BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS
Description: Vocalist, Guitarist, Composer, USA
Known For: 1978 crossover hit, “Mammas Dont Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys.”
Instruments: Guitar, Voice
Music Styles: Country
Location: United States of America
Date Born: 15th June 1937
Location Born: Littlefield, Texas, United States of America
Date Died: 13th February 2002
Location Died: Chandler, Arizona, United States of America
Cause Of Death: Heart failure and Diabetes complications
Memorial: He is interred in the Mesa City Cemetery, Mesa, Arizona.
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CONTACT DETAILS
Web Site:
- Official website
- Waylon Jennings: February 15, 2002 – Fresh Air from WHYY (RealAudio)
- USA Today obituary
Other Links: See below:
BIOGRAPHICAL PROFILE
Waylon Jennings
Waylon Arnold Jennings ( June 15, 1937 – February 13, 2002) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Jennings began playing guitar at 8 and began performing at 12 on KVOW radio. His first band was The Texas Longhorns. Jennings worked as a D.J. on KVOW, KDAV, KYTI, and KLLL. In 1958, Buddy Holly arranged Jennings’s first recording session, of “Jole Blon” and “When Sin Stops (Love Begins)”. Holly hired him to play bass. In Clear Lake, Iowa, Jennings gave up his seat on the ill-fated flight that crashed and killed Holly, J. P. Richardson, Ritchie Valens, and pilot Roger Peterson. The day of the flight was later known as The Day the Music Died. Jennings then worked as a D.J. in Coolidge, Arizona, and Phoenix. He formed a rockabilly club band, The Waylors. He recorded for independent label Trend Records and A&M Records, before succeeding with RCA Victor after achieving creative control.
During the 1970s, Jennings joined the Outlaw movement. He released critically acclaimed albums Lonesome, On’ry and Mean and Honky Tonk Heroes, followed by hit albums Dreaming My Dreams and Are You Ready for the Country. In 1976, he released the album Wanted! The Outlaws with Willie Nelson, Tompall Glaser, and Jessi Colter, the first platinum country music album. That success was followed by Ol’ Waylon, and the hit song “Luckenbach, Texas”. Jennings was featured in the 1978 album White Mansions, performed by various artists documenting the lives of white people in the Confederacy during the Civil War. The songs on the album were written by Paul Kennerley. By the early 1980s, Jennings was struggling with a cocaine addiction, which he quit in 1984. Later, he joined the country supergroup The Highwaymen with Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, and Johnny Cash, which released three albums between 1985 and 1995. During that period, Jennings released the successful album Will the Wolf Survive. He toured less after 1997, to spend more time with his family. Between 1999 and 2001, his appearances were limited by health problems. On February 13, 2002, Jennings died from complications of diabetes.
Jennings also appeared in movies and television series. He was the balladeer for The Dukes of Hazzard, composing and singing the show’s theme song. In 2001, he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, which he chose not to attend. In 2007, he was posthumously awarded the Cliffie Stone Pioneer Award by the Academy of Country Music.
Waylon Arnold Jennings was born on June 15, 1937 on the J.W Bittner farm, near Littlefield, Texas. He was the son of Lorene Beatrice (née Shipley) and William Albert Jennings. The Jennings family line descended from Irish and Black-Dutch. Meanwhile, the Shipley family moved from Tennessee and settled in Texas. The Shipley line descended from Cherokee and Comanche families.
The name on his birth certificate was Wayland, meaning land by the highway. His name was changed after a Baptist preacher visited Jennings’s parents and congratulated his mother for naming him after the Wayland Baptist University in Plainview, Texas. Lorene Jennings, who had been unaware of the college, changed the spelling to Waylon. Jennings later expressed in his autobiography, “I didn’t like Waylon. It sounded corny and hillbilly, but it’s been good to me, and I’m pretty well at peace with it right now.”
After working as a laborer on the Bittner farm, Jennings’s father moved the family to Littlefield and established a retail creamery. When Jennings was eight, his mother taught him to play guitar with the tune “Thirty Pieces of Silver”. Jennings used to practice with his relatives’ guitars, until his mother bought him a used Stella, and later ordered a Harmony Patrician. Early influences were Bob Wills, Floyd Tillman, Ernest Tubb, Hank Williams, Carl Smith, and Elvis Presley.
Beginning at family gatherings, Jennings advanced to perform at the Youth Center with Anthony Bonanno, followed by appearances at the local Jaycees and Lions clubs. He won a talent show at Channel 13, in Lubbock, Texas, singing “Hey Joe”. He later made frequent performances at the Palace Theater in Littlefield, during local talent night.
Beginnings in music
The 12-year-old Jennings auditioned for a spot on KVOW in Littlefield, Texas. Owner J.B. McShan, along with Emil Macha, recorded Jennings’s performance. McShan liked his style and hired him for a weekly 30-minute program. Following this successful introduction, Jennings formed his own band. He asked Macha to play bass for him, and gathered other friends and acquaintances to form “The Texas Longhorns”. The style of the band, a mixture of country and western and bluegrass, was often not well received.
At age 16, after several disciplinary infractions, tenth-grader Jennings was convinced to drop out of high school by the superintendent. Upon leaving school, he worked for his father in the produce store, also taking temporary jobs. Jennings felt that music, his favorite activity, would turn into his career. The next year, Jennings and The Texas Longhorns recorded a demo of the songs “Stranger in My Home” and “There’ll Be a New Day” at KFYO radio in Lubbock. Meanwhile, he drove a truck for the Thomas Land Lumber Company, and a cement truck for the Roberts Lumber Company. Tired of the owner, and after a minor driving accident, Jennings quit. Other local musicians and he often performed at country radio station KDAV; during this, he met Buddy Holly at a Lubbock restaurant. Holly and he became friends, often meeting during local shows. Jennings also attended Holly’s performances on KDAV’s Sunday Party.
In addition to performing on air for KVOW, Jennings started to work as a DJ in 1956, and moved to Lubbock. His program ran for six hours, from four in the afternoon to ten in the evening. Jennings played two hours of country classics, two of current country, and two of mixed recordings. During those final two hours, Jennings played artists such as Chuck Berry and Little Richard. The owner reprimanded him each time he aired the recordings, and when he then played two Richard records in a row, the owner fired him.
During his time at KVOW, Jennings was visited by DJ Sky Corbin, who worked at KLVT in Levelland. Corbin was impressed with his voice, and decided to visit Jennings at the station after hearing him sing a jingle to the tune of Hank Snow’s “I’m Moving On”. Jennings expressed his economic struggle to live on a US$50-a-week salary. Corbin invited Jennings to visit KLVT, where he eventually took Corbin’s then-vacated position. The Corbin family later purchased KLLL, in Lubbock. They changed the format of the station to country, becoming the main competition of KDAV. The Corbins hired Jennings as the station’s first DJ.
Jennings produced commercials and created jingles with the rest of the DJs. As their popularity increased, the DJs made public appearances. Jennings’s events included live performances. During one performance, Buddy’s father, L.O. Holley, approached them with his son’s latest record, and requested them to play it at the station. L.O. mentioned his son’s intention to start producing artists himself, and Corbin recommended Jennings. After returning from his England tour, Buddy Holly visited KLLL.
Holly took Jennings as his first artist. He outfitted him with new clothes, and worked with him to improve his image. He arranged a session for Jennings at Norman Petty’s recording studios in Clovis, New Mexico. On September 10, Jennings recorded the songs “Jole Blon” and “When Sin Stops (Love Begins)” with Holly and Tommy Allsup on guitars with saxophonist King Curtis. Holly then hired Jennings to play electric bass for him during his “Winter Dance Party Tour”.
Winter Dance Party Tour
Before the tour, Holly vacationed with his wife in Lubbock, and visited Jennings’s radio station in December 1958. Jennings and Sky Corbin performed the hand claps to Holly’s tune “You’re the One”. Jennings and Holly soon left for New York City, arriving on January 15, 1959. Jennings stayed at Holly’s apartment by Washington Square Park, on the days prior to a meeting scheduled on the headquarters of the General Artists Corporation, that organized the tour. They later took a train to Chicago to join the band.
The tour began in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on January 23, 1959. The amount of travel created logistical problems. The distance between venues had not been considered when scheduling each performance. Adding to the disarray, the tour buses were not equipped for the weather and twice broke down. After a show in Clear Lake, Iowa, Buddy Holly chartered a plane for himself, Jennings, and Allsup to avoid the long bus trip to Moorhead, Minnesota. Jennings gave up his seat to J. P. Richardson, who was suffering from the flu and complaining about how uncomfortable the bus was for a man of his size. A friendly banter between Holly and Jennings then ensued on the situation that would come back to haunt Jennings in later years: Holly jokingly told Jennings, “I hope your ol’ bus freezes up!” Jennings jokingly replied, “Well, I hope your ol’ plane crashes!” During the early morning hours of February 3, 1959, later known as The Day the Music Died, the charter crashed outside Clear Lake, killing all on board.
Jennings’s family heard on the radio that “Buddy Holly and his band had been killed”. After calling his family, Jennings called Sky Corbin at KLLL from Fargo to say that he was alive. The General Artists Corporation promised to pay a first-class ticket for Jennings and the band to assist Holly’s funeral in Lubbock, in exchange for them playing that night in Moorhead. After the first show, they were initially denied their payment by the venue, but after Jennings’s persistence, they were paid. The flights were never paid, and Jennings and Allsup continued the tour for two more weeks, featuring Jennings as the lead singer. They were paid less than half of the original agreed salary, and upon returning to New York, Jennings put Holly’s guitar and amplifier in a locker in Grand Central Terminal and mailed the keys to Maria Elena Holly. Then, he returned to Lubbock. Jennings later admitted that he felt responsibility for the crash.
“Jole Blon” was released on Brunswick in March 1959 with limited success. Now unemployed, he returned to KLLL. Still affected by the death of Holly, his performance at the station worsened. He left the station after he was denied a raise, and later worked briefly for the competition, KDAV.
Illness and death
Jennings’s health had been deteriorating for years before his death. After quitting cocaine, he ended his habit of smoking six packs of cigarettes daily in 1988. The same year, he underwent heart bypass surgery. By 2000, his diabetes worsened, and the pain reduced his mobility, forcing Jennings to end most touring. Later the same year, he underwent surgery to improve his leg circulation. In December 2001, his left foot was amputated at a hospital in Phoenix. On February 13, 2002, Jennings died in his sleep of diabetic complications in Chandler, Arizona. He was buried in the Mesa City Cemetery, in Mesa, Arizona. At the funeral ceremony, on February 15, Jessi Colter sang “Storms Never Last” for the attendees, who included Jennings’s close friends and fellow musicians.
Albums include.
1964 – JD’s
1966 – Folk-Country
1966 – Leavin’ Town
1966 – Nashville Rebel
1967 – Waylon Sings Ol’ Harlan
1967 – Love of the Common People
1967 – The One and Only
1968 – Hangin’ On
1968 – Only the Greatest
1968 – Jewels
1969 – Just to Satisfy You
1969 – Country-Folk (with The Kimberlys)
1970 – Waylon
1970 – Don’t Think Twice
1970 – Ned Kelly
1970 – Singer of Sad Songs
1971 – The Taker/Tulsa
1971 – Cedartown, Georgia
1972 – Good Hearted Woman
1972 – Heartaches by the Number
1972 – Ladies Love Outlaws
1973 – Lonesome, On’ry and Mean
1973 – Honky Tonk Heroes
1974 – This Time
1974 – The Ramblin’ Man
1975 – Dreaming My Dreams
1976 – Wanted! The Outlaws
1976 – Mackintosh & T.J.
1976 – Are You Ready for the Country
1976 – Waylon Live
1977 – Ol’ Waylon
1978 – I’ve Always Been Crazy
1979 – What Goes Around Comes Around
1980 – Music Man
1982 – Leather and Lace (with Jessi Colter)
1982 – Black on Black
1983 – It’s Only Rock and Roll
1983 – Waylon and Company
1984 – Never Could Toe the Mark
1985 – Turn the Page
1986 – Sweet Mother Texas
1986 – Will the Wolf Survive
1986 – Heroes (with Johnny Cash)
1987 – Hangin’ Tough
1987 – A Man Called Hoss
1988 – Full Circle
1990 – The Eagle
1992 – Too Dumb for New York City, Too Ugly for L.A.
1992 – Ol’ Waylon Sings Ol’ Hank
1993 – Cowboys, Sisters, Rascals & Dirt
1994 – Waymore’s Blues (Part II)
1996 – Right for the Time
1998 – Closing in on the Fire
2000 – Never Say Die: Live
2006 – Live from Austin, TX
2006 – Waylon Sings Hank Williams
2007 – Waylon Jennings & The Waymore Blues Band Never Say Die The Final Concert Film (2 CDs – 1 DVD)
External links: