All language subtitles for 107 Waylon Jennings part 2

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Welcome back to the story

of country music's most famous outlaw,

Waylon Jennings,

the man in the black hat.

He was an enigma.

He counted among his closest friends.

Willie Nelson, the Hell's Angels,

Muhammad Ali, and Caroll Spinney,

that guy who played Big Bird.

He loved kids and old folks...

and cocaine. Lot's of cocaine.

Subtitle sync and corrections by
awaqeded for www.addic7ed.com.

When I first met Waylon,

he was kind of in a transition.

He was, like, a good-looking guy,

like Gary Cooper or somebody,

wearing them, uh,
camel coats and things.

Pretty sharp, but the wild
side of him come out.

Billy Joe Shaver's career

will forever be linked
with Waylon Jennings.

The singer-songwriter
started running with Waylon

at the turning point of his life,

when he became an outlaw
in their home state of Texas.

Waylon had an old school bus
that he had painted black,

all the windows and everything,
with a paintbrush.

And he kept dynamite back there
in the back, just in case.

I recall this one place that we went.

It was like a barn. It was
kind of out in the field.

Waylon was playing it,

and they were hanging
from the rafters.

I'm telling you, it was just...
it was packed.

And it come time to get paid,
and so we waited and waited,

and Waylon's having a fit.

Then all of a
sudden, everybody started leaving

'cause they knew trouble was brewing.

And everybody left.
Wasn't nobody in the place.

It was just empty.

And Waylon said, "You know,
we've waited long enough."

so we get back in the bus,

and we split and went right
across the field...

Bump, bump, bump,
that old bus.

When we finally got to the pavement,

all of a sudden, the whole ass
end of that club blew up.

I don't know how he'd made sure
everybody was out or what.

If there was a possum in there,
I imagine he went flying.

I said, "Waylon, did you see that?"

And Waylon said, "I ain't seen a thing.
I ain't seen nothing."

That was about the time

that he stopped doing pills

and everything like that,

and it was a different energy.

Drummer Richie Albright had
been with Waylon from the beginning,

of the music and the drugs.

They started playing together
in Phoenix in 1961.

The pills started in Arizona.

On the road, you know,
it's almost a necessity,

but Waylon got so sick on pills,

and I could see where it was
really hurting his health,

so I introduced him to coke.

Mm, and the demon took over.

It was 1973,

right around the time Waylon
got fed up with Nashville

and donned the black hat.

Waylon made us all wear black...

Wear all black clothes,

and we came on the stage

looking like a Texas car club.

Billy Ray Reynolds was
a heavy equipment operator

from Mississippi who
moonlighted on rhythm guitar

and joined the band
after sitting in one night.

We were playing one of Willie
Nelson's festivals down in Texas.

It was Dripping Springs, and then
they called it something else.

And Billy Joe was there,
and Waylon heard this song

that Billy Joe did called
"Willie the Wandering Gypsy."

Waylon, he says, "I'll do a whole
album of them cowboy songs"

if you'll bring 'em
up there to Nashville."

And at that time,
he was kinda like me,

pretty much cowboy, you know.

He was a real sincere,
real honest guy.

And I went back to Nashville,

because he told me
he was gonna do the album.

But he didn't... He never showed up.

Billy Joe was a little impatient,

and he wanted to know when the
hell they was gonna cut his songs.

Shaver finally tracked
him down at RCA Studios,

with the help of Captain Midnight,

the radio DJ who had
become Waylon's confidant.

Roger Schutt was his real name,

Captain Midnight, his radio name.

And I went into the studio
where he was recording

'cause Captain Midnight
got me in there.

And I guess somehow or another,

Waylon got wind that I was there.

So Waylon said, "They're good songs,

but this guy's driving me crazy."

Waylon comes out. He said, "What
the hell do you want, Hoss?"

I said, "Look, Waylon, if you don't
at least listen to these songs,"

"I'm gonna whip your ass right here
in front of God and everybody.

And I will do it."

And I didn't know if he was gonna
take a punch at me or what.

He grabbed me by the arm,
which I let him do.

He says, uh, "Let's go
in this room here."

We went in the room, and he said,
"I'm gonna do something with you."

He said, "I've never Ne this before,

"but I'm gonna let you play
one of your songs

"out of that batch you claim you got.

"If I like it,
I'll let you play another.

"If I like that,
I'll let you play another,

"but if I get to a point
where I don't like 'em...

you're gonna leave, and I ain't
never gonna see you again."

I said, "Hell, that's fair en."

I did about six of them cowboy songs.

When I got to "Honky Tonk Heroes,"

he actually slapped his leg,
and he said, "Damn it."

He said, I know what I gotta do."

It's fair to say
that Honky Tonk Heroes

changed the game in Nashville.

It marks the moment that the
artists started to take control.

When we first started
working with him,

that was like right after.

Honky Tonk Heroes came out.

He was bigger than life.

Barney and Carter Robertson
started touring with Waylon

after working with his wife,
Jessi Colter,

a country music star in her own right.

Barney on keys,
Carter singing harmonies.

Jessi just had "I'm Not Lisa,"
which is a gigantic hit.

Barney and I were
fortunate enough to be together

and be in the band, and then started
working with Waylon as well.

We're a package deal.

When Waylon first
hired you, he would say,

"If you can understand Jessi

"and you can explain her to me,

you've got job security."

He would be so ornery to her sometimes.
Oh my gosh.

And she'd just smile
and, "You know, Waylon."

Poetic license.

Oh. You'll need a lot

Waylon actually produced
his wife's second album

in the studio that
would become his home.

They called it Hillbilly Central.

- It was just an old house.
- Right.

You know, a big old house.

Uh, it's still there.

Producer Ron Haffkine

and sound engineer Kyle Lehning

spent a lot of time with Waylon
at Hillbilly Central

during the heyday of the
outlaw country music scene.

You could discuss
anything with Waylon.

I mean, whether it was philosophy,

whether it was music,

whether it was politics.

Shel Silverstein said
to me, one day, he said,

"You know, Waylon is not
necessarily formally educated,

but he's got a very
sophisticated mind."

And at the same time,
he was a real country dude.

Came up poor, you know,
but he was self-taught.

He did a lot of reading as I remember.

I don't know. You don't know.

- I didn't see a lot of books around.
- Used to know.

- No, I saw some knives and some guns...
- Some guns, yeah.

But I didn't see a lot of books.

There were guns, knives,

- booze, cocaine, pot.
- Cocaine, right.

It was a really nice combination

of disasters waiting to converge.

The studio was owned by
Waylon's closest friend at the time,

a guy named Tompall Glaser,
one of the Glaser brothers.

Tompall, Chuck, and Jim Glaser,

they won the Arthur Godfrey
Talent contest back in the '50s.

They were farm boys from Nebraska.

Tompall was probably

the unsung hero,

because he was the one guy
who was a success.

He'd had a very successful
publishing house and a studio.

And he was a big shot on Music Row,

and he burned every bridge
he had to join the outlaws.

Mike Singer-songwriter Kinky Friedman

also rode the outlaw wave,
recording at Hillbilly Central.

Tompall opened up his studio to Waylon

and any crazy guy that
was spouting music lyrics

that had different ideas.

And the sessions
rolled all night long,

and they weren't done like the other
studios operated on Music Row.

Waylon's office was downstairs,

and two, three o'clock in the morning

and that place would be rocking.

I mean, Waylon would be up and
playing their own records.

You could hear it five miles away.

There was a back room that he had,

and he claim that Hank Williams had
hung out there and slept there.

Waylon says, "Come on, Billy,
I want to show you something."

And he takes these boards
and moves 'em around,

and there's this dynamite.

He took his finger,
went down it, and went...

Pow!

Just like that. I mean, just
like in a movie you'd see.

That nitro, it'll do it,
man. It'll pop.

Scared the hell out of me.

Captain Midnight
also lived on the premises

from time to time.

Captain Midnight was living,
sort of, in Waylon's closet.

He had a little office
that he... with a hot plate.

Yeah! Midnight could
walk into the control room

and sort of assess
whatever the situation was,

and say whatever the three-word
sentence would require

to set the whole thing off
in some sort of explosion.

And I saw him get
run out of there often,

you know, with fairly violent threats.

Once, he was throwing knives.

Waylon walked somewhere close by.

I think he missed Waylon
by about a foot.

Midnight would
spend hours out there,

just throwing the knives, you know,
and sticking 'em in the door.

He got pretty good at it.

It was not like being in New York.

The first album I made with
Waylon took a week to record.

The second album I recorded
with Waylon took two weeks.

I just, you know, hit "record" and
tried to stay out of the way.

The biggest record ever
made during this movement

featured Waylon, Willie Nelson,

Jessi, and Tompall.

Wanted! The Outlaws.

Mike Wanted became the
first country music record

out of Nashville
to be certified platinum

for a million units sold.

The Outlaws record, like most
things that become successful,

there's a blessing and a curse.

Waylon was adopted
by the Hell's Angels.

We'd show up
at a festival somewhere...

And Waylon would be like,

"Oh God, here they are again."

They command so much respect

that nothing ever happened,

because if you've got two six-shooters

and carrying a sawed-off shotgun,

you're probably not
gonna be messed with.

Roger "Crank" Payne
and Jerry "Jigger" Bridges

were in the band and under the
protection of the Hell's Angels,

as was Waylon's family,
his wife Jessi,

and his youngest son, Shooter.

I was being literally babysat
by Hell's Angels,

and they were very nice.

The one guy, Hot Foot,

I remember him going
to a putt-putt course

with me when I was a little kid.

And we got this guy named Boomer.

He was one of the original
Filthy Few from New York,

the quietest person you ever seen.

I remember from a very little age,

I was like, "That dude is cool."

He had a cane with a skeleton on it.

There was a skull,
gold skull on top of it,

and his teeth were solid gold.

After he had 'em a while,
he said, "They don't..."

"They
don't make that kind of stuff

- "to hold up very good, changing
the way I talk." -

- Kind of heavy.
- 'Cause just in there,

and it was falling down on him.

He gave me a PEZ dispenser
with a skull on the end of it,

'cause he knew how much
I loved Th cane of his.

He was always buying you
stuff, bringing you gifts...

Rifles and handguns, you know.

I didn't ask. I just took 'em all.

Surrounded by Hell's
Angels on the road,

labeled an outlaw by record
executives in Nashville,

Waylon continued to surprise
country fans with his music.

I'll never forget it.
We were in Lakeland, Florida,

and everybody was excited
about this one song.

And so we got about
three-quarters through the set,

The crowd goes, "Yeah!" "You guys
wanna hear a new song?"

So he says, "All right, here we go."

The second time
we sang the chorus,

you could hear
the crowd singing along.

It was the damnedest thing
I'd ever heard.

And they're singing it loud.

Waylon just stopped playing.

He turned to us, and we're all...

I'll never forget the chills.
Remember that?

- Mmm.
- And right then, after that show,

- he said, "Boys, strap it on."
- It was a big record.

"This thing's fixing to go big."

It was April, 1977,

and "Luckenbach, Texas"
went straight to number one

and stayed there until the summer.

We were somewhere in the Midwest,

had a few days off
in the middle of the tour,

and just hanging out

in the Holiday Inn or whatever.

And, uh, Waylon comes to us and said,

"Hey, you guys want to go
to New York?" So, "Sure."

Six of us get in the Learjet
and go to New York City.

He wore this long leather trench coat,

'cause I think it was wintertime,

and in his inside pocket,
he had a check

with his name on it
for a million dollars.

And he would
take that silly thing out

and show it to people.
"Look, that's me.

I got a million dollars."

Four months later,

after the biggest hit of his career,

came the shock of his life.

Waylon was expecting
a package from New York,

and, uh, it didn't come in. And
he finally said something to me.

I said, "Well, how long has it been?"

He said, "Ah, about three days."

And I said, "That ain't good."

Neil Reshen,
Waylon's longtime manager,

he was getting paranoid Waylon was
buying too much cocaine on the road,

and here and there,
and so he found a way...

What he thought was a way... to get it
to him without a whole lot of trouble.

So they flew it in in a package.

It was a kilo of cocaine.

Neil had his under Mark,

he sent the package.

Finally, the
secretary, Lori Evans,

picked it up and brought
it to the studio.

Waylon was overdubbing, you know,

one of the songs off
I've Always Been Crazy,

and all of the sudden, "Boom, boom,
boom, boom."

And in come four, five guys.

The had their "FBI," "DEA" on 'em.
Going, "Oh shit."

They said, "We followed
a package here."

We want to find that package."

When I looked up, there was
communication button on the desk,

so I just laid my hand on it.

Richie said,
"Ain't no package here."

So what's happening
with this talk-back,

is Waylon's hearing
everything Richie says.

So Waylon knows,
"Ah crap, we're being busted."

And, uh, I said, "Well, okay,
you got a search warrant?"

Said, "No, but we can get one."

I said, "Okay, but while you're
getting that search warrant,"

"we're gonna keep working here,

because it's costing us $250 an hour."

Richie goes and tells the guys, says,
"Look, it's very important record."

"Let me finish this vocal.
Take me about 30 minutes.

Let me finish this vocal, and you guys
can look and do whatever you want."

And I told the agents,
"You all just be quiet."

"Waylon, let's
try it from the top."

So he gets about 16 bars into it,

he said, "Waylon, I need to
change that microphone."

Hang on right there. I'm gonna
come and change that microphone".

And I'm going, "Holy crap.
That was so cool, Richie."

So we go out there,
moving the microphone.

I found the package,

put it in my pants, came back out.

During that time, George Laibe,

who did our booking, came walking in.

He was about half drunk,
and he started hollering,

what the hell is going on?"

And Waylon started hollering at him.

Pretty soon, every agent's
all looking right at them.

And that's when I turned
and went in the bathroom.

When they heard that thing flush,

it was over.

Waylon started talking to the DEA,

laying his best snow job on 'em.

You could tell they were all a
little bit enthused and admired him.

After they got busted
and it all went down,

they flew out
in the Learjet the next day,

and I met them at the airport with
the limousines and everything.

I was the road manager.

And Waylon and Richie and
Jessi, they jump into the car,

and they go, "Hey, Bourke,
how's it going?" You know.

I go, "It's going great.
How are you guys doing?"

And, you know, it had been
on the newspapers, television.

It was a big deal. And he says,
"Bourke, I just wrote a song."

And of course, that
song went to number one

and made him
a million dollars, you know.

He was charged with conspiracy

and possession
with intent to distribute.

Those charges were dropped
before it ever went to trial.

They had no evidence, basically.

The bust didn't
phase Hoss that much.

A year or two later,
he got an invitation

from Hollywood, too good to pass up.

To this day,

the only reason I watch
Dukes of Hazard

is to listen to Dad
do the balladeer part

you know, like "Well, the boys

aren't gonna get away
with it this time."

You can tell by how hoarse
his voice is

how many days he's been awake.

By then his oldest son,
Terry, was on the road with him.

I remember that some article
in a paper had come out

and said that Dad smoked
five packs of cigarettes a day.

"Well, some accountant come up
and says, "I did the math.

It is physically impossible to smoke
five packs of cigarettes a day."

And we looked at him and said, "Well,
not if you stay up for 24 hours."

He'd go five days
without going to bed.

And you could tell... his hair would
be all greased up, you know.

You could tell he hadn't
been taking a bath.

Waylon developed
this fondness for Musk.

There was Musk cologne.

There was Musk underarm deodorant.

Waylon loved the shit, right?

I mean, you could smell it
coming a mile away.

Well, I went down
to his office one morning...

You know, 2:00, 3:00 in the morning...

And Waylon was there, and he had probably
been up for two, three, four days.

And we started talking
about something or other,

and all of the sudden, he takes out

this Musk underarm deodorant thing,

and he starts putting it on,
except it was over his shirt.

"And I said," Waylon,
I mean, do you know that

you're putting that underarm
stuff on over your shirt?"

He said, "Hoss...

that's my business."

After that bust, the
paranoia level went way up.

Every time we'd go into a hotel room,

I was unscrewing the phone,
I was checking under the bed.

And, you know, always looking
over your shoulder. You know?

Neil Reshen, the manager,
came on the road

one time with Waylon, and he said,

"Man, I just got a new pacemaker."

I said, "Really?" And he said, "Yeah."

He said, "You know, check it out."

And I said, "What do
you mean?" He said,

"Just put your head
down there and listen."

So when I did,
then he got the coke out

and did a big bump, and when he did...

... you know?

Waylon thought that was
the coolest thing ever.

Believe it or
not, there can come a time

when there's so many drugs around
that you don't want to do 'em.

I mean, you gotta
really try hard to keep

on doing 'em, 'cause the fun is gone.

In 1984, the greatest
outlaw of the movement,

the man who broke free from Nashville

in a rage of pills and cocaine,

decided to clean up
his act... the hard way.

I was with him when he went
to Phoenix to sober up.

There was no doctors or hospitals
or anything like that.

He did it himself, cold turkey.

He said, "This isn't
gonna work anymore."

"We're stopping right now.

"Tell everybody in the organization

that if you're wired, you're fired."

Waylon said,
"You should've heard Jessi"

"the day I gave her
about a half a pound."

"And I said, 'Jessi, I'm done."

"'Take this and do with it
whatever you want.'"

He said, "You should've heard her."

He said, "I heard her
in there in the bathroom

"as she's pouring it down,

"saying, 'Praise Jesus!
Praise you, Jesus, '

while she's pouring it
down the commode."

He was a blessed man.
I will tell you that.

- He was a blessed man...
- That's for sure.

Because he had a woman
who loved him forever.

Her life revolved around Waylon.

She had an enormous record
called "I'm Not Lisa."

And I got a call
from the head of the label,

and he asked me to talk to Waylon

to try to convince Jessi
to continue on with her career.

"So I went to Waylon,
and I said, "Waylon,

"the label as asked me to talk to you.

"They would like to continue on

with Jessi's career," and so on.

And Waylon just looked at me, he
said, "Hoss, ain't your business."

And I called the label, and I said,
"It ain't gonna happen, man."

"That woman loves him
more than anything,

and however that life is going
is the way it's gonna stay."

And it stayed that
way until the very end.

He actually loved me, man.
He said, "Billy, you know",

it ain't fair, you not having a hand."

He said, "Let me buy you a hand."

And I said, "No, oh shit.
It probably wouldn't work."

There was song called "Oklahoma Wind"
that he did with me and Kris and Willie.

I had written about the Oklahoma
kid laid dying in a women's wing."

And he thought it was something else.

And what it was, was an old folks
home and it was a women's wing.

The Indian was down there dying.

He took it wrong. He thought it
was some kind of spiritual deal.

And when I explained it
to him, he said,

"Damn, I wish I hadn't
asked you."

He was loving it until then.

I don't know. He was kind of funny
about it. Funny as I am, really.

Every bit of it.

I loved Waylon though, I really did.

A lot of people don't think
I did, but I did.

He was blessed,
because he chose people

to be in his life that loved him
and who will always love him.

And dadgum it, he left too soon.

You know, he was a good ol' boy.

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