It was a truly historic moment in music… but Waylon Jennings wasn’t having any part of it. Of course, it was relatively common for him to walk out of any sort of professional engagements if he felt like something was off. He did it on the Tom Snyder show, the CMA Awards, and even during the recording of “We Are The World.”
In the 2024 Netflix documentary The Greatest Night in Pop, viewers get a very intimate look at some never-before-seen footage of that night, which featured an absolutely star-studded group of musicians coming together to make history. There were always rumors about what happened with Waylon that evening, or why he did what he did, but this doc gave much more context to the story, because for years, we only got bits and pieces at most. And on this day in 1985, the recording session took place with over 45 of music’s biggest names, including Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson (who both wrote the song), Cyndi Lauper, Bob Dylan, Smokey Robinson, Bruce Springsteen Diana Ross and Dionne Warwick, just to name a few. It also includes country music’s own in Willie Nelson, Kenny Rogers and Waylon Jennings… kind of.
Produced by Quincy Jones, the producers pulled off an incredible feat getting all of those artists in the studio together at one time (largely thanks to the work of Richie and Jackson), which they recorded directly after the American Music Awards in order to get more of them to agree to do it, since they’d already be in L.A. Lionel Richie essentially narrates the doc, and he admits that one of his biggest jobs that night was making sure they stay on track and record the song they originally wrote. He (rightfully) explains:
“One line you can never use in life: ‘I’m not sure about this, what do you think?'”
He was afraid that if everyone got input, they’d end up with 47 different versions of the song and not even finish it because everyone would have a different suggestion or idea and time was certainly of the essence. Apparently, at one point, Stevie Wonder suggested that they use Swahili somewhere in the song, and some of the artists start singing and working on a line.
Waylon Walks Out
According to the Independent, Waylon and a few others were against doing that (who thought it would come across as though they were mocking the language), with Ray Charles finally sounding off:
“Willi what! Willi moing-gu, my a**! It’s three o’clock in the god**** mornin’ – I can’t even sing in English no more.”
Waylon might have been one of the more vocal artists in the conversation, but he wasn’t alone. A number of them also voiced their disagreement with the Swahili line because they were so short on time and knew it would probably end in disaster in terms of everyone’s pronunciation. Time went on, Waylon clearly grew annoyed, and a photographer close to Waylon heard him say:
“Well, ain’t no good ole boy ever sung Swahili, I think I’m out of here.”
Lionel Richie adds from his viewpoint:
“Waylon walks out of the door. [He was like] ‘I’m not dealing with this. I don’t know what that means, but I am not gonna say it.’ And we lost Waylon right there.”
They even included the vintage shot of him walking out, which I’d never seen before and was a pretty low-key, but brisk, exit.
After Waylon left, they all came to the conclusion that because of the wide variety of languages in Africa, it might’ve made sense to avoid the whole idea altogether. Eventually, after a heated debate, the group agreed upon singing a line in English that read “One world, Our children”. In addition, it was discussed that they didn’t need to talk to the people who were starving, as the song is for everyone else to bring attention to the cause and get people to donate.
Ray Charles was clearly ready to move on, telling his producer:
“Ring the bell, Quincy. Ring the bell.”
If anything, this documentary clears up the fact that Waylon was featured on some of the choruses, which is why his name is featured on the final credits. He didn’t get a solo line, and it’s unclear if he was supposed to have one before he walked out, as Willie and Kenny both had solos.
In fact, Lionel notes at the beginning of the film what a big deal it was to get Kenny Rogers on the single, and you see quite a few shots of those two cutting up and laughing in the studio, which was really fun to see. You also get to see a part of Willie recording his solo alongside Dionne Warwick, which was cool.
The Song Becomes A Hit
There were several more disagreements and bumps in the road (I guess that “Check your ego at the door sign” Quincy Jones hung up only did so much), and the group finished the final version at 8AM.
“We Are The World” went on to become one of the biggest hit singles of all time, selling more than 20 million copies and raising more than $63 million (equivalent to $168 million today) for famine relief in Africa. The lasting inspiration of it remains, and the track was redone in 2010 with more modern artists after Haiti was hit with a devastating magnitude seven earthquake, and was also a big success, peaking at #2 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.
In His Own Words
But I recently stumbled upon a vintage interview with Waylon from 1998 with Bill DeYoung, where Waylon gets into why he walked out of so many obligations, specifically the “We Are The World” recording, which is as simple and honest of an explanation as you would expect:
“I got tired of everybody pattin’ everybody on the back. And here they come in with all these ideas, wantin’ to sing part of it in Swahili. I just got tired of all the bull****, and I’m allergic to bull**** so I left.
It was the same thing with Tom Snyder. I shouldn’t have been on the Tom Snyder show anyway, because we have nothing whatsoever in common.”
Classic… just classic.
And I mean, it’s hard to argue with that… Waylon did whatever Waylon wanted, and I think the way he went about his career that way is a large part of the reason he remains such a well-respected, beloved figure to this day. Well that, and of course, in addition to all of the incredible music. Plus, I can only imagine all of the drama, and many, many different personalities, trying to get something like this done with the time constraints they had too.
I’d have probably walked out too, but man, do I wish we could’ve heard Waylon’s voice on the song alongside Willie and Kenny.
You can check out the trailer for The Greatest Night in Pop below, and I highly recommend doing so if you’re a music fan of any kind. The documentary is still available Netflix and it’s well-worth a watch:
