The Outlaws
Outlaw country had more to do with creative freedom than surly attitudes or hard living. Jennings wanted to play on albums with his touring band, not fit Nashville’s mold by working with session musicians or string sections, while crafting his own look and sound.
Two 1973 albums (Lonesome, On’ry and Mean and Honky Tonk Heroes) fully reflected Jennings’ hard-nosed answer to slick, pop-influenced country music. Unprecedented chart success followed, as exemplified by 1975’s “Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way.”
Musical rebellion met commercial viability in 1976 when compilation album Wanted! The Outlaws became country music’s first platinum-selling LP. The seminal collection compiles songs by Jennings, his wife Jessi Colter, personal and professional confidant Willie Nelson and Tompall Glaser, whose Nashville recording studio Hillbilly Central became the creative incubator of the outlaw movement.
The names Waylon and Willie became synonymous during the peak of outlaw country, in part because of the decade-defining duets “Luckenbach, Texas” and “Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys.”