Lamb Co. TX - Waylon Arnold Jennings, born in Littlefied 6-15-1937

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   Littlefield native dies at age 64
   LUBBOCK  -  Waylon  Jennings, a Littlefield native considered in music
   circles  a  West  Texas  native  son,  died  Wednesday  at his home in
   Arizona. He was 64.
   
   He  long  had  battled  diabetes  and had a foot amputated in December
   2001.  Even  then,  Jennings  announced  he  was  being  fitted with a
   prosthesis  and  planned  to  be  back on stage, singing his songs, by
   springtime.
   
   Many  in  the  industry  believed  him.  He'd always played by his own
   rules.
   
   Instead,  almost  four  months  after he was inducted into the Country
   Music  Association's Hall of Fame, Jennings left friends and fans with
   only memories and music.
   
   Jennings  put together his first band at age 12 in Littlefield. By age
   14,  he  was  working  as a deejay at KLLL-Radio in Lubbock - although
   Scott  Harris,  current  manager of KLLL, said, "Waylon confided in me
   during  an  interview  once  that  he  got fired here for always being
   late."
   
   Larry Holley, the late Buddy Holly's brother, said Wednesday, "I guess
   what  I  remember  most is when Buddy got desperate for some players -
   this was after Joe B. (Mauldin) and J.I. (Allison) conked out and went
   with  Norman  Petty  -  he  went  over  to KLLL and gave Waylon a bass
   guitar.  Waylon didn't even know how to play it. Then Buddy and Waylon
   and Tommy Alsup went on that last tour."
   
   That  was  the  Winter  Dance Party tour that found Holly dying in the
   crash of a private plane Feb. 3, 1959.
   
   Jennings  told  The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal in 1979, "The real story
   is  this:  We  (Holly, Jennings and Alsup) were going to fly out. J.P.
   Richardson  (The Big Bopper) came over to me and asked for my seat. He
   weighed  almost  300  pounds  and had the flu and said he couldn't get
   enough  rest  on  the  bus. I said it was OK with me if it was OK with
   Buddy.
   
   "That was it. Then Ritchie Valens asked Tommy if he could go with J.P.
   and Tommy said OK."
   
   Jennings didn't learn about his good friend's death until the next day
   but continued to sing Holly's praises throughout his life.
   
   "Buddy was the first guy to have confidence in me," he said.
   
   Still, Jennings had his own style. Contacted Wednesday at his Dickson,
   Tenn.,  home,  outside Nashville, singer-songwriter Sonny Curtis said,
   "Back  in the late '70s, I'd listen to Waylon and I'd tell him that he
   had  a  really  good rock 'n' roll band. He just put a steel guitar in
   there to make it country."
   
   Jennings moved to Nashville in 1965. His bass-driven sound, long black
   hair  and all-black attire helped him earn a different reputation. His
   attitude also played a role.
   
   He  didn't feel that performers should compete against one another and
   habitually  refused  to  attend awards shows. Despite that, he won two
   Grammy Awards and four Country Music Association awards.
   
   He  declined  requests  to  sing  on  the  Grand Ole Opry for a decade
   because  full  drum  kits  were  forbidden. At one point, said Lubbock
   music producer Don Caldwell, Jennings went so far as to say, "The last
   one in Nashville, turn out the lights."
   
   But  Jennings said in 1979, "I am no outlaw. That's just something the
   record  companies  dreamed  up  for  publicity  purposes.  I'm  Waylon
   Jennings.  I'll  play  whatever  I like, whatever fits. I played blues
   songs  when I was feeling unhappy, and I also sang 'MacArthur Park.' I
   don't  write  all  my  own  songs.  I  like  to interpret songs. I'm a
   songwriter's fan."
   
   This   story   printed   from   the   Amarillo  Globe-News  Online  at
   amarillonet.com:
   http://www.amarillonet.com/stories/021402/tex_nativedies.shtml