维隆·杰宁斯

Waylon Arnold Jennings (born Wayland Arnold Jennings, June 15, 1937 – February 13, 2002) was an American country music singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. He is considered one of the pioneers of the outlaw movement in country music.

Jennings started playing guitar at age eight and performed at 14 on KVOW radio, after which he formed his first band, the Texas Longhorns. Jennings left high school at age 16, determined to become a musician, and worked as a performer and DJ on KVOW, KDAV, KYTI, KLLL, in Coolidge, Arizona, and Phoenix. In 1958, Buddy Holly arranged Jennings's first recording session, a cover of "Jole Blon", and hired him to play bass. Jennings gave up his seat on the ill-fated airplane flight in 1959 that crashed and killed Holly, J. P. "the Big Bopper" Richardson and Ritchie Valens.

Jennings then returned to Texas, taking several years off from music before eventually moving to Arizona and forming a rockabilly club band, the Waylors, which became the house band at JD's, a club in Tempe, Arizona. He recorded for independent label Trend Records and A&M Records, but did not achieve success until moving to RCA Victor in 1965. In 1972 he hired Neil Reshen as his manager, who negotiated significantly better touring and recording contracts. After Jennings gained creative control from RCA Records, he released the critically acclaimed albums Lonesome, On'ry and Mean and Honky Tonk Heroes, followed by the hit albums Dreaming My Dreams featuring number-one hit "Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way" and Are You Ready for the Country.

During the 1970s, Jennings drove outlaw country. With Willie Nelson, Tompall Glaser, and Jessi Colter he recorded country music's first platinum album, Wanted! The Outlaws. It was followed by another platinum album, a first for any solo artist in country music, Ol' Waylon, and the hit song "Luckenbach, Texas". He was featured on the 1978 album White Mansions, performed by various artists documenting the lives of Confederate Southerners during the Civil War. He appeared in films and television series, including Sesame Street and a stint as the Balladeer on The Dukes of Hazzard, composing and singing its theme song and narrating the show.

Jennings struggled with cocaine addiction, which he overcame in 1984. Later, he joined the country supergroup the Highwaymen with Willie 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 has been named as one of the innovators of progressive country.

Jennings toured less after 1997 to spend more time with his family. Between 1999 and 2001, health problems limited his appearances. In 2001, he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. In 2007, he was posthumously awarded the Cliffie Stone Pioneer Award by the Academy of Country Music presented by Weylon Hofacket.

Early life

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, 1919–2006) and William Albert Jennings (1911–1968). The Jennings family line descended from Irish and Black-Dutch. He was the oldest of four sons, followed by Tommy Jennings (1941–2019), James Jennings, and Bo Jennings (1950–2018). The Shipley line descended from his great-grandfather, a farmer and lawman from Tennessee, with Jennings adding that "along the way, a lot of Indian blood mixed in," including Cherokee and Comanche families.

The name on Jennings's birth certificate was Wayland. It was changed after a Baptist preacher visited his parents and congratulated his mother for naming him after the Wayland Baptist College, in Plainview, Texas. Lorene Jennings, who was Church of Christ and had been unaware of the college, changed the spelling to Waylon. Jennings later expressed in his autobiography, "I didn't like Waylon. It sounded so corny and hillbilly, but it's been good to me, and I'm pretty well at peace with it now." After working as a laborer on the Bittner farm, Jennings's father moved the family to Littlefield and established a retail creamery.

As a child, while Jennings was playing Cowboys and Indians with his younger brother, Tommy, he would fall from a split-rail fence and a sand fighter would go through his left leg. The injury stunted the growth in his left leg, leaving his right leg significantly longer than the left for the rest of his life. His eldest son, Terry Jennings, later noted that his father's heavy reliance on his left leg was very noticeable anytime he performed onstage.

Career

Beginnings in music

When Jennings was 8, his mother taught him to play guitar with the tune "Thirty Pieces of Silver". Jennings used to practice with his relatives' instruments until his mother bought him a used Stella guitar, and later ordered a Harmony Patrician. Early influences included Bob Wills, Floyd Tillman, Ernest Tubb, Hank Williams, Carl Smith, Dean Martin, and Elvis Presley.