50 Years Ago: Waylon Jennings Records the Ultimate Country Protest Song

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“We need a change.”
–Waylon Jennings


Some people like to believe that kvetching about the state of country music is a recent sport. In truth, complaining about country music’s direction is a tried and true tradition that has been around almost since the very inception of the genre itself.

Sometimes that tradition has manifested itself in ways that seem silly, overreaching, and punitive. A good example is people clutching their pearls when Bob Wills had the audacity to bring drums on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry, or when The Byrds faced a chorus of boos (and chirps) when from the Opry crowd when all they were trying to do was make country cool to a new generation.

Waylon Jennings is an interesting case when it comes to protesting the direction of country music because purists were no fan of his when his career started to take off in the mid 1970s. Waylon started in a rock band playing bass for Buddy Holly, and was inspired to fight back against the Music Row system when his drummer Richie Albright said to him, “There’s another way of doing things. And that’s rock ‘n’ roll.”

Waylon was considered more rock than country by some with the strong two-tone bass rhythm that underpinned much of his music in the mid ’70s. He made that his signature sound after earning his creative freedom from RCA Records and producer Chet Atkins. That sound is perhaps best illustrated in the Waylon Jennings song “Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way,” recorded on September 2nd, 1974—50 years ago today.

Simultaneous with facing criticisms himself for being “too rock,” Waylon was protesting the direction of country music in the way it was abandoning its roots, forgetting its heroes like Hank Williams, and most importantly, how the business of country had gotten in the way of the music. That is what “Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way” written by Waylon himself was all about.

Waylon Jennings detested the ostentatiousness of the country genre—all the Countrypolitan glitz of Rhinestone suits and guitar-shaped swimming pools. That’s one of the reasons he skipped his own induction to the Country Music Hall of Fame, and was buried in Arizona as opposed to Nashville with a headstone that sits flush with the ground.

“Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way” was recorded at the renegade “Hillbilly Central” studio built by Tompall Glaser to be a place where artists like Waylon Jennings could assert their creative freedom. The song would eventually become part of the 1975 album Dreaming My Dreams produced by “Cowboy” Jack Clement. What’s most remarkable about the recording itself is that it’s only two chords. It’s not like any other country song you’ll ever hear.

Waylon recorded the song with elements of his road band, including Richie Albright on drums, Duke Goff on bass, and Charles Cochran on piano. They used numerous guitar players during the sessions that lasted some seven months total, with “Are You Sure” being one of the first songs they cut. The sessions were engineered by a young Kyle Lehning, who would go on to be known for producing all those great Randy Travis albums in the ’80s and ’90s.

Jack Clement’s key ingredient on the song was allowing Waylon to play the guitar on the song himself. But then unbeknownst to Waylon, Clement decided to shake it up. “I took that song in a different direction while [Waylon] was away one night,” Clement said. “I’ll do that—get in there and experiment—and this was one that I messed with. We cut the track, and then some time later I put my own rhythm guitar part on it, and it wound up different than how it started. Waylon loved it, and that’s how the record ended up.”

With only two chords, it’s really the rhythm and the words that drive the message of “Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way” home. Clement said it was his favorite song on the Dreaming My Dreams album. Waylon would later say that Dreaming My Dreams was his favorite album he ever recorded.

Perhaps most important to recognize about the song is that this was no obscure album cut. Sure, you’ve had other country protest songs do well over the years. “Murder on Music Row” written by Larry Cordle and Larry Shell, and performed by George Strait and Alan Jackson won two CMA Awards. But the best it could do on the charts was #38.

“Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way” became a #1 song in country music. It was Waylon’s fourth #1 overall, and stayed in the charts for 16 total weeks. It wasn’t just a protest song, it was a major hit. The song was like a country music revolution all unto itself.

In many respects, it was the popularity of “Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way” that started the country music Outlaw revolution in earnest, upsetting the heavily produced “Nashville Sound” era of the time with its string arrangements and choruses. The song set the table for the 1976 compilation album Wanted: The Outlaws with Waylon, Willie Nelson, Jessi Colter, and Tompall Glaser that went on to become the first Platinum-selling album in country music history.

50 years later, and “Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way” feels as relevant as ever. As popular country music tries to remove itself from the Bro-Country era, and interlopers like Post Malone and Diplo encroach on the genre, the question “Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way” is a compass point for all country music.

The genre can be a big tent, and allow a lot of latitude for what “country music” is. The career of Waylon Jennings is a good example of that. But the big, underlying question is if Hank would approve. You get the sense that he most certainly would have approved of Waylon Jennings.

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