Having a friend as a roommate can be a blessing and a curse, but above all, it’s a pretty good time when you look at it in retrospect. Well, two dudes who agree with this notion are the late legends, Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings, as the two were roommates while they were cutting their teeth in Nashville, Tennessee.
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It was the 60s, both individuals were in their 20s, and they were aspiring musicians. So, as you might imagine, they both had an incredible time full of late nights, jam sessions, broken doors, and loads of inebriated fun. Cash and Jennings have spoken about their time as roommates on several occasions. Notably, on the David Letterman Show, they revealed that they likely spent $1,000 on drugs a day and broke down their door on several different occasions.
Chaos, fun chaos that is, but chaos nonetheless. Though amidst this chaos, Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash did have a routine. That routine was that Johnny Cash cooked and Waylon Jennings cleaned, but given their habits at the time, Cash didn’t cook much. So, Jennings didn’t have to clean much either.
Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings Recall Their Roommate Relationship…
In the CMT documentary, American Masters – The Highwaymen: Friends Till the End, Cash and Jennings recounted their experiences. After being asked if they lived together, Cash stated, “Well, I heard we did. We had an apartment under our name.”
Recalling the time, Jennings continued, “It was fun…Those days, both of us were pretty well hooked on pills, but we can honestly say we never gave each other drugs.” “Never, we hid it, we thought we were hiding it,” cash humourously added.
As stated previously, there was some organization in their roommate relationship. Concerning how the two split up chores, Jennings said, “My job was cleaning up the apartment, and his job was to cook. Well, he got the best deal because we didn’t eat about every two weeks.” Another set of starving artists, well, they were starving for another reason, but you can guess why yourself.
Nevertheless, this story just further shows that Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash weren’t just musical co-workers. They were friends, through thick and thin, up and down, and sun and rain. In music history, there is seemingly not a pair of buddies as tight-knit as Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings, and it all started in that little apartment on the outskirts of Nashville.
Photo by Adam Scull/Shutterstock
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