Country Music Association’s Male Vocalist of the Year and, in 1976, he helped found a movement that would change the face of country. Tompall Glaser teamed up for Wanted: The Outlaws that became the first platinum (one million units) album ever recorded in Nashville. It also helped Waylon and Willie sweep that year’s CMA Awards, winning Best Album, Best Single and Best Vocal Duo (for "Good-Hearted Woman")

This period found Waylon hitting Billboard’s Number One singles spot with song after song, from 1974’s "This Time" through "Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way," "Luckenbach, Texas," "Wurlitzer Prize," "I’ve Always Been Crazy," "Amanda," "Ain’t Living Long Like This" and "Just To Satisfy You," among others. In 1978, he would win his second Grammy for Best Country Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group for "Mammas, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys," with Willie Nelson.

His albums were great chart and sales successes as well, with eight consecutive Lps going gold (there have been 13 altogether). Ol’ Waylon, released in 1977, became the first country album by a solo artist to go platinum, and Greatest Hits, two years later, entered uncharted territory by going quadruple platinum.

Waylon continued to cross barriers and bridge gaps musically, as, for instance, when Never Could Toe The Mark became the first country album to premier on Showtime’s "Album Flash," and when he released his "audiography," an autobiographical record and one-man Broadway-style show called A Man Called Hoss.

Although he has known success for three decades and has long since been accorded legend status, Waylon is still both highly active and highly visible. While some of the handful of performers who share living legend status with him have taken a back seat in recent years, Waylon continues to make his mark in several areas of show business.

Since the mid-’80’s, he has been a part of another superstar foursome: The Highwaymen (Waylon and Willie, Johnny Cash and Kris Kristofferson) who have turned their four-way collaboration into hit records and highly successful tours to packed out venues, most recently of Australia, Singapore, China and Thailand.

Waylon is highly visible on other recorded projects as well. He was the recent duet partner of Neil Diamond on "One Good Love," which was part of Diamond’s Tennessee Moon album and a video release as well. He recorded a track with Mark Knopfler for the tribute Notfadeaway: Remembering Buddy Holly, and also contributed a track to the Nashville/NASCAR album. And in another example of the enduring vitality of his work, he re-recorded his ‘70s-hit "Rainy Day Woman" with Mark Chesnutt not long ago.

He has released a children’s album, Cowboys, Sisters, Rascals & Dirt, and has spoken to schoolchildren about the importance of staying in school. A 10th grade dropout, Waylon successfully completed studies for his GED in 1989, and has been a spokesperson for that program.

In 1993, RCA Records assembled a 40-song retrospective boxed set called Only Daddy That’ll Walk The Line: The RCA Years, celebrating Waylon’s 20 years on the label from 1965 to 1985. Admiring the respect and care which he was accorded in the collection, Waylon re-signed with RCA in the fall of 1994 to record Waymore’s Blues (Part II), with Don Was producing.

Nor have Waylon’s contributions been confined to singing. He has been a commercial spokesman for the Pizza Hut chain. He has starred in a number of film projects, including Stagecoach, a CBS-TV movie with the Highwaymen, Oklahoma City Dolls, and ABC-TV movie with Eddie Albert and Susan Blakely, Follow That Bird, a Sesame Street movie in which Waylon played a farmer. He had a cameo in the Maverick movie, for which he also contributed "You Don’t Mess around With Me" to the soundtrack, and he had a role on FOX-TV’s "Married With Children," playing a wizened mountain prophet named Ironhead Haynes.

This last year was another busy year for Waylon as well: he performed about 100 concerts, RCA issued a Twentieth Anniversary edition of Wanted: The Outlaws, he had a new album on Justice Records, and his authorized autobiography, written with writer-musician Lenny Kaye, was released.

Waylon’s contributions to the country music industry he helped shape continue unabated. The man who has done so much to define the edge and the attitudes that are part of the current parameters of country continues, through his records and performances, to add to his status as one of the true giants of the business.

Waylon's Discography

"WAYLON JENNINGS AT JD’S"
DEC 1964

"FOLK COUNTRY"
MAR 1966

"LEAVIN’ TOWN"
OCT 1966

"NASHVILLE REBEL"
DEC 1966

"WAYLON SONGS OL’ HARLAN"
MAR 1967

"LOVE OF THE COMMON PEOPLE"
AUG 1967

"THE ONE AND ONLY"
NOV 1967

"HANGIN’ ON"
FEB 1968

"ONLY THE GREATEST"
JUL 1968

"JEWELS"
DEC 1968

"JUST TO SATISFY YOU"
MAR 1969

"COUNTRY FOLK" (W/ The Kimberleys)
AUG 1969

"WAYLON"
JAN 1970

"DON’T THINK TWICE"
MAR 1970

"THE BEST OF WAYLON JENNINGS"
JUN 1970

"NED KELLY" (soundtrack)
JUL 1970

"SINGER OF SAD SONGS"
NOV 1970

"THE TAKER/TULSA"
FEB 1971

"CEDARTOWN, GEORGIA"
AUG 1971

"GOOD HEARTED WOMAN"
FEB 1972

"HEARTACHES BY THE NUMBERS"
MAR 1972

"LADIES LOVE OUTLAWS"
SEP 1972

"RUBY, DON’T TAKE YOUR LOVE TO TOWN"
FEB 1973

"LONESOME, ON’RY AND MEAN"
MAR 1973

"HONKY TONK HEROES"
JUL 1973

"ONLY DADDY THAT’LL WALK THE LINE"
JAN 1974

"THIS TIME"
JUL 1974

"THE RAMBLIN’ MAN"
SEP 1974

"DREAMING MY DREAMS"
SEP 1974

"WANTED: THE OUTLAWS"
JAN 1976

"MACKINTOSH AND TJ" (soundtrack)
MAR 1976

"ARE YOU READY FOR THE COUNTRY"
JUN 1976

"THE DARK SIDE OF FAME" a re-release of "THE ONE AND ONLY"

"WAYLON LIVE"
NOV 1976

"OL’ WAYLON"
APR 1977

"WAYLON AND WILLIE"
JAN 1978

"WHITE MANSIONS"
JUN 1978

"I’VE ALWAYS BEEN CRAZY"
SEP 1978

"GREATEST HITS"
APR 1979

"WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND"
OCT 1979

"MUSIC MAN"
MAY 1980

"LEATHER AND LACE" (w/ Jessie Colter)
FEB 1981

"BLACK ON BLACK"
FEB 1982

"WW II" (w/ Willie Nelson)
SEP 1982

"IT’S ONLY ROCK AND ROLL"
MAR 1983

"TAKE IT TO THE LIMIT" (w/ Willie Nelson)
APR 1983

"WAYLON AND COMPANY"
MAR 1983

"NEVER COULD TOE THE MARK" "WAYLON’S GREATEST HITS, VOL. 2"
OCT 1984

"HIGHWAYMAN" (w/ Cash, Kristofferson, Nelson)
MAY 1985

"THE COLLECTOR’S SERIES-WAYLON JENNINGS"
MAY 1985

"TURN THE PAGE"
JUN 1985

"SWEET MOTHER TEXAS"
MAR 1986

"THE BEST OF WAYLON"
OCT 1986

"WILL THE WOLF SURVIVE"
MAR 1986

"HEROES" (w/ Johnny Cash)
JUN 1986

"HANGIN’ TOUGH"
JAN 1987

"A MAN CALLED HOSS"
OCT 1987

"FULL CIRCLE"
SEP 1988

"THE EARLY YEARS"
JAN 1989

"NEW CLASSIC WAYLON"
MAY 1989

"HIGHWAYMAN 2" (w/ Cash, Willie, Kris)
FEB 1990

"THE EAGLE"
JUL 1990

"CLEAN SHIRT" (w/ Willie Nelson)
JUN 1991

"TOO DUMB FOR NEW YORK CITY, TOO UGLY FOR LA"
AUG 1992

"COWBOYS, SISTER, RASCALS & DIRT"
JUN 1993

"WAYLON JENNINGS-THE RCA YEARS- ONLY DADDY THAT’LL WALK THE LINE"
OCT 1993

"WAYMORE’S BLUES (PART II)
SEP 1994

"HIGHWAYMEN-THE ROAD GOES ON FOREVER"
JUN 1995

"RCA-TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY EDITION- WANTED: THE OUTLAWS"
APR 1996

"RIGHT FOR THE TIME"
MAY 1996

WAYLON AND THE WAYMORE BLUES BAND -- Never Say Die Live!
OCT 2000

Courtesy of: http://www.countrystars.com/artists/wjenning.html

For more information on Waylon Jennings please visit the following sites:

http://www.cnn.com/2002/SHOWBIZ/Music/02/14/obit.waylon.jennings

http://www.canoe.ca/JamMusicArtistsJ/jennings_waylon.html

http://members.tripod.com/~sheetsm