Say what you want about The Highwaymen, but you can’t accuse them of consuming too much caffeine.
Johnny Cash’s social media account (that sounds weird right?) posted a picture earlier today, and the screenshot showed an old tour rider for the Highwaymen. If you need a refresher – and no judgement if you do – the Highwaymen were the country music supergroup comprised of Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash and Kris Kristofferson.
The band – which was together from 1985 to 1995 – is easily considered to be one of the best ensemble bands that’s ever played together, and the formula for the band was rather simple: What if we took four all-time-greats and had them share the stage? Jennings, Nelson, Cash and Kristofferson offered up their own songs for the group to play, and the four country artists also came together to create original music for the Highwaymen.
And speaking of simple, we’ve got to take a closer look at the tour rider of the Highwaymen. The mundane nature of their dressing room requests – and the lack of caffeine requested – is honestly very surprising:
Dressing room rider from a Highwaymen Tour. Simple requests. pic.twitter.com/8qvVmPSyOp
— Johnny Cash (@JohnnyCash) April 16, 2025
In case that picture above was a little difficult to read (or cut off at a certain point) I went ahead and typed out the simple-yet-effective rider list choices for Cash, Jennings, Nelson, and Kristofferson below:
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.
There’s really nothing unreasonable about those dressing room requests from the four famous artists appear, right? And I don’t know what stands out to you about it, but I can’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.
And to be frank, 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 tour rider, but to play devil’s advocate, wouldn’t that call for some caffeinated beverages? Just so the likes of Cash, Jennings, Nelson, and Kristofferson could have a more amped-up stage presence? I guess that is what the coffee was for…
I won’t judge too much though, because the tour riders were clearly fulfilling their purpose, and contributed to wonderfully iconic performances like this one:
