When Waylon Jennings finished his autobiography, he left a handwritten note inside a copy for his son Terry: “I did the best I could. Now it’s your turn.”
With the release of Waylon: Tales of My Outlaw Dad, Terry Jennings fulfilled that promise — offering an intimate look at the country legend not as an icon, but as a father.
Terry, Waylon’s firstborn son, began writing the book even before his father passed away in 2002 at age 64. He wanted to capture what only he could: the view from backstage, the view from the tour bus, the view from the dinner table.
Raised in the whirlwind of the 1970s Outlaw Movement — alongside figures like Willie Nelson, Jessi Colter, Tompall Glaser and Billy Joe Shaver — Terry saw firsthand what “outlaw” really meant.
And it wasn’t what many assume today.
“Outlaw” wasn’t about profanity or middle fingers, Terry explains. It was about survival. After years of trying to fit into Nashville’s rigid system, artists like his father simply wanted to make music their own way.
“They had been trying to do it Nashville’s way so long,” Terry says, “that they just wanted to do it their way.”
Waylon’s defiance was rooted in artistic control — not rebellion for rebellion’s sake.
The book doesn’t shy away from the darker years either. Terry acknowledges his father’s battles with cocaine and the hard-partying lifestyle that defined much of the outlaw era. But he also emphasizes the transformation that followed. After Waylon quit drugs in the mid-1980s, everything changed — especially at home.
“He was a big teddy bear who could bite,” Terry says. “But he didn’t go out to bite you on purpose.”
Behind the tough image was a devoted father who navigated multiple “hats” with his son: father and child, boss and employee, sometimes almost brothers. Terry joined the road crew at 15, learning the business from the ground up while living a life just as chaotic as the one unfolding onstage.
Today, Terry runs Korban Music Group and credits faith with helping him rebuild his own life after years of turmoil.
Perhaps most striking is his defense of his father’s legacy in today’s country landscape. Terry rejects internet memes that use Waylon’s image to criticize modern artists.
“Dad once said, ‘You don’t bash the things you hate. You support the things you love.’”
It’s a perspective that reframes the outlaw legend. Waylon Jennings wasn’t anti-country. He was anti-control. He fought for creative freedom — and won.
Through his son’s eyes, the myth becomes more human.
Not just a rebel in black leather.
But a father, flawed and fiercely loving, who did the best he could — and trusted his son to tell the rest.