A Follow Up To My Post In Poetry " Heroes " ( In Memory Of Waylon Jennings ) " ......

I want to thank those of you who responded to my post from this morning that I had re-written for the memory of Waylon Jennings , your comments were all great . There is alot that people did not know about the man so , if you dislike history lessons , please feel free to click to the next post now .... Waylon was the first of many of the artists and performers who started and brought the Outlaw Movement to the forefront being seconded in the 70's only by the various forms of rock/pop of the time . The part that Nashville tended to dispise about the outlaw movement was the fact that it erased almost every border between rock , pop , and country music due to it being all of the above but at the same time , none of the above . Waylon had already been recording solo work for about 15 years when the outlaw movement started laying it's foundation in the recording studio of Tompall Glaser . Tompall , Waylon and many others had a vision that it was time for Nashville to re-write it's rules and , give the artists and performers the right to create thier projects mainly within thier own standards with very little worry of the labels' guidelines . This was also a time in music history that bands and artists and solo acts were perpetually getting ripped off by the record labels . Waylon had not reached super stardom yet but found many labels vieing to sign him to contracts that more than likely would have left him penniless ( although he already was .... LOL ) with the pretention being that he would be a mega star on thier label if he would " just do it as they told him to " . Waylon had been around for a while at this point and , knew if he signed such contracts what the eventual out come would be . Waylon had earned enough business savvy at this point that he knew to incorporate the help of an attourney . There hs always been a clause that if someone is offering you a contract to do whatever type of work , you have the right to have an audit performed on the company . Waylon excercised that right and through the attourneys and I.R.S. it was proven that most labels ( especially the mega labels of the time ) had been raping the artists and performers on thier labels signing them to deals that violated the fair market trade agreements ( over charging artists for any supplies they may need on the road , I.E a 3cent postage stamp would cost the artist $4 ) , recording artists were charged for the breakage of records that were sent to the record stores and lawsuits were levied if an artist recorded the same song for 2 labels because the normal agreement was , if you recorded some material for 1 label , you had given the rights of what you had written to that company . During this time , Waylon was asked by many other musicians to negotiate deals for them with the few labels that were remaining that Waylon did not drive into bankruptsy with the audits he embellished on each and every label that did business in Nashville . If not for Waylon , many of the artists that are here and shining today would have never been such as Willie Nelson , Tompall Glaser and the list goes on and on . Willie Nelson had Waylon negotiate the record deal for his first big break-through album called " The Red Headed Stranger " . Willie had been signed to the country division of RCA records but , they felt that the album was more of a demo than a finished product . Needless to say , record labels think that they are always right and made a ridiculeously low offer for the project and Waylon snubbed the deal off and took the album elsewhere . He took the album to CBS ( now Sony Music International ) and they liked the project but , they had nothing else on any of the sister companies nor CBS that sounded quite like this album so they created a label and production company for Willie called " Lonestar Records " and " Abbott Production " . From that album on , Willie has never had a problem being signed to lucritive contracts for 1 album . Waylon was also a source of encouragement to Tompall Glaser ( A man who many feel is the true father of the outlaw movement and was with no doubt the main most contributor in the early years of the movement allowing many artists of the genre to live in his studio and record the genre for free ) . Tompall and Waylon were a great team to take Nashville's old standards and , underhanded ways back down to the bone in favor of Nashville's writers and performers . Contracts grew smaller for these musicians but , it was worth it because they got to keep more of the money than they had previously ever been able to because they had more control over thier own finances and no longer had to sign promisary notes allowing the label to fund thier tours if they did not wish to do so . In 1976 , Waylon was approached by Tompall Glaser and Willie Nelson for an idea for an album to show case the most popular of the outlaws being that Waylon was the only one of the 3 who had most of his artistic freedom ( by this time , labels feared him and gave him a wide birth ) and had the most popular of the day . He was apprehensive but then agreed to do the album as long as his wife Jessi Colter would also be featured on it ( although she was in no way an outlaw , Waylon loved her dearly and wanted her to partake in everything he did ) Reluctantly , Tompall and Willie agreed to the terms and so 3 new tracks were cut including a new live version ( at that time ) of Good Hearted Woman featuring both Waylon and Willie ( who had wrote the song ) who had recorded the song many times over but , never had they recorded it as a duet which was odd because they had written it together . Tompall recorded the shovanistic ( SP? ) but funny " Put Another Log On The Fire " , Waylon and Jessi contributed a duet of the Elvis Prestley gem " Caught In A Trap " . The album " Wanted : The Oulaws " released with Waylon as the main artist and was the most successful album Nashville had ever seen until the arrival of Garth Brooks by being the first country album to not only go PLATINUM but , to go QUADRUPLE PLATINUM and remained in the billboard charts for just under 2 years By the time the album began to decline in sales , Tompall Glaser's Carreer as a musician was almost over ( Mainly by choice ) and Waylon , Willie and , Jessi were all cemented into super-star status . In 1981 Waylon flushed what was left of his stash of cocaine down the toilet in his home after seeing his young son Shooter Jennings playing with a straw as if he were snorting cocaine . At that point , Waylon decided to let go of his meger exhistance of living on Hershey's Kisses and $1,500 worth of cocaine consumption each and every day and began his life over , cold turkey . This was a trying time for Waylon's physical being as the withdrawls from the cocaine were herendeous but , he knew he could not go back to it so Jessi stayed close to him and , encouraged him every step of the way praising his decision and being the loving wife she always had been and was fully giving of moral support for her husband . Most people do not know that when Waylon and Jessi first met , Jessi was living with an associate of Waylon's . Jessi sent him a letter a few months later saying that she had just broken up with his associate realizeing that she wanted to with him ( Waylon ) and , that she could be the one woman Waylon needed . Jessi held true to that statement from 1969 ( when Waylon had no money ) - 2/13/2002 ( when the millions were long gone ) when he died peacefully in thier home in Arizona they had purchased last year to move Waylon to the dryer climate because of the many complications he was having due to his diabetes . Waylon's health has always in the past 25 years had a way of holding him back from the top of the mountain on a consistant basis . He at one point in the mid-part of the 80's , had hepytitus and was hospitalized ( 1984 ) . Waylon was quickly running out of money and asked the higher - ups of RCA Records if they could give him an advance on the next album his contract called for him to deliver to them and they greeted the request but , tried to take advantage of Waylon's medical and , financial situation by adding the condition that Waylon would not only have to complete his contract with RCA but , would also owe them his next 6 albums no matter who he was signed with and , for no extra money . Waylon being the type of man who would rather lose his music rather than conceed to what someone else wanted him to do with it , passed on the deal he was offered by his label of nearly 20 years RCA Records and , when he delivered the last album he owed them , he went looking for greener pastures elsewhere . And all throughout the 70's Waylon concentrated on covers as well as self penned hits and was quickly signed to MCA in 1986 and from that point and all the way to the year 2000 , Waylon grew as an artist at an abnormal speed but , each new sound fit him like a glove after the release of his MCA albums " Hangin' Tough " and , " Will The Wolf Survive " , Waylon returned to a favorite past time of his which was songwriting which he more then illustrated in his audio biography ( a 10 song album broken in up into book form from prologue to Chapter 10 ) " A Man Called Hoss : The Story Of My Life Befor Someone Get's It Wrong " . He wrote the project with Roger Murrah one of the best songwriters Nashville has ever had even though Nashville will usually sing the praises of others befor they will Mr. Murrah ( guess they were affraid he might give Waylon props for the many songs they wrote together or maybe it was just his association with Waylon that branded him with the scarlett letter ) . Waylon then , released an album of covers called " Will The Wolf Survive " that took him right out of the country and smack dab in the middle of modern country rock . He the released in 1988 an album called " Full Circle " which gave a nice diversity between Waylon the songwriter and , Waylon the singer chucked full of some of his best tracks ever . He then left MCA for Epic Records . MCA released " New Classic Waylon " , a compilation of Waylon's hits from his time on MCA . A Year Later Epic released his last nationwide chart topping , cross over hit called " The Eagle " which bared the title track and many other songs worthy of Waylon's new found voice . After that , he released 4 more albums in that decade one of which was an Outlaw reunion of he and , Willie Nelson ( who went mainstream to keep the money coming in ) releasing thier 4th. album as a vocal team called " Clean Shirt " . He parted with Epic Records after the release of " Too Dumb For New York City , Too Ugly For L.A. " to once again explore himself as a credible artist and musician who is/was indeed overly blessed with talent that Nashville was happy to push away for a new generation of TALENTLESS country acts . It took Nashville 20 years but , they finally figured their way around the law by way of production companies . The world of country music is back where it was when Waylon stirred things up because they did thier homework and , they lobbied and , legislated laws that would allow them to do such things ( the weak and wealthy of Nashville production/recording industry ) . A few years ago , Waylon's son became a bit more involved in the music scene by signing a deal with BMI and beginning a carreer of mixing and producing recordings with one of the projects being his father's last album " Never Say Die " where Waylon donned a picture perfect live version of a song he co-wrote called " Nothing Catches Jesus By Suprise " with members of his band sharing lead vocalist parts of the song . Hopefully , Shooter will pick up where his father " The Nashville Shark " left off 20 years ago as he aquires more knowlege of the business and help those who actually have talent ( Unlike the MAJORITY of country singers who they may as well just handed them a gold record when they signed knowing that they were going to pay more than enough money to get these talentless wonders enough airplay to brain wash the consumer/listener into beleiveing they actually like the crap that they are being fed ) obtain mutually profitable developmental deals instead of watching them be swept aside for these singers who merely give the fans the stereo type of country which also shows you that the people who do not care what they listen to ( The Baby Boomers ) are the demographic being catered to in what was once the greatest genre of them all . Waylon was inducted into the country music Hall Of Fame finally in October of 2001 . There is still no word from The Rock n' Roll hall of fame ( A genre that Waylon Frequently crossed over to ) as to when or if Waylon will ever be inducted as his friend Johnny Cash had been in 1996 . There are stories still alive and well today of Waylon's journey from Littlefield , Texas 1937 to the most notorious American Hero who in his youth did things that would make Ozzy Osbourne and , Axl Rose whimper at the very thought of even trying . Waylon , like the rest of us , was an imperfect human being but , he knew what he was doing in the back half of his life . Alot of it like the rest of us , was guess work but , he knew where his priorities should be . From 1990 on , Waylon gave up caring about his record/CD sales and became more concerned with delivering what he felt was the best album he could cut at the time . Even with his mind set straying away from caring about the commercial value of his laboreous finished projects he still managed to take the #1 spot in country and blues charts on the Americana charts ( Charts for independant label releases ) with " Closing In On The fire " which was released by a label out of California called " Ark 21 " in 1998 . Then he followed it up with the Album " Never Say Die " on Lucky Dog Records ( owned by Sony Music ) . I have no info. available at this time as to how it did on the regular and Americana Charts .... Waylon's personal life for the past 26 years was good but , it seems Waylon's stardom was always hampered by tragedy . From the plane crash in 1959 taking Buddy Holly , A.P. " The Big Bopper " Richards and , Richard ( Richie Valens ) Valenzuela . If that plane crash had never taken place , the following year there would have been Buddy Holly's world tour with Waylon as his opening act instead of his bass player . In 1997 Waylon Swore off ever cutting another Highwaymen album with his friends Willie Nelson , Kris Kristofferson and , Johnny Cash and , to never tour with Kris Kristofferson again . " Kris had a bad habit of sharing his political songs and views in concert never really paying any mind that the 3 people standing there with him may not share the same views as he " Waylon said in an interview after he , Willie and , Johnny walked out on a show because , of Kristofferson's inadvertantly speaking for them all without the understanding of where his partners were coming from on exposing less than popular political vision that none of them shared with Kris . Then we fast forward to Waylon's popularity almost finding it's way to the top again and he was struck by with-drawls and then hepytitus leading to a few months in a hospital for treatment . And just to show the pattern , fast forward to the newer following/audience he was generating and had it cut short by a foot amputation a few weeks ago and , then the night befor last , he spoke of planning his next tour for the spring of 2002 and figuring out when he would be able to use a prosthetic foot so that he could get around stage on his own recognance .... I am sure he is joined by his loved ones who crossed over into eternity Including those who parrished in the flight of 1959 . I am almost certain Waylon found his way to Hillbilly Heaven where he will patiently await the arrival of the love of his life , Jessi to join him and they will have thier own space in Heaven for all of the stars they bare in one another's crown . Now I for one am goingto sit back and observe the cut-throats in Nashville from Hazel Smith to the higher ups of the labels up there scramble about for threads to redeem themselves for all of the horrific things they had to say about Waylon that in death is living a song he recorded in 1998 called " Rough On The Living " With Jerry Reed , Mel Tillis and , Bobby Bare ( Nashville is rough on the living . But she really speaks well of the dead ) .... Thankyou Mr. Jennings for the inspiration and decades of fantastic music . You were deffinitely one of a kind and , ( speaking for myself and my family ) we will miss you and the music that would have been , more than you could ever know ......... Michael Salyers - 2/14/2002 ....