40 Years Ago: Marty Stuart Helps Name The Highwaymen

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Did you know that there was a very distinct possibility that The Highwaymen might have never been called “The Highwaymen,” and that they might have never recorded the iconic song that gave country music’s greatest supergroup their name? Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, and Kris Kristofferson were going to form a supergroup. They’d already determined that. But if it wasn’t for a young, scrappy mandolin/guitar player named Marty Stuart, The Highwaymen as a name and a song would likely have never happened.

The song “Highwayman” was written by Jimmy Webb in 1977. He was in London working on his album called El Mirage, and after a night of heavy drinking with his buddy Harry Nilsson, Webb experienced a wildly vivid dream. Webb dreamed he was wearing pistols on his belt like an old outlaw, and was being pursued by the law down old country roads—sweat pouring off his body. When he woke up, he was drenched in sweat in real life, and in the throes of the dream’s aftermath, sat down at the piano and started composing.

Jimmy Webb’s version of “Highwayman” made it onto the final cut of his El Mirage album, but didn’t really draw too much attention to itself. Even when Glen Campbell recorded it and made it the title track to his album released in 1979, it still didn’t pierce through to capture the country music zeitgeist. It remained a rather obscure composition.

Jimmy Webb later approached Waylon Jennings with the song, thinking it would be perfect for him. But Waylon just couldn’t see himself doing it at the time, and balked. Later on, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, and Kris Kristofferson were all in Switzerland together filming a Christmas television special in tribute to Cash when they decided they wanted to record a project together.

Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson obviously knew each other well at the time, and Johnny Cash and Kris Kristofferson were close. Kristofferson was also close with Waylon and Willie, and Waylon had once shared an apartment with Johnny Cash. But Switzerland was really the first time Johnny Cash had connected with Willie Nelson, and the two recording together was the original impetus for the project. They didn’t have a name for it, they just knew they wanted to make it happen. So in December of 1984, schedules finally aligned, and all four men were in Chips Moman’s studio in Nashville.

Meanwhile, Marty Stuart was a mainstay in Johnny Cash’s band, and was there as a guitar player for the sessions. After playing in the bands of Lester Flatt, Vassar Clements, and Doc Watson, Marty Stuart became Cash’s official guitar player in 1980. According to Stuart, after two days in the studio together, they just weren’t feeling the magic they were hoping for. The harmonies were just not meshing. So Marty played “Highwayman” for the four country legends, and said it would be perfect for them, with each of them taking a verse and no harmonies required.

The way Jimmy Webb wrote “Highwayman,” it follows one soul being reincarnated four separate times into a highwayman, a sailor, and dam builder, and eventually a starship captain. Who sang which part perhaps could have been the first point of conflict in the supergroup. But once they all got excited about the idea, everyone fell in line, though Cash said, “I want that verse about the starship,” and nobody put up a fight. Once the song was recorded on December 6th, 1984, it seemed obvious what the supergroup needed to call themselves.


“Highwayman” wasn’t just the lead single, and the namesake of the band. It was also the name of the supergroup’s first album. It would also become an unlikely #1 hit song, and a #1 album. It was so successful, it also put Marty Stuart on the radar of the record executives in Nashville. “It all of a sudden gave me a presence around the building at Columbia. ‘That’s that kid who found that song for those guys,'” Marty Stuart recalls. “So all of a sudden, I had a reason to say, ‘Well I’d like to have a record deal.’ And that’s how I got started on a solo career.”

In short, The Highwaymen may have never been The Highwaymen without the song “Highwayman,” Jimmy Webb, and Marty Stuart. And Marty Stuart may have never gone solo if not for the success of the song either. A supergroup called “Cash, Nelson, Jennings, and Kristofferson” just would have the same ring to it, and perhaps the collaboration would’ve never found the same success.

Instead, The Highwaymen stand like the Mount Rushmore of Country Music, and will always be around.

…and around
…and around
…and around
…and around

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