Say what you want about The Highwaymen, but you can’t accuse them of consuming too much caffeine.
A tweet from Ken Jennings went viral in the spring last year, and it showed an old tour rider for the Highwaymen, the country music supergroup comprised of Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, and Kris Kristofferson.
The mundane nature of their requests may surprise you:
Cash, Jennings, Nelson, and Kristofferson’s rider list choices were simple, yet effective:
Johnny Cash
6 Caffeine Free Diet Cokes
6 Coca-Cola Classics
Spring Water
Coffee
Hot Tea w/ Honey & Lemon
Fruit
Fruit Juice
Waylon Jennings
6 Caffeine Free Diet Cokes
6 Coca-Cola Classics
Spring Water
Coffee
Skim Milk (for coffee)
Fruit
Willie Nelson
6 Coca-Cola on Ice
6 7-Up on Ice
Spring Water
Coffee
Fruit
Kris Kristofferson
12 Diet Coca-Cola on Ice
Fruit Juice
Spring Water
Iced Coffee
Fruit
Looks like they all could at least agree on throwing in the healthy option of fruit to pair with their Diet Cokes.
The four famous artists, who teamed up to form the country supergroup the Highwaymen from 1985 to 1995, appear to have made some pretty reasonable requests for their dressing rooms. Twitter users couldn’t help but notice the excessive amount of Diet Cokes requested, as well as multiple requests for “Caffeine Free” options of cola.
I guess you don’t want to get too pumped up to play Highwaymen hits such as “Born and Raised in Black and White” and “Desperados Waiting for a Train” to country fans.
We can only wonder if this was the actual list, or a decoy list to throw potentially concerned event workers off the trail of what the performers actually filled their dressing rooms with. Knowing Willie Nelson, he most likely brought his own “supply” of what he needed.
The normalcy of the list could also be attributed to each member’s age during the time they would have toured together as the Highwaymen. The raucous, backstage days could have been way behind the group members when they put together this list.
Nevertheless, Twitter had some other suspicions about why the list was so simple:
I’m going to assume these are code for drugs
— Jordy DeFelice (@JordyDeFelice) March 8, 2023
Took a brief moment of trying to imagine these guys drinking loads of soft drink before it clicked a lot of them were probably mixers
— Paul (@Paulysolo) March 8, 2023
They all practiced BYOB
— Buck Simmons (@BuckSimmons61) March 8, 2023
All I see are a bunch of mixers and garnishes.
— John B (@JBNotSmoove) March 8, 2023
I’m fairly confident those Cokes had some Kentucky and Tennessee assistance.
— Brian Kelley (@RealBrianKelley) March 8, 2023
Still, the image presents a funny, unique insight into four legendary country icons.
Pour a Caffeine Free Diet Coke out tonight to pay respects for the musical contributions of Johnny, Waylon, Willie, and Kris.
