In the mid-1970s, Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson were among the long-haired, leather-clad outlaws who struggled to fit into Nashville’s countrypolitan cookie-cutter mold. But in Texas? Well, Jennings and Nelson were bona fide mainstream stars in Texas. However, the pair learned the hard way that star power can only get you so far, no matter who, where, or what you are.
Speaking to Spin in 1988, Jennings recounted a time when the country musicians were stranded on the side of a hot Texas highway close to Dripping Springs. Nelson had picked up Jennings and his wife and fellow country star, Jessi Colter, from the airport in an impressive Mercedes that, not so impressively, ran out of gas on the way back.
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“That’s just no problem,” Jennings recalled. “I mean, we’re in Texas. Everybody knows us in Texas.”
Their Starpower Wasn’t As Effective as Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson Hoped
Waylon Jennings continued, “We spent an hour out there, and the people would drive by and wave at us, you know. But nobody would stop. I couldn’t figure that out.”
The “Waymore’s Blues” singer said a Lone Star beer truck eventually came upon the scene. Nelson sponsored that beer, so it seemed like a bubbly beacon in the dry landscape. The driver did slow down for a second, but only long enough to ask the two men what they were doing on the side of the road before driving back off.
Jennings became so desperate that he half-joked that he ought to sit inside the car with Nelson and have Jessi Colter stand on the side of the highway instead. At least they’d stop, he mused.
“We might still be there if Connie, Willie’s wife, hadn’t happened to come by,” Jennings said. “I ain’t kiddin’. We was there over an hour, and nobody would stop. They like us, they like our singing. But they don’t want us riding in their cars with ‘em, now. They ain’t gonna give no hillbillies lookin’ like me and him a ride.”
There Was No Ill Will Harbored for the Citizens of Texas, Though
Elsewhere in his 1988 interview, Waylon Jennings made it clear that he held no ill will toward the Texans who drove past him and Willie Nelson on that hot, hot day. “Once you’re born and raised in Texas, it’s just like the song, they’ll never take it out of you. I gripe about Texas and West Texas sandstorms because I don’t want to hear no s*** from nobody else about Texas.”
Even if that means standing on the side of the highway a little longer.
Photo by Karen Wiles/Newsday RM via Getty Images
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