It’s no secret that Waylon Jennings was a frontrunner in the outlaw country music scene back in the day.
His polarizing, “I don’t give a f*ck, I’m doing this my way” persona is what made him a fan favorite for traditional country music fans.
With that being said, I’m still stuck on these Tales from the Tour Bus videos with Mike Judge (Creator of King of the Hill, and voice of Hank Hill).
We’ve learned about Billy Joe Shaver’s “Wacko From Waco” incident, a number of George Jones wildest moments, and even Waylon’s DEA raid.
This video in particular is titled “Luckenbach, Texas,” based on Waylon’s original hit song that eventually included a Willie Nelson feature.
However, the best part of the video may not be about the song itself.
The story goes that Jennings new-found success and notoriety as a country music outlaw had gained him the respect of The Hells Angels motorcycle gang, to the point where they would show up to all of Jennings’ shows.
“We show up at a festival somewhere and Waylon would be like ‘Oh God, here they go again.'”
In fact, Waylon’s son Shooter recalled being babysat by the Hells Angels while his dad was touring or off doing whatever.
Shooter said:
“I was literally being babysat by Hells Angels, they were very nice. This one guy Hotfoot, I remember him going to a putt putt course with me when I was a little kid.”
And there was another guy named Boomer who was one of the original members:
“I remember from a very little age, I was like ‘That guy was cool.’ He had a cane with a skeleton on it. He gave me a Pez dispenser with a skull on it because he knew how much I loved that cane.”
Practically all of Waylon’s band, and his family were under the protection of the feared motorcycle gang, and nothing would ever happen at the man’s shows because everybody was scared of them.
