The Life and Sad Ending of Waylon Jennings

the life and sad ending of waylon jennings waylon jennings was born on june 15 1937 on the j.w bitner farm near littlefield texas he was the son of laureen beatrice and william albert jennings the jennings family line descended from irish and black dutch the shipley line descended from cherokee and comanche families the name on jennings birth certificate was weyland it was changed after a baptist preacher visited his parents and congratulated his mother for naming him after the weyland baptist university in plainview texas laureen jennings who had been unaware of the college changed the spelling to weyland 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 am pretty well at peace with it right now after working as a laborer on the bittner farm jennings father moved the family to littlefield and established a retail creamery life goes through jennings was married four times and had six children he married maxine carol lawrence in 1956 at age 18 with whom he had four children terry vance julie ray buddy dean and deanna jennings married lynn jones on december 10 1962 adopting a child tomi lin they divorced in 1967. he married barbara elizabeth rude in 1967. he composed the song this time about the trials and tribulations of his marriages and divorces he married country singer jessie coulter in phoenix arizona on october 26 1969 coulter had a daughter jennifer from her previous marriage to duane eddy the couple had a son waylon albright known as shooter jennings in the early 1980s coulter and jennings nearly divorced due to his abuse of drugs and alcohol but remain together his career includes when jennings was eight his mother taught him to play guitar with the tune 30 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 were bob wills floyd tillman ernest tubb hank williams carl smith and elvis presley beginning with performing at family gatherings jennings played his first public concert at the youth center with anthony bonanno followed by appearances at the local jaycees and lions clubs he won a talent show on channel 13 in lubbock singing hey joe he later made frequent performances at the palace theatre in littlefield during local talent night at 14 years jennings auditioned for a spot on kvow in littlefield texas owner jb mcshan along with emile matcha recorded ginning ss 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 matcha 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 music was often not well received after several disciplinary infractions sixteen-year-old tenth grader jennings was convinced to drop out of high school by the superintendent upon leaving school he worked for his father in the family store also taking temporary jobs jennings felt that music his favorite activity would turn into his career in addition to performing on air for kvow jennings started to work as a dj in 1956 and moved to lubbock his program ran from four o'clock in the afternoon to ten o'clock in the evening filled with two hours of country classics two of current country and two of mixed recordings the latter included early rock and roll stars such as chuck berry and little richard the owner reprimanded him each time he aired such recordings and after playing two richard records in a row jennings was fired jennings during a broadcast of his show on kll in 1958 corbyn 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 im moving on he expressed his struggle to live on a 50 united states dollars a week salary corbyn invited jennings to visit klvt where he eventually took corbyn's position when it opened the corbin family later purchased kll 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 on september 10 jennings recorded the songs joel blonde and when sin stops with holly and tommy alsop on guitars and saxophonist king curtis holly then hired jennings to play bass for him during his winter dance party tour in march 1959 joel blonde was released on brunswick with limited success now unemployed jennings returned to kll deeply affected by the death of holly jennings's performance at the station worsened he left the station after he was denied a raise and later worked briefly for the competition kdav in the early 1960s jennings wrote and recorded the stage a tribute to valenz the big bopper and holly as well as eddie cochrane a young musician who died in a road accident a year after the plane crash jennings formed his backing band the whalers with bassist paul foster guitarist jerry gropp and drummer richie albright the band soon earned a strong local fanbase at jd's where jennings developed his rock influenced style of country music that defined him in his later career in 1961 jennings signed a recording contract with trend records and experienced moderate success with his single another blue day in july 1963 jennings signed a contract with a m that granted him five percent of record sales at a m he recorded love denied backed with rave on and four strong wins backed with just to satisfy you he followed up by recording demos of the twelfth of never kisses sweeter than wine and don't think twice it's all right and also produced the single sing the girls a song bill backed with the race as on the singles were released between april and october 1964. jennings s records found little success at a m because the label was releasing mostly folk music rather than country at the time he had a few regional hits around phoenix due to local radio airplay with ian tyson's four strong winds and just to satisfy you which was co-written with bowman meanwhile he recorded an album on bat records called waylon at jd's after 500 copies were sold at the club another 500 were pressed by the sounds label he also played lead guitar for patsy montana on a 1964 album singer bobby bear heard jinning ss just to satisfy you on his car radio while passing through phoenix and recorded it in four strong winds after stopping in phoenix to attend a jennings performance at jd's bear called chet atkins head of the rca victor studios in nashville and suggested he signed jennings unsure after being offered a deal with rca if he should quit his gig at jd's and relocate to nashville he sought the advice of rca artist and friend willie nelson who had attended one of jennings shows upon hearing how well financially jennings was doing it jd's nelson suggested he stay in phoenix jennings then asked herb alpert to release him from his contract with a m which albert did atkins formally signed jennings to rca victor in 1965. in august jennings made his first appearance on the billboard's hot country songs chart with that's the chance ill have to take fame peaks began to count in 1966. jennings released his debut rca victor album folk country followed by leave in town and nashville rebel leave in town resulted in significant chart success as the first two singles anita your dreaming and time to bum again both peaked at number 17 on the billboard hot country songs chart the album's third single a cover of gordon lightfoots that's what you get for love and me peaked at number nine jennings first top ten single nashville rebel was the soundtrack to an independent film the nashville rebel starring jennings in 1967 the single green river charted on billboard country singles at jennings released a hit single just to satisfy you during an interview jennings remarked that the song was a pretty good example of the influence of his work with buddy holly and rockabilly music jennings produced mid-chart albums that sold well including 1967's just to satisfy you which included the hit single 60 jennings ss singles enjoyed success the choken kind peaked at number eight on billboard's hot country singles in 1967. while only daddy that ll walked the line hit number two the following year in 1969 his collaboration with the kimberly's on the single macarthur park earned a grammy award for best country performance by a duo or group his single brown-eyed handsome man reached number three on the hot country singles chart by the end of the year in 1972 jennings released ladies love outlaws the single that headlined the album became a hit for jennings and was his first approach to outlaw country jennings was accustomed to performing and recording with his own band over time however jennings felt limited by nashville's lack of artistic freedom he began to prepare for a change in direction with his career his golden milestone comes to his tireless efforts before in 1973 jennings released lonesome henri and mean and honky tonk heroes the first albums recorded and released under his creative control more hit albums followed with this time in the ramblin man both released in 1974 the title tracks of both albums topped the billboard country singles chart with the self pin this time becoming jennings ss first number one single dreaming my dreams released in 1975 including the number one single are you sure hank done it this way and became his first album to be certified gold by the riaa it was also the first of six consecutive solo studio albums to be certified gold or higher in 1976 jennings released are you ready for the country jennings wanted los angeles producer ken mansfield to produce the record but rca initially balked jennings and the whalers traveled to los angeles and recorded with mansfield at jennings own expense a month later jennings returned to nashville and presented the master tape to chet atkins who after listening to it decided to release it the album hit number one on billboard's country albums three times the same year topping the charts for 10 weeks it was named country album of the year in 1976 by record world magazine and was certified gold by the riaa in 1976 rca released the compilation album wanted the outlaws with jennings willie nelson tom tompell glazer and jennings ss wife jessie coulter the album was the first country music album certified platinum the following year rca issued o l whalen an album that produced a hit duet with nelson lucenbach texas the album waylon and willie followed in 1978. producing the hit single mamas don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys jennings released i've always been crazy also in 1978 the same year at the peak of his success jennings began to feel limited by the outlaw movement jennings referred to the over-exploitation of the image in the song don't you think this outlaw bits done got out of hand claiming that the movement had become a self-fulfilling prophecy in 1979 rca released jinning ss first greatest hits compilation which was certified gold the same year and quintuple platinum in 2002 also in 1979 jennings joined the cast of the cbs series the dukes of hazzard as the balladeer the narrator the only episode to feature him as an actor was welcome waylon jennings during the seventh season jennings played himself presented as an old friend of the duke family for the show he also wrote and sang the theme song good ol boys which became the biggest hit of his career released as a single in promotion with the show it became ginning ss 12th single to reach number one on the billboard country singles chart on february 13 2002 waylon jennings died in his sleep of diabetic complications at the age of 64 at his home in chandler arizona he was buried in the city of mesa cemetery in mesa at his memorial service on february 15 jesse colter sang storms never last

Channel: Celebrity Tribute

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Rating: 4.5221844 out of 5

Keywords: sad ending, hollywood, graveyard, classic tv, 1960's, mini bio, biography, the life and sad ending, country artists, country music, 1960s, 1950s, 1970s, The Life and Sad Ending of Waylon Jennings, Waylon Jennings speech, Waylon Jennings interview, Waylon Jennings song, Waylon Jennings, sad news, This Time, Thirty Pieces of Silver, Bob Wills, Floyd Tillman, Hey Joe, Jole Blon, When Sin Stops, Winter Dance Party Tour, The Stage, Rave On, Another Blue Day, Just To Satisfy You

Id: urrmZmo85xQ

Length: 14min 51sec (891 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 12 2020