Another of the greats, Waylon Jennings. It amazes me that so many of the great country singers were simply born with a God-given talent, and they recognized that talent and just went for it. Waylon was always fascinated with the guitar and his momma taught him a few basic chords and he went from there. After winning some local talent competitions Waylon started doing DJ work and began to sing some jingles and later played and sang on local TV stations.
Eventually he would meet Buddy Holly and began playing bass for Buddy. Yes, Waylon did give up his seat on that fateful flight to the Big Bopper aka J.P. Richardson, who incidentally wrote "White Lightning", George Jones first big hit. I think most of you know that the Big Bopper, Buddy Holly, Richie Valens died in that crash.
The death of Holly haunted Jennings for the rest of his life, and added to the demons that he chased with booze and drugs.
Waylon didn't like the "Nashville Establishment" where an artist was expected to dress a certain way, sing a certain way, use the studio band and sometimes orchestra....Jennings like his ole friend Willie balked at the demands of Nashville and moved on to do music his way.
After suffering an illness and hospitalized Waylon changed mangers, kept his beginnings of a beard at the urging of his new manager and never looked back. His new manager negotiated new, more lucrative contracts, and more creative control over his own music. One of the original outlaws of country music.....the term "outlaw" comes from Waylon, Willie, and Johnny Cash basically telling the Nashville Establishment to piss-off.
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