Fans loved this break with the clean-cut Nashville tradition, and Jennings became one of country music's biggest stars. Jennings lost some career steam to cocaine addiction by the 1980s, and the hits dried up in the 1990s as radio stations switched to younger artists. He has railed against the Country Music Association for the practice of block voting, which allowed the record companies heavy influence over who won at the prestigious CMA Awards. And it takes almost nothing to get him going about Garth Brooks, an artist who is one of the few country stars today to achieve the kind of artistic freedom Jennings pioneered. Jennings thinks Brooks is overrated and due for a fall.
Nothing lasts forever.
Photo by The Associated Press Waylon Jennings struggles with a multitude of health problems, but the fire that made him a country music outlaw 30 years ago still burns as intensely as ever. All rights reserved.