Remembering Waylon Jennings
A Farewell to a Honky Tonk Hero

 Listen to Scott Simon's conversation with friends of the late Waylon Jennings.

March 23, 2002 -- When people think of Waylon Jennings, they often think of his hard livin', his legendary drug intake, or of his biggest hit, "Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow up to Be Cowboys."

Waylon in his heydey. Photo: Courtesy Modern Country

What they often don't think about is that Jennings, by sheer force of will and good timing, did more than just about anybody to change the way Nashville did business, and hence, the music it produced.

In the 1970s, Jennings "single-handedly broke the studio system" in Nashville, says music professor and journalist Beverly Keel, who spoke with Scott Simon for Weekend Edition Saturday. By doing so, she adds, he also changed the music that came out of Music City.

As a testament to that change, and as a celebration of the life of Waylon Jennings, who died last month at 64, a who's who of country music is assembling Saturday night at Ryman Auditorium in Nashville to pay tribute to the honky-tonk hero.

A Waylon Sampler, from his mid-'70s career peak. • From the the landmark 1973 album Honky Tonk Heroes "Honky Tonk Heroes" "Low Down Freedom" "Black Rose" • From the 1975 album Dreaming my Dreams "Are Your Sure Hank Done it this Way?" "Waymore's Blues" • From the 1978 collabaration with Willie Nelson, Willie and Waylon "Pick up the Tempo" "I Can get Off on You" "Gold Dust Woman"

There will be, says Keel, "a little preaching and a lot of playing." Handling the former will be Will Campbell, a longtime Jennings friend and the unofficial chaplain of country music.

The preacher befriended Jennings and his wife, Jessi Colter, and became part of Jennings' permanent entourage. "I married everyone in the band at least once," he tells Simon.

Jennings, Campbell says, "was not known for verbose religiosity." He recalls one occasion when he asked, "Waylon, what do you believe?" After a long pause, Jennings said, "yeah."

Campbell asked, "what's that supposed to mean?" Another long pause. "Uh-huh," came the reply.

It was only later that Campbell realized that Jennings was summing up his faith as simply and as accurately as he could. He did it again with the song, "I Do Believe," which expressed a hard-earned but complicated faith:

I do believe in a higher power
One that loves us one and all.
Not someone to solve our problems
Or to catch me when I fall.
He gave us all a mind to think with
And to know what's right or wrong.
He is that inner spirit
That keeps us strong.


From the NPR Archives

 A Talk with Waylon Jennings
Fresh Air host Terry Gross interviews Jennings in October 1996.

 Waylon Jennings Dies
Morning Edition reports on Jennings' death of complications from diabetes. February 14, 2002.

Other Resources

The official Waylon Jennings Web site.

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