Waylon Arnold Jennings (born Wayland Arnold Jennings; June 15, 1937 – February 13, 2002) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician. He is best known as one of the founding pioneers of the Outlaw Movement in country music.
Jennings was born near Littlefield, Texas. When Jennings was eight, his mother taught him to play guitar with the tune "Thirty Pieces of Silver". Jennings used to practice with his relatives' instruments until his mother bought him a used Stella guitar, and later ordered a Harmony Patrician. Early influences included Bob Wills, Floyd Tillman, Ernest Tubb, Hank Williams, Carl Smith, and Elvis Presley.
Jennings first performed at age 12 on KVOW radio, after which he formed his first band, The Texas Longhorns. Jennings left high school at age 16, determined to become a musician and worked as a performer and DJ on KVOW, KDAV, KYTI, KLLL, in Coolidge, Arizona, and Phoenix
Whist at KLLL in Lubbock Jennings produced commercials and created jingles with the rest of the DJs. As their popularity increased, the DJs made public appearances. Jennings's events included live performances. During one performance, Holly's father, L.O. Holley, approached them with his son's latest record and asked them to play it at the station. L.O. mentioned his son's intention to start producing artists himself, and Corbin recommended Jennings. After returning from his tour of England Buddy Holly visited KLLL.
Holly took Jennings as his first artist. He outfitted him with new clothes, and worked with him to improve his image. He arranged a session for Jennings at Norman Petty's recording studios in Clovis, New Mexico. On September 10, Jennings recorded the songs "Jole Blon" and "When Sin Stops (Love Begins)" with Holly and Tommy Allsup on guitars and saxophonist King Curtis.
In the early 1960s, Jennings wrote and recorded "The Stage (Stars in Heaven)", a tribute to Valens, the Big Bopper and Holly, as well as Eddie Cochran, a young musician who died in a road accident a year after the plane crash.For decades afterward, Jennings repeatedly admitted that he felt responsible for the crash that killed Holly. This sense of guilt precipitated bouts of substance abuse through much of Jennings's career.
During the 1970s, Jennings became one of the main figures of outlaw country. With Willie Nelson, Tompall Glaser and Jessi Colter he recorded country music's first platinum album, Wanted! The Outlaws. It was followed by Ol' Waylon and the hit song "Luckenbach, Texas".
Jennings was featured in the 1978 album White Mansions, performed by various artists documenting the lives of people in the Confederacy during the Civil War. Jennings also appeared in films and television series, including Sesame Street, and a stint as the balladeer for The Dukes of Hazzard, composing and singing the show's theme song and providing narration for the show.
By the early 1980s, Jennings struggled with a cocaine addiction, which he overcame in 1984. Later, he joined the country supergroup The Highwaymen with Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, and Johnny Cash, which released three albums between 1985 and 1995. During that period, Jennings released the successful album Will the Wolf Survive.
Decades of excessive smoking and drug use took a large toll on Jennings's health in addition to being overweight and a poor diet which resulted in his developing Type II diabetes. In 1988, four years after quitting cocaine, he finally ended his six-pack-a-day smoking habit. That same year, he underwent heart bypass surgery. By 2000 his diabetes worsened, and the pain so reduced his mobility that he was forced to end most touring. That same year, he underwent surgery to improve his left leg's blood circulation. In October 2001, he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
By the end of December that year his left foot was amputated at a hospital in Phoenix. On February 13, 2002, Waylon Jennings died in his sleep from diabetic complications at the age of 64, at his home in Chandler, Arizona. He was buried in the City of Mesa Cemetery, in Mesa. .In 2007, he was posthumously awarded the Cliffie Stone Pioneer Award by the Academy of Country Music.
(Edited from Wikipedia)