Waylon Jennings quotes:

The Hank Williams Syndrome: Come to Nashville, write some good songs, cut some hit records, make money, take all the drugs you can and drink all you can, become a wild man and all of a sudden die.

I may be crazy, but it keeps me from going insane.

I love Johnny Cash, and I respect Johnny Cash. He's the biggest. He's like an Elvis in this business, but no, he's never been the rebel.

Mainly what I learned from Buddy... was an attitude. He loved music, and he taught me that it shouldn't have any barriers to it.

Men commit murder and all sorts of mayhem, in a few years they're back on the streets. Highway robbery and white collar crime, and they laugh at the system they beat.

If we all could sound like we wanted to, we'd all sound like George Jones,

Now, I don't know how they judge all that, but if anybody in the world deserves to be in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, Ritchie Valens does.

We did an album one time called White Mansions, about the civil war, but it was written by a guy from England. His looking at it from over there and it not being a part of his history made it so he could be objective.

Cuz I was never pretty anyway and never cared anything about that.

Finally, my manager negotiated a deal where I got to produce my own records.

But Buddy was an upper. He was happy. He loved music, and he was really happy. I don't know... I don't believe in reincarnation at all, but if all that stuff is true, then he might have been on his last time around.

I sat at a bar having a beer trying to hold down the stool.

Nobody knows I'm Elvis, nobody knows this is me. After all of my tries, I've got the perfect disguise.

And the whole thing is that you're treated like a step-child. Here it was down here, everything in the black, because they were stealing, basically. Stealing from us old country boys down here.

I never have any problem getting enthusiastic with a good song and a good band.

Jessi is a great person. She really is. She's been a friend to me all through all my bad times, and she's understood what I was doing. She came up with that one saying, which was great.

His songs were soon curled on the lips of the world, they had earned him the highest acclaim. And yet his greatest desire was the simple warmth of love's fire, cause it's cold on the dark side of fame.

Ladies love outlaws, like babies love stray dogs. Ladies touch babies like a banker touches gold, outlaws touch ladies somewhere deep down in their soul.

Besides that, I felt guilty. I thought for some reason... I was alive, and Buddy and those boys were dead, and I didn't know how, but somehow I'd caused it.

Heaven is laying in my sweet baby's arms, hell is when my baby's not here.

So I'm not very popular here with those inside the system, as you might guess. I never wanted to be.

I mean, I think we're put here on earth to make your own destiny, to begin with. I don't think there's anything you can do this way or that way to change anything.

It was all devastating. I'd never dealt with losing anyone close to me, and I didn't know where to put it in my life. I was very young then. Buddy taught me so much in such a short time.

Don't you be so nice to me; I fall in love so easily.

I can't walk, so I can't go home. No need to talk, cause I'm all alone. If I stay here they're gonna lock me in, hitting the bottle again.

You know, I feel sorry for the young artists.

Those neon light nights, couldn't stay out of fights, keeps a-haunting me in memories. There is one in every crowd, for crying out loud, why was is always turning out to be me?

I might be an endangered species.

One night of love don't make up for six nights alone. But I'd rather have one than none Lord, cause I'm flesh and bone.

I was king of the mountain for a long time, well, I don't want that no more. I like to perform every once in a while for people who want to see me, and cut albums of music that is what I'm really about.

Because Ritchie Valens WAS the real deal. He was only starting, but in the time he spent in the business, he made big impact. I don't know if anybody could have made a bigger one.

One thing is that I wasn't getting booked that well, and they had control over who got the awards, they had control over who sold. And they really did not want Willie or me, either one, to have a hit record. They wanted the money, but they didn't want us to be the ones.

Don't ever try and be like anybody else and don't be afraid to take risks.

But you know, the system almost destroyed itself while it was goin' on trying to destroy us.

You know, in the days when I started, if you had Chet Atkins' name on your record as a producer and it was on RCA, you could work the road. It didn't have to be a big hit record, it just had to have that on it.

Honesty is something you can't wear out.

Now, I was on drugs, and that didn't help a whole lot. He hated that. That was part of where Chet and I had problems, so I take complete blame for that.

But ya know what, I am a part of something that happened. I'm a part of the music that happened. My voice is one more instrument, is what it is. So that's the way I feel about people who "play on sessions.

Country music isn't a guitar, it isn't a banjo, it isn't a melody, it isn't a lyric. It's a feeling.

Did ole Hank really do it this way?

Each tomorrow will depend on the love you give today.

Got my Allman Brothers cassettes stacked up on the dash, got some Jack back in the trunk and a tank full of gas.

He gave us all a mind to think with and to know what's right or wrong, he is that inner spirit that keeps us strong.

Heroes put to the test, keeping a promise, doing their best.

Hitting the bottle again, ever than I've drunker been. Or is it drunker than I've ever been?

I ain't got no reverse. I've learned, a little later in life, it works out pretty good to have one every once in a while.

I could have killed her when we first met and I've been out of jail by now.

I didn't aim at anything except good music.

I say, Lord, do right be me, I'm tired of being lonesome, on'ry, and mean.

If I could only fly, you see, a lot of my problems would be gone. When you think of just how much I'd save on shoes alone.

If you have the courage and you have the heart, that hero just might be you.

If you see me getting smaller, I'm leaving, don't be grieving, just gotta get away from here. If you see me getting smaller, don't worry, and no hurry, I've got the right to disappear.

I'm just a man, no more or no less. Bad as the worst, good as the best.

I'm old and crazy, but I still give a damn. And I still think the boys got screwed over in Vietnam.

Is your head up your ass so far that you can't pull it out?

I've always felt that blues, rock 'n' roll and country are just about a beat apart.

Lately I've heard rumors that the eagle may be lame. Just because I've been idle, don't mean that I'm tame.

Listening to his songs she heard nothing but bad news, still she made her mind up to try to get him win or lose.

Maybe it's time we got back to the basics of love.

One thing is that I wasn't getting booked that well, and they had control over who got the awards, they had control over who sold. And they really did not want Willie or me, either one, to "have a hit record. They wanted the money, but they didn't want us to be the ones.

Take your tongue out of my mouth, I'm kissing you good-bye.

The men who could not fight, in a war that didn't seem right. You let them come home, America.

The only problem was I needed to use my own group, and things didn't happen until I did. It wasn't a real country sound, what I did. I've listened to it, and I think it was more a west coast rock thing, you know? But it fit. It was country, but it was my own interpretation of country.

The only two things in life that make it worth livin' / Is guitars that tune good and firm feelin' women

The rock and roll spirit. I learned a lot of that because I worked with Buddy Holly. I played bass with him, and he taught me a lot about that.

The villains have turned into heroes. The heroes have turned into heals.

There's always one more way to do something-- your way.

There's always one more way to do things and that's your way, and you have a right to try it at least once.

They got me for possession of something that was long, long gone.

This is getting funny, but there ain't nobody laughing.

This world that I live in is empty and cold/the loneliness cuts me and tortures my soul.

To me a guitar is kind of like a woman. You don't know why you like 'em but you do.

Was an American archetype, the bad guy with the big heart.

We got a lot of politicians up there on Capital Hill. Ain't it funny how they prosper while the country stands still?

What bothers me most is that I don't bother you.

When I look at you girl, I see a true work of art. So many beautiful things coming in one little heart.

When you're down in Texas, Bob Wills is still the king.

You've got to care about the music...You'd better not be doing it for the publicity, the fame or the money. And you'd sure better not be doing it because it's a way to make a living, 'cause that ain't always going to be easy. You got to believe it, believe in the music. You got to mean it.