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Waylon: An Autobiography | 
 enlarge | Author: Waylon Jennings
Creator: Lenny Kaye
Publisher: Warner Books, Inc.
Category: Book
List Price: $41.00
Buy Used: $12.54
You Save: $28.46 (69%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  19 reviews
Sales Rank: 73637
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 418
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.8
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.5
ISBN: 0446518654
Dewey Decimal Number: 782.421642092
EAN: 9780446518659
ASIN: 0446518654
Publication Date: September 1, 1996
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
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Condition: The book is in good condiion and the pages are clean. Ships within 2 business days. All items guaranteed.
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Product Description
Country music's Waylon Jennings shares this story of his life. He tells of his rise from poor beginnings to fame as Buddy Holly's protege, and his own near-destruction from drug abuse and financial ruin. He discusses his three failed marriages, and his joy at finding his soulmate, Jessi Colter.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 14 more reviews...
 Incredible! September 9, 2008
A great read! Written in the legend's own words. Worthy of a spot on your coffee table.
 +1/2 - The extraordinary life of an extraordinary artist August 11, 2008
Jennings is widely regarded as one of the all-time greats of country music, and his autobiography goes a long way to explaining how he got there. Most revealing is the incredible string of mentors who helped fashion Jennings' career, both as an artist and as a businessman, the generosity with which he gives credit to others, and the bidirectional fluidity between his private and artistic lives. Jennings writes openly about both the good and the bad in his life, and is unsparing of himself in describing his problematic early marriages and womanizing, extensive drug taking, and legendary beefs with those who stood in the way of his artistic visions.
The book begins slowly with the requisite description of Jennings' childhood, but picks up as he turns into a teenager. His early association with Buddy Holly is extraordinary, both for his service as protege to one of rock 'n' roll's early architects, and for the sophistication with which the 20-something Holly tutored his charge. Many of Jennings later run-ins with Nashville can be traced back to career advice he received from Holly. Jennings' descriptions of his early years as a performer in Tucson are vivid, as are his associations with Bobby Bare, Chet Atkins, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson and Jack Clement, each a seminal figure in Jennings' development. His move to Nashville offers up terrific details of great songwriters with whom Jennings crossed paths at the Boar's Nest, Harlan Howard's office and various bars, lounges and clubs. His portrait of Chet Atkins remains sympathetic, even as their relationship moved from hero worship to adversaries. Jennings convincingly explains that transition as a combination of and the individualist rock 'n' roll inspired ambitions first planted in him by Holly and the effects of Jennings' drug abuse.
Unlike the "Outlaw" press packages that suggest Jennings got fed up and broke free all at once, he describes a dissatisfaction with Nashville that grew in bits and pieces. Nashville's tight-knit, in-bred business world left artists starving on the road, while the insular major label promotion staffs in Los Angeles and New York ignored their country music counterparts. Worse yet for a road warrior (and early rock 'n' roller) like Jennings, the labels insisted he record with studio hands that had no grit and couldn't swing. After giving Nashville their shot at making him a star, he grew estranged by its limits and his lack of success, and after Atkins saddled him with less sympathetic producers, he launched a successful battle for artistic freedom.
Jennings describes how a canny New York lawyer (Neil Reshen) helped him break free of Nashville's constraints (both artistically and financially), and how a fraternity of like-minded musicians, including Tompall Glaser, Shel Silverstein, Kinky Friedman, Guy Clark and Jimmy Bowen developed an alternate way doing things at Glaser's Hillbilly Central studio. Jennings and his co-writer do a good job of pulling the early threads through the story, giving the reader a sense of why things happened, in addition to what happened. There are some terrifically insightful passages on touring, such as "the shows become stop-overs, the highway is where you spend most of your time. In transit. In transition." Jennings shows uncommon introspection about his career and his relationship to his audience and fans, and though his recitations on drug use get repetitious, they provide the set-up for his eventual recovery. A few writerly turns suggest the hand of Lenny Kaye, but most of this autobiography sounds like Jennings.
A few redundant passages would have benefited from tighter copy editing, but overall this is a compelling and informative read that will magnify any fan's appreciation of Jennings' work. 4/1-2 stars, if allowed fractional ratings. [2008 hyperbolium dot com]
How an outlaw beat the Nashville system and almost himself May 7, 2008
This is a pretty good account written by the man himself. It covers Waylons days on the farm growing up, his short time with Buddy Holly, his career long battle with pills/drugs on the way to becoming a country legend, and his life after he kicked the habit by staying out in the desert for a month. This book is written by Waylon so the way he talks/writes is a reflection of the way that he actually talked and rembered things so the account can get a little confusing when the down home country accent bleeds through, also somtimes the narrative can jump decades and back in the same paragraph. That was my only complaint with this book. It does give good insight on how Waylon and the rest of the outlaws changed how country music sounded and how Waylon had to fight to get a fair contract that he could live with. If your interested in his music or how that era helped shape today's country music give it a read.
m.a.c
An enjoyable read March 4, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
A good view of Waylon with the usual flaws inherent in any autobiography. I attended one of his performances, after he cleaned up by the way, and he was really bad with the audience. He chose to ignore us all and performed as though it was an empty house and he was bored to death. I was disapointed,of course, but I like his music. The book is a good inside look at Country music in the 60's and 70's and if for no other reason it's worth reading. His opinion of the CMA is great. (I heard a popular Country singer of that era call it the Country Money Association). Waylon was certainly responsible to some degree for the increasing popularity of Country music in those two decades. While he comes off as a bit too enthused about himself and his place in Country music at times, it must be remembered that he had a big influence on the music and will continue to have as time goes on. He is like Johnny Cash in that regard. Both had Rockabilly roots and it shows in their music. They both had their own style yet they weren't stylists as most of the over produced singers of this generation. Others will be famous for being who they are. Willie is a good example. Willie will always be famous for being Willie. Where as Waylon, like Cash, was an innovator and will be historically important as time goes on. A good book.
Lone Wolf... September 20, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Waylon Jennings gave up his seat to Richie Valens in that fateful plane crash that claimed the lives of Valens, Buddy Holly and the big Bopper. It would not be the last time he skirted death. A fact filled and story filled book that reads like a Waylon Jennings song filled with bravado, heart and longing. One of the original "outlaws" of country music Waylon was above all else his own man and along with Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, and Kris Kristofferson formed the legendary "Highwaymen". This temperamental artist tells of his many travails with his personal demons and the love of his life, Jessi Colter. Good stuff.
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