Why a Culture-Shocked Waylon Jennings Told Prince To “Get Away”

Waylon Jennings belonged to a very certain world. He was about barrooms and highways, not ballrooms and red carpets. He was not one to put up with any superfluous events or performances, and he rarely ever did, as he walked out on several major events on numerous different occasions.

Videos by American Songwriter

What we are trying to get is that Waylon Jennings was unapologetically himself, and whatever came to his mind, he was going to say it, even if it went against the perspective of what the rest of the room believed. All that being said, it’s not much of a surprise that Waylon brought this disposition with him to one of the music industry’s biggest nights—The American Music Awards.

Waylon Jennings’ Hat and Prince’s “Wormy Mustache”

Around the release of his 1987 album, A Man Called Hoss, Waylon Jennings performed a solo set at the Birchmere in Alexandria, Virginia. Since then, videos of the performance have resurfaced and shown Jennings performing songs such as “Rough And Rowdy Ways” and “You Deserve The Stars In My Crown.” In addition to performing, Jennings also busted out a bunch of old stories, including the time he ran into Prince at the American Music Awards.

Recalling the story, Jennings stated, “So I got off the drugs, and the first thing I did was got to LA. I went out to do the American Music Awards with all them there rock and roll stars. The first thing I walked in and I’m looking around, I’ve got my hat, my black vest and boots on and everything, here comes Cyndi Lauper in her see-through pantyhose.”

“At first you look, then you wish you hadn’t, you know what I mean? Poor little ol’ thing. Then here comes Prince in his pantyhose and that little, ol’ wormy mustache. He got right about here, and he said, ‘Hi there, I like your hat.’ And I said, get away there, kid,” concluded Waylon Jennings, via Johnny Cash Nation.

Again, this story isn’t all that surprising, because, if Jennings was in an absurd place (to him, that is), you better bet he was going to say something about it. After all, Waylon Jennings did something similar in a non-country-dominated space when he walked out of the “We Are The World” recording in 1985 when he refused to sing in Swahili.

At the end of the day, you can’t jam a round peg into a square hole.

Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images