Waylon Jennings

In the early '70s, Waylon did something that shook country to its core: He negotiated a deal giving himself complete creative control of his music. Extending a stiff middle finger to Nashville's established mafia of producers, studio musicians, and song-peddlers, he made music his way and was labeled an "outlaw" for doing it. This is your introduction to country music played with raw rock 'n' roll swagger by a legend who played by his own rules.

Even if Waylon himself bucked the Nashville establishment, country radio was still as conservative as ever, meaning that Waylon's biggest hits were just a small part of the legend. His fans knew better and kept his albums on top of the charts, digging into the songs that country radio didn't know what to do with.

The deeper you dig into Waylon's album cuts, the more you understand just how menacing he must have seemed to the rhinestone cowboys he cut down night after night. His voice growling low over bass-heavy rhythms and his unique chicken-plucking guitar work combined to make any song his own.

Waylon wasn't some slick crooner, playing cowboy on the Opry stage. He was a Nashville rebel who demanded an unprecedented level of creative control over his music. On his own, he created a brand of bold, hard-driving country that earned him the "outlaw" label he wore as a badge of honor. These songs are a testament to the honesty of country, the rebellion of rock, and the guts of the man who refused to choose sides.