Waylon Jennings. giving praise to the country music women of the 1990s. Thanks to a YouTube channel called “Video Stock Archives,” old interviews from the 1980s and 1990s are once again seeing the light of day. Fortunately, one of the more recent interviews that they unearthed and posted was a sit down in 1995 with the late, great Waylon Jennings. Jennings was never shy about answering questions, and you could always count on him to shoot you straight. The “I’ve Always Been Crazy” singer rarely ever shied away from speaking his mind, but this sit down cultivated some very thoughtful and drawn out answers. Like when the topic of female artists in country music came up. Waylon was talking about how country music, as a genre, had strayed away from what it did best at some point in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He stated that country music wasn’t necessarily in a bad place, but in his opinion, nothing that was lasting was being produced: “I think country music is a really important thing, but they’ve got to come back around to what country music has really always been. That’s truth. Through history, if you look back at it, every time rock and roll self destructs, they come back to the basics. That’s what country music is… the basics. I think they are going to do the same thing with this and there are going to be some good ones. Travis Tritt will still be there. I think Wynonna Judd will be there. And Trisha Yearwood.” When Wynonna Judd and Trisha Yearwood came to Jennings’ mind, he thought it was the opportune time to give them praise for what they were doing back in 1995. Waylon even went as far to say that women like them were the ones who were doing country music the right way during that time, while many of the males came off as imitators: “You know, those are the girls that are doing it right. They’re the ones, right now… the guys are doing all this ‘hunk stuff’ where you have to have, what do you call them, hats and thighs. There’s a bunch of them that all sound like they are imitating Merle Haggard and George Jones. But the thing is… the girls are not under pressure to be objects anymore. Now, they’re finding the great songs and singing them and making the great records. In fact, I’ve talked to some of the girls and they’ve said, ‘It’s about time’ and ‘Now (the guys) are on the chopping block. They have to wiggle everything to get people to pay attention to them.’ They’re laughing about it, a lot of the girl singers.” Love that Waylon Jennings had his finger on the pulse of women in country music. To prove that he was a fun of what the females like Judd and Yearwood were doing in the 90s, the outlaw legend shouted out one of Trisha’s songs and projects and had nothing but good things to say about it: “‘The Song Remembers When’ that Trisha Yearwood did is probably one of the best songs and best records I’ve ever heard.” That’s high praise from an all-time great like Waylon Jennings. One could make an argument that the country music women of the 1990s really helped the genre stay the course during that time, and when you look at acts like Billy Ray Cyrus, it’s hard to argue. Of course, the “hunk stuff” would make a HARD turn for the worse in the coming years with the peak the “boyfriend country” era of the late 2010s. These days, there is no shortage of good looking country singers… Riley Green, Parker McCollum, etc… but they’re making good music. You can hear Jennings give the female artists of country music the recognition they deserved in part 2 of this two-part interview from 1995: And in case you wanted to crank up some songs by Trisha Yearwood and Wynonna Judd, I’ve attached a couple of those below: “The Song Remembers When” by Trisha Yearwood “No One Else On Earth” by Wynonna Judd The post Waylon Jennings Said Female Artists Like Wynonna Judd & Trisha Yearwood Were Doing Country Right In The ’90s: “Guys Are Doing All This Hunk Stuff” first appeared on Whiskey Riff.