I was familiar with Waylon Jennings as far back as his 1966 album “Leavin’ Town,” which showed him totally clean-shaven with well-groomed shorter hair, when his hit songs consisted of “Time To Bum Again” and “Anita, You’re Dreaming.”

Cover of "I've Always Been Crazy"
Cover of I've Always Been Crazy

That was well before Waylon became one of the bigger-known members of country music’s “outlaw” movement of the 1970s, and he let his hair grow out on top of his head and on his face, well before he became known as the guy playing that familiar guitar and acting as the narrator on the hit TV series “The Dukes of Hazzard.”

It was after he served time working as a disc jockey, working closely with rock-n-roll legend Buddy Holly to launch his own music career, and giving up his seat on a plane to The Big Bopper in the famous crash that took the lives of the Bopper, Holly, and Ritchie Valens.

Yeah, you could say I grew up with the music of Waylon Jennings, and if it wasn’t being played on the radio or from one of my mother’s or an uncle’s albums it was on the television, or a cousin and I were cruising around to it in our hometown.

We fancied ourselves a bit as outlaws too.  And one of my longtime, lifetime “theme songs” comes from Waylon as well — “I’ve Always Been Crazy (But It’s Kept Me From Goin’ Insane)” — there’s a little bit of me in that song to this very day.

Yep, I’m definitely a “Waylon man.”  Always have been, always will be.  He was one cool cat.

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