I’ll tell you what, that Waylon Jennings was somethin’ else…
In an incredible 1988 feature with SPIN, which included some all-time great quotes from the Hoss, Waylon recalled the most embarrassing thing that ever happened to him while performing on stage.
And seeing as today is sadly the anniversary of his death 22 years ago on February 13th, 2002, I wanted to take a look back at one of the funniest stories I’ve heard from him.
Waylon detailed a headlining concert in Kansas City, where he went out to perform and the zipper on his fly completely broke during the first song… for obvious reasons, it didn’t take a few of the girls in the front row very much time to realize and notify Waylon that his pants were unzipped:
“The most embarrassing thing that ever happened to me was in Kansas City. I went onstage, and what’s the most embarrassing thing that can happen to you onstage? It’s for your fly to be open.
Well my zipper broke on my damn Levis on the first song, and there were about two or three girls out in the front row that let me know my fly was open.”
He says he stood up there for a few minutes trying to get it fixed, and it just wouldn’t zip back properly, so his wife Jessi Colter brought out some black tape and tried to cover it in a more creative way.
That didn’t work either, so Waylon wound up just playing the whole show with his pants unzipped… and while I’m sure he was kind of uncomfortable doing so (I guess he didn’t have an extra pair he could quickly change into on-hand?), I think some of the ladies in the audience probably weren’t too upset by the situation:
“Well, I was monkeying around there trying to get that thing fixed. Never could get it fixed, and here I am, I’ve done one song and I’ve gotta do a show. Jessi came out there with some black masking tape and tried to tape it down but that didn’t work.
So I had to do the whole show with my fly floppin’ open, and goin’ back and putin’ the tape back across it.”
And I guess his outlaw bestie Mr. Willie Nelson was in attendance and came out to sing with him at one point, delivering an all-time great line to his friend which was quite unsympathetic, to say the least:
“Wille Nelson was really sympathetic, though. When he came out he asked me if I was tryin’ to count to 11.”
To have been a fly on the wall when those two were just sitting around shooting the sh*t…
And for a little more on Waylon’s zipper area, Hannah Dasher shared some incredible insight with us not too long ago… check it out:
@hannahdamndasher FMK Alan Jackson, George Strait, and Waylon Jennings @Grand Ole Opry with @Whiskey Riff #fmk #funny #countrymusic ♬ original sound – HANNAH DASHER
Speaking of Waylon’s heart-melting charisma and charm, I’ll leave you with one of my favorite performances of him singing the Willie Nelson-penned heartbreaker “It’s Not Supposed To Be That Way” at The Texas Opry in 1975.
RIP to the country icon and outlaw himself, Waylon Jennings.
“It’s Not Supposed To Be That Way”
