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Waylon Jennings (June 15,1937 – February 13,
2002) was a respected and influential United
States|American country music singer and
guitarist, born in Littlefield, Texas.

==Biography==


===Texas Panhandle===

Growing up in the abject poverty of the Dust Bowl,
a young Waylon Jennings sought to escape the dirt
roads of Littlefield.  He began singing at an
early age, winning a spot singing and playing
guitar on a local radio show.  He became a popular
disc jockey|DJ for several Texas radio stations,
and a musical performer on the early rock and roll
performance circuit in Texas, alongside the likes
of fellow Texans Roy Orbison and Buddy Holly. In
1956, he married Maxine Lawrence.

===Buddy Holly===

After Holly achieved national stardom, he offered
to Record producer|produce Waylon's first records.
 Though neither of the first two recordings had
much success, it was the beginning of a short but
influential friendship with the rockabilly legend.
 Holly asked Waylon to join his touring band
playing bass guitar, an offer Waylon accepted
despite the fact that he did not know how to play
bass.  They embarked on a nationwide tour riddled
with difficulties, including a tour bus without
heat that repeatedly stalled in the cold weather. 

On the night of February 3, 1959 (The Day the
Music Died) the airplane carrying Buddy Holly,
Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper|J.P. Richardson
(aka The Big Bopper) crashed outside of Mason
City, Iowa, killing all passengers.  Waylon had
given his seat to Richardson, who had a cold and
desperately needed rest. In his 1996
autobiography, Waylon admitted for the first time
that in the years afterward, he felt severe
feelings of guilt and responsibility for the
crash. After Waylon gave up his seat, Holly had
jokingly told Jennings that he hoped the tour bus
would stall.  Jennings replied, with equal
jocularity, that he hoped the plane would crash.

===Phoenix===

After several years of inactivity, Jennings began
performing again, this time in Phoenix, Arizona. 
In these years of two and three shows a night,
sometimes six nights a week, he developed a unique
sound, a devoted following, and a decent living. 
He signed a contract with Herb Alpert's newly
formed A&M Records, and he had a few hit singles
on local radio in Phoenix, including "Four Strong
Winds" (by Ian Tyson) and "Just To Satisfy You"
(co-written with Don Bowman).  Bobby Bare did his
own cover of "Four Strong Winds" after hearing
Waylon's version, and Bare later recommended
Waylon to legendary country music guitarist and
producer Chet Atkins, who signed Waylon to RCA
Records.  He packed up and moved to Nashville,
Tennessee in 1965.

===The Nashville Sound===

Jennings was accustomed to performing and
recording with his own band, a practice that was
taboo in the Nashville recording studios.  The
characteristic sound he had developed in Phoenix
was further diminished by the typical
post-production "sweetening" of recordings with
string arrangements and other overdubs.  Jennings
released a series of singles and albums with RCA,
but there were no runaway successes.  He felt
limited by the "Nashville Sound", the customary
low payment, and the lack of artistic freedom in
the 1960s country music industry.  

During this time, Jennings began using
amphetamines while touring.  He quickly became
addicted, like many other country artists of the
period, including his one-time roommate Johnny
Cash. His second marriage, to Lynne Jones, ended
in a 1967 divorce suit that left the already broke
singer economically crippled.  He married for a
third time to Barbara Rood, who tried to get
Waylon's finances under control.  Her efforts
caused great resentment within Waylon's band, and
the marriage ended in divorce shortly thereafter.
He married for the fourth and final time to
country singer Jessi Colter in 1969.  

Willie Nelson, another Texas native who had come
to Nashville before him, retired from the music
industry and left Nashville in the late 1960s. 
Nelson had cautioned Jennings not to leave his
steady job as a popular performer in Phoenix for
Nashville, but Jennings had not heeded his advice.
By the beginning of the 1970s, saddled with a
$250,000 debt to his record company and others,
Jennings had become almost hopeless with the
prospect of success in Nashville.  A 1972 bout
with hepatitis almost killed him, and he seriously
considered retiring from music as Nelson had done.

===Outlaw Country===
Two things came along to turn Jennings' hard times
around; the first was a business manager from New
York named Neil Reshen, and the second was
Waylon's old friend Willie Nelson.  Reshen
approached Jennings, still recovering from
hepatitis, and offered to renegotiate his
recording and touring contracts.  Jennings agreed,
and the contract renegotiation began in earnest.
At a 1972 meeting in a Nashville airport, Jennings
introduced Reshen to Nelson; by the end of the
meeting, Reshen was manager to both Waylon and
Willie.  

RCA had dropped Nelson, but by 1972 he had
returned to the music industry under the auspices
of Atlantic Records, and was on his way to music
superstardom. Now based in Austin, Texas, Nelson
had made inroads into the rock and roll press by
attracting a diverse fan base that included the
young rock music audience.  Atlantic Records had
signed Nelson when the time was right, and they
were looking to sign Jennings as well.  Nelson'
rise to popularity made RCA nervous about losing
another hot artist, which gave Jennings the
leverage he needed in his contract renegotiaions.
Reshen drove a hard bargain, but RCA finally
agreed to his terms: a $75,000 advance and
near-complete artistic control. Renegotiations of
his touring contracts yielded similar positive
results, and began turning a profit from his
touring (almost unheard-of in Nashville at that
time). Waylon finally had a rock star recording
contract, and he looked the part; Reshen had
advised him to keep the beard he had grown in the
hospital, in order to cultivate a more rock and
roll image. 

In 1972, RCA issued Ladies Love Outlaws, an album
that Jennings never wanted released. Nevertheless,
the title track is often considered the first song
of the outlaw country movement. He followed this
album with Lonesome, On'ry and Mean and Honky Tonk
Heroes in 1973, the first albums recorded and
released under his own creative control. The
albums were huge commercial and critical
successes. More hit albums followed, with The
Ramblin' Man and This Time in 1974 and Dreaming My
Dreams in 1975. The pace of recording and
performing was lucrative but grueling. At some
point in the 1970s, Jennings switched from
amphetamines to cocaine, consuming thousands of
dollars worth every day.

In 1976, Jennings began his career-defining
collaborations with Willie Nelson on the
compilation album Wanted: The Outlaws!, country's
first RIAA certification|platinum record. The
following year, RCA issued "Ol' Waylon", an album
that produced another huge hit duet with Nelson,
"Luckenbach, Texas (Back to the Basics of
Love)".Waylon and Willie followed in 1978,
producing their biggest hit with "Mamas Don't Let
Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys".  He released
I've Always Been Crazy in 1978, followed with a
greatest hits album in 1979. 

By the early 1980s, Jennings was a hollow-eyed,
wraithlike man tormented by addiction to cocaine. 
His personal finances had again unraveled, leaving
him bankrupt.  His work became less focused, and
his tours had progressed into full rock and roll
excesses.  In a widely publicized case, he was
arrested in 1977 for cocaine possession by federal
agents, though the charges were later dropped. 
The episode was recounted in Jennings' song "Don't
Y'all Think This Outlaw Bit's Done Got Out Of
Hand?"

===Addiction and Recovery===	 
			
Jennings decided that it was finally time to clean
up, at least for a little while. He underwent the
detox process, intending to start using cocaine
again in a more controlled fashion afterward. By
Waylon's own admission in interviews, his son
Shooter Jennings was the main inspiration to stay
off of cocaine permanently. His later life was
plagued with health problems likely related to his
long cocaine addiction, including a myocardial
infarction|heart attack and diabetes. Despite
these problems, Jennings remained free from
cocaine and continued recording and touring
throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

===Later Years===

Outside of the music industry, Jennings was also
known as the voice of the narrator on the popular
television series The Dukes of Hazzard.  The theme
song "Good Ol' Boys", an original Jennings
composition, is one of the most well known
television theme songs in American television
history. He also made an appearance on Married...
with Children.

In the mid-1980s, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson,
Nelson, and Jennings formed a successful group
called The Highwaymen.  Aside from his work with
The Highwaymen, highlights from his own career
include WWII with Willie Nelson in 1982, Will The
Wolf Survive in 1985, and Too Dumb For New York
City, Too Ugly For L.A. in 1992.

During the early 1990's, Jennings became great
friends with Metallica. He had also become very
close to Metallica frontman James Hetfield and
influenced some material for their 1996 album
Load. In 2003, James Hetfield was featured on the
Waylon Jennings tribute album I've Always Been
Crazy: A Tribute To Waylon Jennings covering
Waylon's 1978 song, "Don't You Think This Outlaw
Bit's Done Got Out Of Hand?"
       
He released his autobiography, Waylon, in 1996.  

1998 saw Waylon joining another country
supergroup, Old Dogs, with Bobby Bare, Jerry Reed,
Mel Tillis, and songwriter Shel Silverstein.  They
released one album, Old Dogs, recorded live in the
studio.

Sometime during 2001, Waylon provided his voice in
an episode of Family Guy during a Dukes parody.
The episode was entitled To Love and Die in Dixie.
The episode originally aired in November of that
year.

On 19 December 2001, his left foot was amputated
in a Phoenix, Arizona, hospital due to diabetes
and replaced with a wheel.

On 13 February 2002, Waylon Jennings died due to
complications from diabetes in Chandler, Arizona
and is interred in the Mesa City Cemetery, Mesa,
Arizona.

==Selected Works==

===Albums=== 
* Don't Think Twice (A&M, 1970) (compilation of
several A&M singles plus previously unissued
songs)
* Ladies Love Outlaws (RCA, 1972)
* Lonesome, On'ry and Mean (RCA, 1973)
* Honky Tonk Heroes (RCA, 1973)
* The Ramblin' Man (RCA, 1974)
* This Time (RCA, 1974)
* Dreaming My Dreams (RCA, 1975)
* Are You Ready For The Country (RCA, 1976)
* Wanted: The Outlaws! (RCA, 1976)
* Waylon Live (RCA, 1976)
* Ol' Waylon (RCA, 1977)
* I've Always Been Crazy (RCA, 1978)
* Greatest Hits (RCA, 1979)
* Will The Wolf Survive (RCA, 1986)
* Too Dumb For New York City, Too Ugly For L.A.
(Epic/Sony, 1992)

With Willie Nelson:

* Waylon and Willie (RCA, 1978)
* WWII (RCA, 1982)

===Songs===
* "Only Daddy That'll Walk the Line"
* "Just To Satisfy You" 
* "Ladies Love Outlaws"
* "Lonesome, On'ry and Mean"
* "Honky Tonk Heroes" 
* "You Asked Me To"
* "The Ramblin' Man"
* "Amanda"
* "This Time"
* "Dreaming My Dreams"
* "Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way?"
* "Waymore's Blues"
* "Bob Wills Is Still The King"
* "Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be
Cowboys"
* "Good Hearted Woman"
* "I've Always Been Crazy"
* "Good Ol' Boys"

==References==
* Denisoff, R. Serge.  Waylon: A Biography (1983).
Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press. ISBN
0870493876. 
* Jennings, Waylon, and Kaye, Lenny. Waylon: An
Autobiography (1996). Warner Books. ISBN
0446605123.

==See also==
List of best-selling music artists

==External links==
*http://www.waylon.com Waylon's official website
*http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/2002/2002-02-1
3-jennings-obit.htm USA Today Obituary
*http://launch.yahoo.com/album/default.asp?albumID
=1012155 His page at Launch.
*http://sheetsm.tripod.com A "Hosshead's" website
*http://home.online.no/~jaed/waylon.htm Just some
pages from a fan