The Only Bruce Springsteen Song Waylon Jennings Ended Up Covering

By the mid-1980s, Waylon Jennings‘ career hit a slump that would hit a resurgence with the formation of the country supergroup the Highwaymen, alongside Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, and Johnny Cash in 1985. During this period, Jennings was still releasing new albums, including his 1986 release Sweet Mother Texas.

The album was an homage to his home state with a few tracks linked to new bandmates, including “Living Legends,” written by Kristofferson, and later rerecorded by the Highwaymen on their second album in 1990, Highwayman II, and “Be Careful Who You Love (Arthur’s Song),” a duet with Cash.

Opening Sweet Mother Texas was an unexpected cover by an artist Jennings had never covered before: Bruce Springsteen. Through Springsteen and Jennings may have crossed paths around this time during the making of the “We Are the World Video,” where the outlaw famously walked out of the recording after Stevie Wonder suggested they incorporate a few lines in Swahili, they never officially collaborated.

For the album, Jennings pulled several outtakes from recent albums, including a country version of Springsteen’s “I’m on Fire,” and was one of the first artists to cover the Born in the U.S.A. classic.

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[RELATED: 2 Times Waylon Jennings Covered The Rolling Stones (1970-1998)]

Jennings delivered Springsteen’s story of lust and desire, originally recorded only with E Street Band members, pianist Roy Bittan, and drummer Max Weinberg, just as sparsely with some guitar.

Hey, little girl, is your daddy home?
Did he go away and leave you all alone?
I got a bad desire
Oh, oh, oh, I’m on fire

Tell me now, baby, is he good to you?
And can he do to you the things that I do?
Oh no, I can take you higher
Oh, oh, oh, I’m on fire

Sometimes it’s like someone took a knife, baby, edgy and dull
And cut a six-inch valley through the middle of my skull

At night, I wake up with the sheets soakin’ wet
And a freight train runnin’ through the middle of my head
Only you can cool my desire

A decade after Jennings’ cover of “I’m on Fire,” Tori Amos covered the song in 1996 for the live compilation VH1 Crossroads. In 2000, Johnny Cash, who previously recorded Springsteen’s previously recorded Springsteen’s “Highway Patrolman” and “Johnny 99″ in 1983, covered “I’m on Fire” for the compilation Badlands: A Tribute to Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska. Nearly a decade later, AWOLNATION also recorded “I’m on Fire” for the Fifty Shades of Grey soundtrack. 

Covered nearly 200 times, other versions of “I’m on Fire” were released by John Mayer, Willie Nile, Lynda Carter, LeAnn Rimes, Mumford and Sons, Kenny Chesney, Bat for Lashes, and more, but Jennings’ rendition was one of the first covers.

Photo: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images