page_title: Waylon Jennings
section_title: Illness and death
hierarchical_section_title: Waylon Jennings / Personal life / Illness and death
caption_attribution_description: English: Grave site of Waylon Jennings (1937-2002). Jennings was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Jennings gave up his seat on the ill-fated flight that crashed and killed Holly, J. P. Richardson, Ritchie Valens, and pilot Roger Peterson. In 2001, he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
context_page_description: Waylon Arnold Jennings was an American singer, songwriter, and musician. He is best known as one of the founding pioneers of the Outlaw Movement.
  Jennings first played guitar at age eight and first performed at age twelve on KVOW radio, after which he formed his first band, The Texas Longhorns. Jennings left high school at age sixteen, determined to become a musician, and bounced around as a performer and DJ on KVOW, KDAV, KYTI, KLLL, in Coolidge, Arizona, and Phoenix.
  In 1958, Buddy Holly arranged Jennings's first recording session, and hired him to play bass. Jennings gave up his seat on the ill-fated flight in 1959 that crashed and killed Holly, J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson and Ritchie Valens.
  Jennings formed a rockabilly club band, The Waylors, which became the house band at "JD's", a club in Scottsdale, Arizona. He recorded for independent label Trend Records and A&M Records, but did not achieve success until moving to RCA Victor, taking on Neil Reshen as a manager, who negotiated significantly better touring and recording contracts for him.
context_section_description: Decades of excessive smoking, drinking and drug use took a large toll on Jennings's health. In 1988, four years after quitting cocaine, he finally ended his six-pack-a-day smoking habit. That same year, he underwent heart bypass surgery. By 2000 his diabetes worsened, and the pain so reduced his mobility so that he was forced to end most touring. That same year, he underwent surgery to improve his left leg's blood circulation. In December 2001, his entire left foot was amputated at a hospital in Phoenix. On February 13, 2002, Waylon Jennings died in his sleep of diabetic complications at the age of 64, at his home in Chandler, Arizona. He was buried in the City of Mesa Cemetery, in Mesa. At his memorial service on February 15 Jessi Colter sang "Storms Never Last".
caption: Grave of Waylon Jennings
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