Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings never gave each other drugs? That’s pretty shocking to hear if you ask me. But hey, if Waylon insisted that it’s true, it must be. And we are hearing it straight from the source thanks to a YouTube channel called “Video Stock Archives,” which posts rare interviews from the 1980s and 1990s. One of the more recent interviews that they unearthed and posted was a sit down in 1995 with the late, great Waylon Jennings. And during the conversation, Jennings was an open book about his drug use when he was asked about it, which was oftentimes the case: “I was probably one of the wildest people you’ve ever met. I did drugs for 21 years. I came here doing drugs so I don’t blame the town or the music for that. I really got into it through stupidity. I really didn’t know what it was. I had friends who were doctors that liked to hear me sing. So they gave me things that made me need them to be friends with me.” You hate to hear that. Sadly, the act of doing anything and everything to stay in the life of a high-profile is an all-too-common practice. It was happening back then, and it’s still happening now. Not only do individuals like Waylon have to deal with that, there’s also the immense pressure that being in the spotlight brings to a celebrity’s life: “There are some pressures. I was kind of an introverted person in an extroverted business. Pills and stuff like that give you a false sense of security. You become very uninhibited when you’re high. I got by with it, and I had already been into it by the time I got to Nashville.” Jennings continued by saying that, at one point, he was motivated to take drugs to “keep up” with the exhausting touring schedule, like when he was booked up and out on the road for 300 days out of one year. That being said, he didn’t make excuses for his actions, and also confessed that he’s not sure how he cut records as good as he did during the last couple of years that drugs had a hold on his life. Waylon also provided an incredible line about the drug culture of the 1960s and 1970s, and how that played a role in his drug use: “If you’ve lived through the 60’s – unless you’re Bill Clinton and don’t inhale – then you’ve experienced in some ways. Some will lie about it, but most people that lived through that did something.” For you kids out there reading that don’t get that reference, look it up. While he spent plenty of time delving into his drug use, the “Waymore’s Blues” singer also talked about how he eventually got clean. As he explained, the withdrawals during the first couple of weeks were brutal, but he was able to stay the course and free himself from his drug use thanks to his loved ones around him: “The thing that made me get rid of the drugs was just the people around me. I had no intention of quitting until I saw what I was doing to my wife and everybody that cared about me. When I sobered up, I was just going to quit for a month. And after three weeks of all the pain and the shakes, I got to looking around me and saw my wife – who is a beautiful lady – she was looking 10 years older because of the stress and strain of living with me. That’s when I realized the big thing. When someone says, ‘If you don’t quit drugs, you’re gonna die.’ You say, ‘Well, it’s my life.’ And that’s true if you want to live in a cave somewhere. But if you are going to live around people who care about you, you don’t have the the right to destroy their lives. That’s what made me realize I couldn’t destroy other people’s lives. So I quit.” Another country music icon who battled with drugs until they one day quit cold turkey? Johnny Cash. Did you really think we were going to talk drug use and Waylon Jennings and not bring up his good pal who struggled with the same thing? We didn’t bring it up actually. Rather, before Jennings closed out the drug related portion of the interview, he thought it would be helpful to share an interesting clarification about he and Johnny Cash’s relationship with drugs and each other: “Me and Johnny Cash made the rock and rollers look like share croppers and choir boys. We talk about Johnny Cash and I and drugs… we both had our problems with them. But there’s one thing we can say and we don’t know why. We never gave each other drugs. We never did. We never shared that part of our lives. We lied about it a lot, but we never did share it.” Never would have guessed that, right? And like I said earlier, if Waylon said it – despite all of the other stories about the pair getting into trouble together – it’s got to be true. You can hear more from Jennings in both parts 1 and 2 of the interview that’s linked below: Part 1 Part 2 The post Waylon Jennings Says He & Johnny Cash Never Gave Each Other Drugs In Old Interview: “Never Shared That Part Of Our Lives” first appeared on Whiskey Riff.