6.19.2016  Terry Jennings, the Outlaw Music era, family, and “writing a book that I had promised my dad I would write”

Terry Jennings was born when his father, Waylon Jennings, was nineteen years old. Today he is the CEO and founder of Korban Music Group LLC, a music management and publishing company. He has also worked for booking agencies, publishing companies, and as a talent scout for major labels, including RCA Records.

He got his start in the music industry at fifteen by being a roadie for his famous father, and has written a firsthand account of a unique father-and-son relationship. On Thursday afternoon before Father’s Day Sunday, he shared his thoughts with us via email about his famous father, how he wrote this book, and what the next generation of musical Jenningses are up to.

LONE STAR LITERARY LIFE: The recollections in your memoir are so vivid. What was your process in pulling together your stories for Waylon: Tales of an Outlaw Dad? Did you keep a journal when you were growing up, and when you were touring with your father?

TERRY JENNINGS: God blessed me with a very vivid and long memory. It’s like a detailed autobiographical memory of my life; Dad would many times ask me for details of past events, dates, scores of football games, etc. After Dad died I started writing a book that I had promised my dad I would write. I just felt it was something I had to do. “Dad had told me I was practically the only person who was with him from the beginning that wasn’t afraid to tell the truth.” I spent a long time trying to put a square peg in a round hole, but once I yielded all my stories to the Lord everything fell into place. That’s what I call a miracle from God.

You spent your early childhood in the Lubbock/Littlefield/Levelland areas. People outside West Texas often don’t understand what a rich musical heritage this part of the state has. Can you describe it for them?

There are a lot of things I can say about the rich talent that comes out of West Texas, especially the Lubbock area. I would say music legends are bred in West Texas, like Buddy Holly, Mac Davis, the Crickets, Joe Ely, Dad, Sonny Curtis, Natalie Maines, and the list goes on. Most all had to leave to get exposure and to be closer to the music industry. In Dad’s case being born in 1937 and dirt poor, making your own entertainment was the least expensive way for family and friends to enjoy themselves. Dad fell in love with the guitar and singing at a very young age. In Lubbock you have the world-famous Buddy Holly Center and across the street is the West Texas Walk of Fame that Dad helped start, to honor musicians from the area.

Buddy Holly and the Crickets recorded many of their hits at the Norman Petty Studios in Clovis, New Mexico, ninety miles west of Lubbock. For many of the early rock ’n’ rollers in Holly's orbit, that studio was like Sun Records in Memphis for the Elvis/Johnny Cash/Jerry Lee Lewis crowd. (I understand that during your father’s first recording session in September 1958, he was accompanied by Buddy Holly on the guitar and King Curtis on the saxophone in the Petty studio.) Did your father talk much about those days?

Yes, Dad spoke of these days and the September 1958 sessions at Norman Petty’s studio with Buddy Holly. It was pretty funny stuff, with Dad singing Cajun-French lyrics with a West Texas accent. It became a family joke talking about Dad’s first time in the studio recording “Jole Blon” and Dad not understanding the words or knowing what he was singing. Dad also said he was scared to death and it was a really nerve-racking experience because Norman and Buddy weren’t getting along. Buddy producing Dad made Norman feel like Buddy was serious about getting his own label going. As far as the other song, “When Sin Stops,” Buddy wasn’t able to make it so Norman ended up producing and engineering on this song. He had Dad sing an octave lower in an attempt to prove to Buddy he was wasting his time with Dad and trying to start his own record label. All in all I think those two recordings were very good for Dad’s first time in a recording studio. Buddy played guitar, King Curtis was on sax, and a couple of other musicians on bass and drums.

You had a co-author in writing Waylon: Tales of an Outlaw Dad. How did that work?

I was blessed to have David Thomas as a co-writer. David helped me out a lot. These are my memoirs, and David made them leap off the page as though I was sitting in the room telling you the story’s myself. I suggest people look up some of the other books he has written or co-written, you won’t regret it.

How did the death of Buddy Holly affect your father and his career?

Buddy’s death was devastating to Dad. He was completely lost, guilt-ridden, he had just lost his best friend. He was just about to give up on his music until Hi-Pockets Duncan had a heart-to-heart talk with him. Hi-Pockets told Dad he was not honoring his friend by not continuing to chase his dream of being a country singer.

When you were fifteen, you dropped out of school to be a part of your father's touring operation. That would have been in the early 1970s, the forefront of the Cosmic Cowboy/Outlaw Country music movement. Can you describe that period of your life to our readers?

I got to witness and be a part of the Outlaw era. I look back and I am in awe. At the time the reality of it all wasn’t there, it was just hanging out with Dad and his friends, and their involvement in Dad’s music and life, the Outlaw movement. I mean people like Ken Mansfield, former head of Apple Records U.S. division. People do not realize how important his role was in the Outlaw movement. He has production credit on the landmark outlaw album “Honky Tonk Heroes,” the album I feel started the Outlaw movement. Then there was Cash, Willie, Billy Joe Shaver, Kristofferson, the list goes on and on. It was one wild ride that seemed to get wilder with time. A hard-partying lifestyle centered on country music during the so-called Outlaw era. The best way I can explain it comes from a Jimmy Buffet song “He Went to Paris.” and I quote. “there was some of it magic and some of it tragic, but it’s been a good life all the way.” I got to witness my father firsthand become a country music legend. I look back now and realize how truly privileged and honored I was to be there at this very historical part of the Outlaw era with Dad and his Outlaw friends. I am still amazed at my life—I mean look at the Highwaymen, the Mount Rushmore of Country Music, and the greatest, most successful supergroup ever.

People often think sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll. But your book seems to indicate that there’s no difference in the lifestyle for country music—it could just as easily be sex, drugs, and country. By the eighties your father was said to have a cocaine addiction that cost $1,500 a day, and ultimately he filed bankruptcy. What is it about the life of a performer that causes excess?

Life as a performer does not necessarily cause these excesses, but when you’re playing 200-plus shows a year, year after year, you have to find time to get to the studio and record and keep going. You also didn’t want to sleep, you were scared you were going to miss something. Things were happening fast, I mean fast—the venues became really huge venues quickly and we were putting the pedal to the metal cross-country. It was also the ’70s, I mean attorneys, doctors, professional athletes, actors, and they were all right there doing the same drugs we were. Then came the Hells Angels as bodyguards. Dad and I would later reminisce on those crazy times, and Dad said, “Ain’t it great we can talk about it and not worry about the law kicking down the doors?”

And then in 1984 your father quit drugs—cold turkey. By 1997 he finished his GED to inspire his son Shooter. What was your family life like in the later years? You are the oldest of six children, but there were four marriages. Do you keep in touch with your siblings and half-siblings? Stepmothers?

In the later years a drug-free Dad was great. It gave Dad a chance to be the husband, father, and grandfather he had always wanted to be. Family gatherings became of utmost importance to Dad. If you were in town Dad expected you to be at his house on such occasions. All Dad ever wanted was for everybody to be happy and get along and to be one big happy family. Even though some of us had different mothers and two of my sisters were raised by their moms, Dad said we were “all going to be as close as if we’d all been brought up in the same house.” And we did just that. We did have our ups and downs but like most brothers and sisters, we would get over it. Two of my sisters have recently passed away. The rest of my brothers and sisters are scattered throughout different parts of the United States. We get to see each other once or twice a year.

How many of your family members are in the music business? You are; Shooter is. There's a grandson who does hip-hop. Are there others?

The rapper you speak of is my nephew BJ, aka Struggle Jennings. My sister Jennifer has always been quite the singer/songwriter. In the mid ’90s she was on the road with Dad as a backup singer. There’s no telling what gem Jennifer has stuffed away that no one has heard. Then there is my oldest son, Whey; he is out on the road paying his dues and building quite a fan base for himself as a country singer. My youngest son, Josh, is talented on so many levels, music, art, music business, etc. etc. He has even been tour manager for a couple of bands. My brother Buddy attended South Plains College in Levelland, Texas, and was a sound engineer for many artists and has quite the ear for producing.

What's next for you? Might you write future books?

God and family is always first. I’m planning on renewing my wedding vows with my wife Debra next year on our thirtieth wedding anniversary. I’ve been spending more time on my awesome songwriter’s song catalog, and I feel more opportunities are opening up again in country music for their songs. Hopefully my story/book being made into a movie and another book is always a possibility. I also love working with the Texas Heritage Songwriters Association and several other nonprofit organizations I am involved with.

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Praise for Terry Jennings's WAYLON: TALES OF MY OUTLAW DAD

“Waylon Jennings and I first met in the mid ’60s backstage at JD’s in Phoenix. We would go on to record duets, write songs, cut records and tour together for over three decades. We had our differences, but our friendship always endured. I considered Waylon one of my best friends. Packed with funny, insightful tales of life on the road, this book is a terrific tribute, from a son to his father. A father who happens to be one of Texas and Nashville’s greatest musicians. Every country music fan, Outlaw or otherwise, should have it on their shelf.”―Willie Nelson

“I'm so excited about Terry’s new book. Waylon Jennings has always been one of my favorite singers of all time. I loved his voice. He was completely different from anybody else. And I always wanted to either do a whole album with him or at least a duet song; but I never got the chance. That will always be one of my great regrets. Waylon was a wonderful human being as well. He reminded me very much of my own people in his tenderness, kindness, his understanding and his personality. I think of him often.”―Dolly Parton

“I’ve played country music my whole life, and it's the evolutions (sometimes revolutions) that have ensured that it stays ever changing, ever growing, and constantly relevant. When I first heard Waylon sing the opening verse of ‘Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way’ it was like a mini sermon. It’s also the first country song I played for my wife, and she was hooked immediately. As his son Terry wonderfully captures in this book, Waylon was an outsider trying to figure out how to be in a town like Nashville and stay true to his music and who he is. And, boy, can I relate to that. Waylon had a power, a gravitas to his music that hit me in a religious way. It was music where I could smell the beer soaked carpet, see the neon, feel the stomping and sliding of boots on hardwood floors, and almost taste the air thick with smoke, sex and whiskey. It’s authentic, it’s raw, and it’s unapologetic in every way...and for a kid growing up on the other side of the world who never got to see Waylon ‘live’ or meet him, I feel like I've done both. God bless you Waylon ... and please know I’m taking great care of your leather-bound 1950 Broadcaster.”
―Keith Urban

“In his revealing new book, Waylon Jennings’ son Terry discusses his father's legacy and what he really thought of the ‘outlaw country’ movement.”―Wide Open Country

“Waylon: Tales of My Outlaw Dad is a quick, fun read that offers the reader an intimate look inside a world that doesn't exist anymore.” ―VICE