Tommy Jennings (8 August 1938 – 26 September 2018) was a songwriter, publisher, record producer and country music artist, but is perhaps best known as the younger brother of Waylon and bass player for The Waylors.
Born near Abilene, Texas most of his youth was spent in Littlefield a small town on the high plains of West Texas where with his older brother Waylon listened to old cowboy and country songs that their dad sang. The boys learned to sing together and started entering talent contests around their hometown.
Tommy served two years in the military and when he finished his service he moved to Phoenix to join his brothers group as bass player with the Waylors. This was the early development of what became known as the outlaw sound. Nashville, Tennessee was next as Waylon signed with RCA and Tommy managed Waylon for a time and they adapted ‘Delia’s Gone’ together. Waylon also recorded Tommy’s ‘Life Goes On’. Over the years, Waylon and Tommy worked in partnership in the music business.
Hardly prolific in the studio, Jennings has recorded spasmodically and as far as I can tell three albums ; “Then There Was One” (1980), “Equal Opportunity Lovin' Man” (1982) & “Hey Waylon . Eagles last Flight” sounding reasonably like his brother, but US country chart placings of his singles tell the story - ‘Make It Easy On Yourself’ (number 96, 1975), ‘Don’t You Think It’s Time’ (number 71, 1978) and with Rex Gosdin, ‘Just Give Me What You Think Is Fair’ (number 51, 1980).
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| Tommy & Waylon |
Shooter Jennings, Waylon’s son with fellow outlaw legend Jessi Colter, confirmed the sad news of Tommy’s passing on Twitter and Instagram on the 26th September 2018 age 80 years.(Surprisingly, this is the only obituary I can find on the internet and need confirmation of the date as some Facebook entries give 1 May 2019).
(Edited from mainly AllMusic and numerous snippets of information)