Happy Father’s Day to… all of us?
Hopefully all the dads out there are having a good weekend. If any fathers out there happen to be a big Waylon Jennings fan, this news is going to act as a little “bonus gift.”
Shooter Jennings, the son of country stars Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter, made an incredibly exciting announcement earlier today. Believe it or not, country music fans could be treated to some new, never-before-heard Waylon songs in the near future.
The world lost Jennings all the way back in 2002, only a couple of months after he was elected into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Following his death, a number of albums were released posthumously, with the last being Going Down Rocking: The Last Recordings in 2012.
However, they might have to look into changing the name of that last project, because as it turns out, they aren’t the last recordings. Shooter Jennings has apparently uncovered some more classic Waylon tapes, as he explained in his post:
“When I was young, in the house that I grew up in, there was a room that was always locked. The ‘storage room’ is what my parents call it.
I have vivid memories of dozens of grey boxes in cubby holes with notes jotted in marker on the outside. I knew what was in those boxes was my dad’s work.”
The message went to describe the timeline for getting all of these left-behind recordings put together. In 2002, following the country icon’s passing, all of the tapes were gathered in one place. Six years later in 2008, the physical recordings were transferred to digital. Most recently, in 2014, the digital recording were upgraded to more modern digital storage.
Shooter Jennings is quite excited about what the recordings consist of:
“What I expected to find was a catalog of all of my dad’s albums and recordings. I knew there were a few songs that were never released., for whatever reasons, so I had my fingers crossed that I would maybe find something special and rare along the way that I could share with you.
What I found was massive historical documentation of a man and a band with an incredible friendship, worth ethic and deep passion for playing and recording music. What I found was way beyond my wildest fantasies.”
And this is where things get really exciting. Shooter Jennings, a respectable musician and artist himself, is taking on a project to bring to life some of the “lost” tapes that Waylon Jennings left behind. The way he describes it, we’re in for some classic, outlaw country from Waylon Jennings… in 2025:
“I’m in possession of a treasure trove of previously unheard full band Waylon Jennings multi-track recording from the 70’s and early 80’s and I have begun preparing the material to be mixed…
These are not demos. These are not unfinished, but, they will take some time to explore, prepare, and mix. You’ve got something to look forward to – there will be new, classic Waylon Jennings music in 2025. Stay tuned.”
The release date of this posthumous project can’t come soon enough.
It’s most likely a difficult process to go through the tapes, both because of the technical editing and, more importantly the emotional aspect. But shoutout to Shooter Jennings for doing the Lord’s work and providing the world with more music from Waylon.
Until then, we’ll have to just fire up some of the classics:
Waylon Jennings On The Country Music Industry In 1983
Is there a cooler dude that ever walked the Earth? Joking about Charlie Daniels doing Skoal commercials, taking shots at the Nashville machine, girls taking their clothes off at festivals, Hells Angels and more, this interview is fantastic.
In the very beginning of this interview Waylon is asked about the latest news from Nashville:
“It’s rolling along, a lot like it was, you know? Trippin’ over themselves and then somebody accidently, every once in a while, does something fantastic.”
And then on playing festivals:
“Festivals are great… it’s always a party going on, a good time thing happening. It’s kinda of hard to communicate as far as with the audience, especially when the girls start taking their clothes off.
How do you sing to that? I ain’t found no rhythm.”
One of a kind…
And perhaps one of the funniest moments of the entire interview is when a helicopter flies over (it was apparently giving rides to festival goers) and Waylon says they asked him if he wanted to take a ride. He politely (or not so politely) declined:
“They tried to tell me to ride that helicopter and I sent them a note. I just told them ‘I’ll pass’ in country slang… I said ‘bullllls**t.”
Same Waylon… same.
Honestly, I could watch old Waylon interviews all day.
Shooter Recalls Being Babysat By Members Of The Hells Angels As A Kid
And speaking of Hells Angels…
During an episode of Tales from the Tour Bus videos with Mike Judge (Creator of King of the Hill, and voice of Hank Hill), we learned about Billy Joe Shaver’s “Wacko From Waco” incident, a number of George Jones wildest moments, and even Waylon’s DEA raid.
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 club, 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 club, and nothing would ever happen at the man’s shows because everybody was scared of them.
