a book
Waylon: An Autobiography
Waylon Jennings and Lenny Kaye · 2012 · 418 pages
Equal parts outlaw, renegade, and legend, Waylon Jennings enjoyed a stellar music career for four decades and this no-holds-barred autobiography reveals the story of a man who infused conservative country music traditions with the energy of rock and roll to rewrite the rules of popular music in America. It chronicles all the chapters of Jennings’s incredible life, including his beginnings as a dirt-poor son of a farm laborer; his role as Buddy Holly’s protégé; his influential friendships with such luminaries as Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, and George Jones; the stunning success ushered in by his platinum 1976 anthology album, Wanted: The Outlaws; the drug habit that nearly destroyed him; and his three failed marriages and the journey that lead him to Jessi Colter, the woman who would become his wife for 25 years. With anecdotes, portraits, and little-known facts about Jennings’s fellow country music stars, this book overflows with the honesty, true humor, and down-home charisma of an authentic honky-tonk hero.
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Kurt Vile
“Waylon Jennings’s autobiography was written with Lenny Kaye, who’s obviously a legendary musician with Patti Smith but he’s a writer as well and I didn’t know that until recently, because I live under a rock sometimes – even though I own the Nuggets compilation (Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965–1968). Lenny Kaye curated that, so that’s pretty amazing. This is Waylon’s story in his own words through the filter of Lenny Kaye. What an amazing dude. He’s one of my favourite musicians right now. I wish I could have seen him while he was alive. Incredible guitar player and singer; badass; maniac.”↗