About Honky Tonk Heroes by Waylon Jennings Album
By 1972, after seven years of recording with RCA, Waylon Jennings had about enough of the control and the restrictions that the "Nashville Sound" imposed to country music artists. Jennings was by the time regarded as a "raising artist" but he still needed the right thing. Around the same time, singer-songwriter Billy Joe Shaver was also pushing to succeed in music, but he needed a voice for his compositions. Their paths crossed just before the 1972 "Dripping Springs Reunion", a concert regarded as the "Redneck Woodstock". Waylon was on the bill to play the show, and Billy Joe was invited in by Kris Kristofferson to maybe perform on the show. Days before the concert, Shaver was sitting in on a “guitar pull” (a circle of song writers passing the guitar while singing one of their songs) and starting playing "Willie, The Wandering Gipsy And Me" Waylon Jennings rushed into the room in an altered state, and excited asked Shaver if he had more of those "Cowboy Songs". After the affirmative response of Billy Joe, Waylon promised him to record an entire album of his songs. Before the show Billy Joe got drunk and passed out near the Armadillo World Headquarters, where he was bitten by a recluse spider. After two days wandering around town in a confusion state, he was rushed to a hospital. He gave a weak performance on the reunion, Kristofferson later told him that he "blew his chance" to make it. Billy Joe still was confident, Waylon was about to record his album and everything was gonna be fine, so he moved to Nashville. When he got there, he tried to contact Waylon, but he could not reach him, it seemed that he was busy all the time. The drop that spilled the glass came when he called him to his office, and Waylon's secretary told him that he was occupied on the other line (the studio had only one line to call in). Shaver got into the studio through his D.J friend, captain Roger "Captain Midnight" Schutt. He sent him to look for Waylon, who sent to Billy a 100-dollar bill, that Billy Joe sent back. He waited on the only exit of the studio for Waylon to come, and when he finally did he told him "Waylon, I’ve got those songs, and you’re going to listen to them or I’m going to kick your ass right here in front of God and everybody". Some bikers that were on the room were advancing to Billy Joe, when Waylon stopped him and told him that he was going to listen one of his songs, and if he liked it, he was going to listen to other; but if he did not, he was going to leave. Shaver picked the guitar and started playing Willie the Wandering Gipsy, later Ain't No God in Mexico and so on. Excited, Waylon decided to record the album. He recently had renegotiated his contract with RCA, that was fearful to lose him to Atlantic as they did with Willie Nelson. RCA gave him creative control, that he used to get rid of the restrictions of his producer, Chet Atkins, and cut him completely out of the picture. He brought in to the project Tompall Glaser, and co-produced and recorded the album.
