Waylon Jennings was unquestionably not the kind of man who would allow other people to dictate his craft. And as he proved while Willie Nelson was fighting with his record label over Red Headed Stranger, Jennings wasn’t about to sit idly by and allow others to dictate his buddies’ craft, either.
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Nelson signed with Columbia Records ahead of his eighteenth studio album, and part of that record deal was that Nelson could maintain complete creative control. However, when he presented the complete Red Headed Stranger album to Columbia, the record executives asked him why he was turning in a demo. “Ain’t no demo,” Nelson recalled replying in his memoir, It’s a Long Story. “This is the finished product.” Columbia thought differently.
The record label pushed Nelson to take it back into the studio to “polish” it. Label president Bruce Lundvall thought the arrangements were too sparse and suggested Nelson work with a Nashville producer to make it more commercially appealing. When Waylon Jennings heard what Lundvall had to say about Red Headed Stranger, the country star had some choice words in defense of his friend.
Waylon Jennings Defended Willie Nelson Over ‘Red Headed Stranger’
Waylon Jennings was at a meeting with Willie Nelson, their mutual manager, Neil Reshen, and Columbia president Bruce Lundvall when he laid out his feelings about Red Headed Stranger in his usual colorful way. Calling Lundvall a “tone-deaf, tin-eared sonofab**** who didn’t know nothin’,” Jennings then turned to his manager and said, “Neil, you manage both me and Willie. But I tell you, if you don’t get that g**damn tape off that machine and get us out of here, then you won’t be my manager, and I guarantee you won’t be Willie’s.”
Surprisingly, Lundvall was willing to ask Jennings a follow-up to his expletive-filled tirade. When the record exec asked Jennings what, exactly, he was missing about the album, Jennings replied, “You’re missing everything. That’s what seventy thousand people come to Dripping Springs Picnic to hear. It’s why people will drive all the way from Colorado or Kansas to hear Willie sing. You don’t know a thing about it. That album is what he is. Billy Sherrill [the Nashville producer Lundvall suggested working with] may be great, but he ain’t got a f***ing thing to do with Willie Nelson.”
Jennings’ argument won Lundvall over. Columbia released Red Headed Stranger as Nelson had originally presented it, and everyone was better for it. The album easily topped the Billboard Top Country Albums and enjoyed moderate success at No. 28 on the Billboard 200. When the record went gold, Lundvall personally sent Jennings a framed vinyl and told him he was right. Even today, Red Headed Stranger remains one of the most beloved albums of Nelson’s entire catalogue, tone-deaf, tin-eared sonofab****es be damned.
Photo by Michael Putland/Getty Images
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