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Waylon Jennings Had A Wild Reaction To Meeting Prince In The ’80s: “In His Pantyhose & That Little Ol’ Wormy Mustache”
Another classic.
It’s no secret that Waylon Jennings and the Country Music Association had a complicated history, to say the least, and he was known to walk out of any given gig if there was something about it he didn’t like.
From talk shows, to awards shows, to the recording of “We Are The World” in 1985, Waylon was not one stick around or suffer in silence if he didn’t want to, and he got his “outlaw” reputation honestly, even if he thought it was a dumb marketing ploy (one that made him a lot of money over the years, might I add).
But even though he thought all the pomp and circumstance of the music business was over the top and worthless, he did attend industry events occasionally, and he was nominated for awards outside of country music many times, including a run at the American Music Awards from 1980, 1981, 1982, and 1985. He was for various categories over the years, including Favorite Country Male Artist and Favorite Country Album, but in the least shocking news you’ll read all day, it sounds like Waylon didn’t exactly enjoy his time there.
In a video from a rare one man show he did in the ’80s supporting his A Man Called Hoss album, where he told stories about his life and of course played his iconic songs, he told a great one during his show at the Birchmere in Alexandria, Virginia many decades ago.
Waylon recalled attending the American Music Awards not long after he got off of drugs (it’s unclear exactly what year this happened in) and running into Cyndi Lauper (who he calls Lauffer), and wishing he hadn’t seen her see-through pantyhose.
But the best part was when he explained how he told Prince to “get away,” after the pop icon walked up to him and complemented his hat, while also wearing pantyhose and his signature “wormy mustache”:
“So I got off the drugs, and the first thing I did was got to LA. I went out to do the American Music Awards with all them there rock and roll stars. The first thing I walked in and I’m looking around, I’ve got my hat, my black vest and boots on and everything, here comes Cyndi Lauper in her see-through pantyhose.
At first you look, then you wish you hadn’t, you know what I mean? Poor little ol’ thing… then here comes Prince in his pantyhose and that little, ol’ wormy mustache. He got right about here and he said, ‘Hi there, I like your hat.’ And I said, get away there, kid.'”
Only Waylon…
He has to be the only person on the earth to shoo away PRINCE like that, as if he was just some random agitating fan… it’s especially wild considering this was at the height of Prince’s career and he was such a famous and well-respected musician.
Guess Waylon wasn’t a huge “Purple Rain” guy. I have to disagree with him there… Prince is a legend.
I can only imagine how incredible it must have been to attend one of these solo, much more intimate concerts Waylon did on this run, and I’m sure he told some amazing stories from his life that was full of legendary moments and from an unapologetic legend.
Check it out, it’s so much funnier to hear Waylon tell it all himself:
‘We Are The World’ Recording
“We Are The World” of course features vocals from over 45 of music’s biggest names, including Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson (who wrote the song), Cyndi Lauper, Bob Dylan, Smokey Robinson, Bruce Springsteen Diana Ross and Dionne Warwick, just to name a few. It also includes country music’s own Willie Nelson and Kenny Rogers.
Produced by Quincy Jones, the producers pulled off an incredible feat getting all of those artists in the studio together at one time (largely thanks to Richie and Jackson), which they recorded directly after the American Music Awards (I’m not sure if it was the same year Waylon’s story was in, but it was around that time), in order to get more of them to agree to do it, since they’d already be in L.A. Lionel Richie essentially narrates the doc, and he admits that one of his biggest jobs that night was making sure they stay on track and record the song they originally wrote. He (rightfully) explains:
“One line you can never use in life: ‘I’m not sure about this, what do you think?'”
He was afraid that if everyone got input, they’d end up with 47 different versions of the song and not even finish it because everyone would have a different suggestion or idea and time was certainly of the essence. Apparently, at one point, Stevie Wonder suggested that they use Swahili somewhere in the song, and some of the artists start singing and working on a line.
Waylon Walks Out
According to the Independent, Waylon and a few others were against doing that (who thought it would come across as though they were mocking the language), with Ray Charles finally sounding off:
“Willi what! Willi moing-gu, my a**! It’s three o’clock in the god**** mornin’ – I can’t even sing in English no more.”
Waylon might have been one of the more vocal artists in the conversation, but he wasn’t alone. A number of them also voiced their disagreement with the Swahili line because they were so short on time and knew it would probably end in disaster in terms of everyone’s pronunciation.
Time went on, Waylon clearly grew annoyed, and a photographer close to Waylon heard him say:
“Well, ain’t no good ole boy ever sung Swahili, I think I’m out of here.”
Lionel Richie adds from his viewpoint:
“Waylon walks out of the door. [He was like] ‘I’m not dealing with this. I don’t know what that means, but I am not gonna say it.’ And we lost Waylon right there.”
They even included the vintage shot of him walking out, which I’d never seen before and was a pretty low-key, but brisk, exit.
After Waylon left, they all came to the conclusion that because of the wide variety of languages in Africa, it might’ve made sense to avoid the whole idea altogether. Eventually, after a heated debate, the group agreed upon singing a line in English that read “One world, Our children”. In addition, it was discussed that they didn’t need to talk to the people who were starving, as the song is for everyone else to bring attention to the cause and get people to donate.
Ray Charles was clearly ready to move on, telling his producer:
“Ring the bell, Quincy. Ring the bell.”
If anything, this documentary clears up the fact that Waylon was featured on some of the choruses, which is why his name is featured on the final credits. He didn’t get a solo line, and it’s unclear if he was supposed to have one before he walked out, as Willie and Kenny both had solos.
In fact, Lionel notes at the beginning of the film what a big deal it was to get Kenny Rogers on the single, and you see quite a few shots of those two cutting up and laughing in the studio, which was really fun to see. You also get to see a part of Willie recording his solo alongside Dionne Warwick, which was cool.
There were several more disagreements and bumps in the road (I guess that “Check your ego at the door sign” Quincy Jones hung up only did so much), and the group finished the final version at 8AM.
“We Are The World” went on to become one of the biggest hit singles of all time, selling more than 20 million copies and raising more than $63 million (equivalent to $168 million today) for famine relief in Africa. The lasting inspiration of it remains, and the track was redone in 2010 with more modern artists after Haiti was hit with a devastating magnitude seven earthquake, and was also a big success, peaking at #2 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.
In His Own Words
But I recently stumbled upon a vintage interview with Waylon from 1998 with Bill DeYoung, where Waylon gets into why he walked out of so many obligations, specifically the “We Are The World” recording, which is as simple and honest of an explanation as you would expect:
“I got tired of everybody pattin’ everybody on the back. And here they come in with all these ideas, wantin’ to sing part of it in Swahili. I just got tired of all the bull****, and I’m allergic to bull**** so I left.
It was the same thing with Tom Snyder. I shouldn’t have been on the Tom Snyder show anyway, because we have nothing whatsoever in common.”
I mean, it’s hard to argue with that… Waylon did whatever Waylon wanted, and I think the way he went about his career that way is a large part of the reason he remains such a well-respected, beloved figure to this day. Well that, and of course, in addition to all of the incredible music. Plus, I can only imagine all of the drama, and many, many different personalities, trying to get something like this done with the time constraints they had too.
I’d have probably walked out too, but man, do I wish we could’ve heard Waylon’s voice on the song alongside Willie and Kenny.
You can check out the trailer for The Greatest Night in Pop below, and I highly recommend doing so if you’re a music fan of any kind. The documentary is now streaming on Netflix and it’s well-worth a watch:
The post Waylon Jennings Had A Wild Reaction To Meeting Prince In The ’80s: “In His Pantyhose & That Little Ol’ Wormy Mustache” first appeared on Whiskey Riff.
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