Waylon Jennings, the gruff, gritty country music ne'er-do-well whose sparse honky tonk and hard-living ways helped define Nashville's outlaw movement--died Wednesday. He was 64.

His spokeswoman, Schatzie Hageman, says Jennings passed peacefully at his Arizona home.

Jennings' health had been waning since the mid-'80s, when he underwent heart surgery (sharing a hospital room with longtime partner in crime and fellow heart patient Johnny Cash). He was later diagnosed with diabetes, which drastically affected his circulation, making it difficult for him to walk in recent years. In December, his left foot was amputated after becoming infected.

"Waylon was a dear friend, one of the very best of 35 years," Cash said Wednesday. "I'll miss him immensely."

Singer and friend Kris Kristofferson called Jennings "an American archetype, the bad guy with a big heart."

Born in Littlefield, Texas, in 1937, he formed his first band at the age of 12. By the time he was 17, he was deejaying a few towns away in Lubbock, where he hooked up with local boy Buddy Holly. Holly soon took Jennings under wing, teaching the younger musician some guitar chords and producing Jennings' first single, "Jole Blon," and cowriting "You're the One."

Jennings filled in on bass for the Crickets during Holly's final tour in 1958-59. In fact, Jennings was supposed to join Holly and Ritchie Valens on their ill-fated flight, but he gave up his seat moments before depature to the Big Bopper (aka J.P. Richardson), who had come down with a cold and didn't want to travel by tour bus. The plane crashed in a driving snowstorm, killing all aboard.

After the crash, Jennings' career progressed fitfully, as he refused to be pigeonholed as an overproduced Nashville slickster or as a straight pop singer. He jumped from A&M Records to RCA in 1965, where he worked as a session player and began turning out the sparse, alt-country tunes that became his trademark. He cranked out such hits as "Stop the World (and Let Me Off)," "Walk on Out of My Mind," "I Got You," "Only Daddy That'll Walk the Line," "This Time," "I'm a Ramblin' Man," "Rainy Day Woman," "Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way," "The Wurlitzer Prize (I Don't Want to Get Over You)," "Luckenbach, Texas," "I've Always Been Crazy" and "Amanda." All told he had 16 number-one country singles.

He won his first Grammy in 1969 for his collaboration with the Kimberlys on "MacArthur Park."

During the '60s he roomed with Cash in Nashville, and the two remained close for the rest of Jennings' life. He also struck up a songwriting and recording partnership with Willie Nelson. That pairing produced one of Jennings' best-known tunes, "Mammas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys," a chart-topping hit in 1978 that earned the duo a Grammy.

Jennings also found fame on the small screen, as the ballad-singing narrator on The Dukes of Hazzard. His classic theme song was a top 40 hit and million-seller.

Throughout his five-decade, 60-plus-album career, Jennings steadfastly refused to join the Nashville mainstream, however, and became a posterboy for the outlaw movement, whose adherents were known for their uncompromising music, dark clothes, black hats and scraggly appearance.

He teamed with fellow antiheroes Cash, Nelson and Kristofferson to form the Highwaymen, an occasional supergroup that turned out three albums, some TV movies (including Stagecoach and Outlaw Justice) and the chart-topping single, "Highwayman."

Jennings also lived the two-fisted outlaw life. He had a nasty, $1,500-a-day cocaine habit that he finally managed to kick, cold-turkey, in the 1980s.

Although dogged by ill-health and erratic chart success in later years, Jennings still made the rounds on the concert circuit and was scheduled for a tour in the spring. Jennings was enshrined in the Country Music Hall of Fame in October but, in typical style, refused to attend.

He was married four times and is survived by his wife of 32 years, singer Jessi Colter, and their son, Shooter.

God bless you, Waylon. You will be missed.

Best,

Besides, all the new guys that came up had the new style that was hot, and selling millions with it.

Well, why shouldn't they? His music was just as good as any other country legends! And Waylon was also held in high regard by the "New Country" crowd, though I have to bristle at the disrespect shown to him and other country legends (Charley Pride and Merle Haggard) when Doug Supernaw asked them a few years ago to join him on his remake of "You Never Even Called Me By My Name". Many hip country stations refused to play the track because these old fogies were singing on it!

Excuse me, but if it weren't for those three aforementioned gentlemen (and many others), you wouldn't have what passes for modern country radio. Their music influenced many of our current stars!

As a footnote to the above, I was tuning my Walkman over to Howard's show when I happened to tune in the country station (right next to it on the band) and heard Mark Chesnutt's cover of "Rainy Day Woman" (with Waylon singing background). Nice that he got some acknowledgement!

Best,

my point is this, not only are the older artists not getting air-time, the
entire style of music has been changed, kind of like our u.s. constitution is currently
being altered. hmmm..... i wonder if the same forces are at work here. what i'm saying is that so long as there is quality in the older artists music is still selling,
by the way, the 70+ year old george jones is
selling enough albums to go gold, then why shouldn't they be getting air-time??? if the powers-that-be want to have an influx of younger singers, then they should create a new market, not toss the 40 and over crowd out on their ears. the target audience for new country is teens on up to 30-something.
it's been this way for 10 years or more. i am 31 and have never been hip to this. country radio stations have altered their formats, whereas in the past you could call the request line to request a song and it really mattered what the people thought, nowadays, there is a bit of socialism here as radio stations are now told what to play
by top radio executives, they have very strict formats that they must adhere to. sorry rockerz, but this is america, and i don't like the idea of someone telling me the kind of music i should be listening to.
i do think the newer country artists are great entertainers and should get air-time, i also however, believe the older artists
should be getting theirs as well. apparently, i am not the only person that thinks so as even some artists, such as alan jackson have sent a message to billboard and radio about this very issue. are we crack-pots?? no. we just miss our style of music and want it back!!!

So Waylon and his Outlaws went against the Nashville grain! So what? They made music just as influential and important as the "mainstream" country artists of the period.

I say just listen to the damned music and enjoy it and stop labeling people and styles of music. You might just hear something you like!!

Best,

I enjoyed his energy and enthusiasm... shame he didn't see the forest because all the trees were in the way when it came to the closing of a redundant thread.

I too think ALL ARTISTS should be allowed to have marketability, not just then new, young ones that are attractive!

Times like these make me really miss the ol' Hee Haw tv show.

Unfortunately Annie, that's part of the price for being successful, or famous. Most get that way.

Of the many celebrities I've met, the most down to earth THEN was Julia Roberts... but since then, I've heard she's SOOoo full of herself.