Waylon: An Autobiography

by Waylon Jennings, Lenny Kaye

Overview

Waylon Jennings relates the story of his life as a country music star. His beginnings were poor but he became Buddy Holly's protege before sinking into drug abuse and 3 failed marriages. His success came when he met his present wife, Jessi Colter.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780446562379
Publisher:	Grand Central Publishing
Publication date:	06/27/2009
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Sales rank:	76,204
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Waylon Jennings was an American country music singer, songwriter, and musician. Lenny Kaye is an acclaimed music writer whose work has appeared in Crawdaddy, Creem, Hit Parader, Rolling Stone, and Village Voice. He is the author of You Call It Madness: The Sensuous Song of the Croon and has been playing guitar for Patti Smith since 1971. He lives in New York City.

Table of Contents

Prologue 1

1 West Texas Rain 3

2 Buddys 43

3 Phoenix, Arize 74

4 From Nashville Bum ... 102

5 ... To Nashville Rebel 138

6 "There's Another Way of doing things and that is Rock 'N' Roll" 168

7 Country Modern 192

8 This outlaw shit 220

9 Busted 238

10 I'm about to sing in my pants; i've been dry-humming all day and i'm gonna get the tune-aches 271

11 Will the Wolf Survive? 292

12 The Trojan Hoss 320

13 The Four Horsemen 341

14 I do believe 363

Epilogue 379

Selected Discography 383

Acknowledgments 401

Permissions 404

Index 407

What People are Saying About This

Chet Atkins

What a life! And what a wonderful story....A "must read" for everyone.

Johnny Cash

Vast, revealing, exciting, and entertaining....You'll love it.

From the Publisher

"As good a book about American popular music as one is likely to find."  —Washington Post

 

"Folksy, funny, spirited. . . . There are plenty of Waylon moments to be enjoyed . . . loving, insightful . . . filled with backcountry humor. . . . Unflinchingly, the book reads true to the man: if you like Waylon, you'll love Waylon."  —Fort Worth Star-Telegram

"Well-turned, sometimes salty . . . refreshing . . . candid . . . poignant . . . An honest spotlight on a passel of colorful characters . . . . One of the best of country's tell-alls, as warm, peculiar, and individualistic as Jennings's music itself."  —Entertainment Weekly

“What a life! And what a wonderful story of a country boy who despite hardships unimaginable attained success and stardom. A 'must read' for not anyone, but everyone."  —Chet Atkins

 

"Finally, here is the autobiography we've all been waiting for!"  —Willie Nelson

 

"Read Waylon if you love country music. And read it if you admire renegades who throw away the formula and play it the way they hear it in their heads . . . . Eminently readable . . . . Mr. Jennings tells his tales with humor and detail."  —Dallas Morning News

 

"A no-holds-barred, tell-it-all story, overflowing with the honesty, true humor, and down-home charisma of an authentic honky-tonk hero down to the very last page."  —Music City News

 

"Essential reading for country fans."  —Publishers Weekly

 

Kris Kristofferson

Truly inspiring...a beautiful story.

Willie Nelson

Finally, the autobiography we've all been waiting for!

Editorial Reviews

Well turned, sometimes salty...refreshing...candid...poignant....An honest spotlight on a passel of colorful characters....One of the best of country's tell-alls, as warm, peculiar, and individualistic as Jennings's music itself.

Entertainment Weekly

As good a book about American popular music as one is likely to find.

Washington Post

As one of the original "outlaw" country music stars, Jennings (b. 1937) has done his best to live up to the image of the hard-living honky-tonker who doesn't take crap from anybody. With the help of writer and rock guitarist Kaye, an older, calmer, drug-free Jennings now relates his life story, from his childhood in a dirt-floored house in West Texas, through his busted marriages and hard-partying days, to his current existence as happily married man (to country star Jessi Colter) and member of the Highwaymen, the country music supergroup made up of Jennings, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson. The narration reads as if Jennings is relating stories over a beer. There are wonderfully evocative accounts of playing bass for Buddy Holly on his last tourJennings gave up his seat on the plane that crashed, killing Holly and the Big Bopperand of Jennings and Johnny Cash sharing an apartment in Nashville in the early '60s. There's a little more than most readers need to know about Jennings's money troubles, sex life, personal feuds and various drug habits, and there are a few too many testimonials from younger performers (e.g., Billy Ray Cyrus telling Jennings, "You're like a god to me"). As a raconteur, Jennings is by turns self-deprecating and self-indulgent, but never less than entertaining, and almost always charming. This soulful book should interest most anyone curious about the life of a pop musician, and is likely to be essential reading for country fans. A selected discography of Jennings's recordings is included. Photos not seen by PW. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

A country music star tells of his poor childhood and rise to stardom.

Library Journal

Lately, we are hearing a lot about country music stars from Texas, what with Daniel Cooper's "Lefty Frizzell" , George Jones' "I Lived to Tell It All" , and a forthcoming life of Ernest Tubb. Fans interested in the professional making of music will probably prefer this autobiography of Nashville rebel Jennings to any of those. Waylon and fellow Texan Willie Nelson led the early-1970s revolt against the slick, sweet Nashville sound. They broke country music out of the nostalgic, pseudorural ghetto it inhabited during the 1950s and 1960s and into the free-spending (long-haired, drug-gobbling) rock market. Waylon tells the story of that achievement from the inside, paying plenty of attention to his squabbles with Nashville and his obsession with crafting a song. Before and during that testimony, he tells of his youth and early days in music (including a short stint with Texas rocker Buddy Holly), his years of pill popping (no drinking, though; he never could stand the stuff), and his satisfied life and mind since his marriage to singer Jessi Coulter. Instead of gussying up a text that probably started out on tape, coauthor Kaye wisely casts the whole book as a long oral history. Jennings' voice--grammatical gaffes, personal idioms, and all--"speaks" throughout, and by golly, it's a charming voice.

Ray Olson

"As good a book about American popular music as one is likely to find."  —Washington Post

 


"Folksy, funny, spirited. . . . There are plenty of Waylon moments to be enjoyed . . . loving, insightful . . . filled with backcountry humor. . . . Unflinchingly, the book reads true to the man: if you like Waylon, you'll love Waylon."  —Fort Worth Star-Telegram

"Well-turned, sometimes salty . . . refreshing . . . candid . . . poignant . . . An honest spotlight on a passel of colorful characters . . . . One of the best of country's tell-alls, as warm, peculiar, and individualistic as Jennings's music itself."  —Entertainment Weekly

“What a life! And what a wonderful story of a country boy who despite hardships unimaginable attained success and stardom. A 'must read' for not anyone, but everyone."  —Chet Atkins

 

"Finally, here is the autobiography we've all been waiting for!"  —Willie Nelson

 

"Read Waylon if you love country music. And read it if you admire renegades who throw away the formula and play it the way they hear it in their heads . . . . Eminently readable . . . . Mr. Jennings tells his tales with humor and detail."  —Dallas Morning News

 

"A no-holds-barred, tell-it-all story, overflowing with the honesty, true humor, and down-home charisma of an authentic honky-tonk hero down to the very last page."  —Music City News

 

"Essential reading for country fans."  —Publishers Weekly

 

From the Publisher