2 Times Waylon Jennings Covered The Rolling Stones (1970-1998)

By the late 1960s, country music was trickling into the Rolling Stones‘ repertoire from the band’s country verison of “Honky Tonk Women,” “Country Honk” on Let It Bleed, an homage to the music of Hank Williams and Jimmy Rodgers or their cover of bluesman Robert Johnson’s “Lore in Vain,” a song Mick Jagger said they made “more country” on Hyde Park 1969. That year, the Stones also recorded “Wild Horses” during a stop at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Alabama.

In the ’70s, the band added the drug-tinged “Dead Flowers” to Sticky Fingers, and more country slipped in with songs like “Sweet Virginia” on Exile on Main St. and “Far Away Eyes” from Some Girls in 1978.

Jagger plugged into more country decades later with collaborations with Don Henley and Miranda Lambert (“Bramble Rose”) and Brad Paisley (“Drive of Shame”), and more throughout the 2010s.

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In 2006, the Rolling Stones played Zilker Park in Austin, Texas, and pulled out another classic by a country hero from the Lone Star State. In between the Stones’ Sticky Fingers track “Sway” and “Streets of Love” from their 2005 album A Bigger Bang, with a cover of Waylon Jennings‘ “Bob Wills Is Still the King.”

Originally released on Jennings’ 1975 album Dreaming My Dreams, the song was sparked by a past disagreement he had with fellow outlaw Willie Nelson over a booking agreement and turned into a tribute to the late Western swing icon Bob Wills.

Jennings also recorded two Rolling Stones classics during his career. “I could never play with a band that moves on the beat, or under the beat,” said Jennings. “I couldn’t get into it. It has to be on the edge…that’s the rock and roller in me.”

“Honky Tonk Woman” (1970)

By the time Jennings released his 1970 album Singer of Sad Songs, he was on the brink of his outlaw rebellion against RCA, which resulted in him gaining full creative control over his music two years later. On the album, Jennings incorporated some non-traditional country songs, including the Tim Hardin folk song “If I Were a Carpenter” and a cover of the Rolling Stones’ 1969 classic, “Honky Tonk Women,” with his version: “Honky Tonk Woman.”

The Stones released “Honky Tonk Women” with B-side “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” as a single in the UK on July 4, 1969, the day after Brian Jones‘ death.

“No Expectations” (1998)

In 1978, Johnny Cash recorded the Stones’ Beggars Banquet track “No Expectations” on his 1978 album Gone Girl. Exactly two decades later, Jennings did the same for his 1998 album Closing In on the Fire. Originally released as the B-side to “Street Fighting Man” in 1968, the bluesy ballad has Keith Richards on acoustic rhythm guitar and Brian Jones on slide.

“That’s Brian playing [slide guitar],” recalled Jagger of the song in 1995. “We were sitting around in a circle on the floor, singing and playing, recording with open mikes. That was the last time I remember Brian really being totally involved in something that was really worth doing”.

Photo: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images