Cocaine Bust: How Richie Albright Saved Waylon Jennings from Prison

Long time Waylon Jennings drummer and right hand man Richie Albright died earlier this week, and becomes the latest legend from the Outlaw country world to leave us in what has been a very short period of time stretching back into late 2020.
It’s really hard to put into words the kind of impact Richie Albright had on country music from behind the kit. As the guy that approached a frustrated Waylon in the early 70’s who was ready to quit music entirely as opposed to continuing to sing other people’s songs and record with other people’s musicians on Music Row, Richie said, “There’s another way of doing things, and that’s rock ‘n roll.” This became the rallying cry for the Outlaw country revolution.
But Richie was also one of those critical side men that you can make a strong case was just as important as the star themselves they helped support. Similar to Willie Nelson’s drummer Paul English, Richie Albright was the guy that kept the ship steered in the right direction, and did whatever it took to keep the show on the road. Without these guys, Willie and Waylon may have never achieved what they did.
There are many stories about Richie Albright’s selfless efforts to keep Waylon’s career on track or his bacon out of the fire, but possibly the best one that illustrates the loyalty Richie had towards Waylon is the notorious time when Waylon was busted for possession of cocaine. It could have been worse—much worse, if it wasn’t for the fast thinking of Albright. In fact, Richie was even willing to be the fall guy for Waylon, and be sent to prison so Waylon could beat the rap.
It was in the late summer of 1977, and Waylon was working on his contributions to the Hank Williams Jr. record The New South at the American Sound studio in Nashville owned by Chips Moman. Waylon was in the studio proper recording an overdub vocal, when he started hearing noise coming over his headphones, and it wasn’t his vocal playback, or Hank Jr.’s part of the song. Instead what Waylon heard was a conversation between the people in the control room and eight DEA agents that had shown up to the studio with a warrant for Waylon’s arrest for possession and intent to distribute cocaine.
Waylon’s manager Neil Reshen had sent Waylon a double wrapped package of a kilo of Colombian white powder, and it was sitting right next to him on a music stand in the studio. Waylon was able to hear the entire exchange going on the control room because Richie Albright was secretly mashing down the control room’s “talk back” button, which allows the control room to communicate with the performer.
“I grabbed the package from the music stand and threw it away behind me,” Waylon recalled in his autobiography. “I couldn’t make that shot again in a million years. It slid under a baseboard by the wall, just as pretty as you please. I knew that probably wouldn’t be good enough to fool them forever, but it would work for now.”
Then Waylon—acting like he was completely ignorant to what was happening in the control room—told Richie to replay the track to do another vocal take. The next take Waylon recorded was the one they used on Hank Jr.’s New South record. Waylon eventually went into the control room under the guise of discussing the take, and as others distracted the DEA agents, discussed the situation with Richie Albright.
“Well, I’m taking this one,” Richie told to Waylon, meaning he was willing to be the fall guy for the cocaine package. Waylon recalled in his autobiography, “Sometimes I thought Richie would’ve leapt in front of a freight train for me.” But Waylon wouldn’t allow it this time.
“‘You ain’t taking shit,” Waylon told Richie, and then Waylon sparked up a conversation with the DEA agents, who had two warrants for his arrest in hand. However, what they didn’t have was the cocaine, or a right to search the studio. The warrants only gave permission to the DEA agents to search Waylon’s office.
While the DEA agents hashed out how they could search the studio proper where the cocaine was, cool as a cucumber, Waylon and Richie continued the recording session, explaining that the studio time was costly, and they couldn’t waste a moment. Waylon walked back out into the studio to do another vocal take. After running another overdub, Richie walked out into the studio with Waylon under the pretense of adjusting the mic.
“Where is that shit?” Richie hissed at Waylon.
“First of all, you don’t need to know,” Waylon told him, though eventually fessed up that it was hidden below a baseboard. This is when a guy named George Lappe who also worked as a music manager showed up, and started berating the DEA agents. Waylon stepped in and tried to calm George Lappe down. Meanwhile amid the fracas, Richie Albright took the package of cocaine, stuffed it down his pants, walked to the studio bathroom, and flushed it down the toilet. Now, any evidence of cocaine possession was gone.
Eventually the DEA agents did get the proper warrants and searched the premises, eventually finding cocaine residue in a couple of plastic bags in the trash. According to Waylon, for all their searching, there was actually another vial full of cocaine in the studio and in plain sight they never found. Waylon was still booked and fingerprinted by the federal marshal’s office, but due to the lack of substantial evidence, the charges didn’t stick.
If the DEA agents had found the package of cocaine, there’s a good chance Waylon Jennings would have gone to prison for a sizable amount of time due to the volume of contraband, and the government’s efforts to pin him with intent to distribute and conspiracy as well. But thanks to the fast thinking and selflessness of Richie Albright, the crisis was averted.
Of course, Waylon ultimately did pay a price for his rampant and legendary cocaine use. It deteriorated his health, and cost him a fortune. He did eventually get sober, but trading drugs for food and the weakened state of his body due to years of drug abuse resulted in the diagnosis of diabetes, and an early death at the age of 64 in 2002.
Nonetheless, the actions and efforts of Richie Albright in many separate instances is what allowed Waylon to rise to the top and stay there for as long as he did. Who knows what a five to ten year stint in prison would have done for Waylon’s career. But thanks to Richie Albright, it never happened.
Of course, the incident was later chronicled in Waylon’s #1 song “Don’t You Think This Outlaw Bit’s Done Got Out of Hand.” The incident was also chronicled in Mike Judge’s Tales from the Tour Bus animated series on Showtime where Richie Albright himself tells a slightly different version of the story (see below), but the significant details still check out.
Country music.
February 11, 2021 @ 12:28 pm
I just heard on Cody Jink’s podcast…”Everybody wants to be an outlaw ’till it’s time to do outlaw shit”. Some people ARE actually willing to do it 🙂
February 11, 2021 @ 12:56 pm
That’s a great story. Waylon’s book is worth a read.
February 11, 2021 @ 1:24 pm
Great recounting of this very famous (at least to Waylon fans) incident. The whole era reminds me of a comment I remember a writer making about the Allman Brothers Band – “Did they make such great music because of the drugs or in spite of ’em?”
February 12, 2021 @ 3:01 am
A moment of silence of the flushed Tennessee Walking Powder ????.
February 12, 2021 @ 6:58 am
A close friend of mine was a member of that group and he got clean and sober a few years before Waylon did.
He sure taught me a lot about getting sober since I gave it all up in 1988.
February 12, 2021 @ 8:11 am
Is it the song titled New South on Hank Jr.’s album?
February 12, 2021 @ 10:27 am
“Don’t You Think This Outlaw Bit’s Done Got Out of Hand” is on Waylon’s ‘I’ve Always Been Crazy’ album (1978).
I was trying to figure out what songs Waylon contributed to from this session last night after reading Trig’s article. ‘The New South’ doesn’t have a wiki page and I can’t find any linear notes on the web. I did find this passage on allmusic.com:
“Waylon is on board on this set as a guitarist, a backing vocalist, and, most importantly, as co-producer with Richie Aldright.”
Waylon’s contributions are album wide (I guess). ‘The New Sout’h is an album I never really listened too much to because it’s mostly covers. But, I’ve had it on today and it’s pretty good.
February 12, 2021 @ 10:51 am
Yeah, and according to the “Tales from the Tour Bus” account, Waylon was actually overdubbing a song from his “I’ve Always Been Crazy” album during the bust, not for the Hank Jr. album. Though I tend to believe Waylon’s account more, because it’s part of a deeper dive into his relationship with Jr. in his autobiography, and he wrote that in 1996 when memories were fresher.
March 4, 2021 @ 8:08 am
Trigger, “New South” was recorded in 1977, “I’ve Always Been Crazy” was 1978. They were recording Waylon’s harmony vocals on the song “Storms Never Last” for Hank Jr’s project, “New South”, when the DEA “came bustin’ through the back door”. Richie always stated, “we always knew that storm (bust) wouldn’t last”. You can fact check Waylon’s autobiography, page 245.
February 12, 2021 @ 11:14 am
The New South is a great album.
February 13, 2021 @ 12:53 pm
The New South is a definitive album from Bocephus. And Waylons hand in it cemented it as a giant in the canon of outlaw music. I put this album in Hanks top 5 easily. It still sounds great.
February 13, 2021 @ 7:24 pm
Agreed. The New South album captures that moment in time, in the mid-to-late 70’s (into the early 80’s) where everything Southern was ascendant. Skynyrd, Marshal Tucker, CDB, Hank Jr. were at the top of their games, Burt Reynolds was churning out Southern box office smashes one after another, Southern cuisine was de rigueur, Alabama and Georgia were dominating college football, every little boy had a Dukes of Hazzard lunch box, a peanut farmer from Georgia was elected president, Dallas was the most popular tv show in America, Ted Turner was the most visible media mogul and sports owner, NASCAR was booming, every Saturday morning show was a good old boy fishing for bucketmouths or hunting whitetails.
December 9, 2021 @ 2:22 pm
Waylon sings backup vocal on the song “Feelin’ Better,” for one. Probably elsewhere, too. But you can hear him clearly on “Feelin’ Better.”
February 12, 2021 @ 10:46 am
Waylon is on “Feelin Better” that is definite.
February 12, 2021 @ 5:24 pm
Yeah you can hear him clearly on the “Waylon and Toy and all them boys” line. Makes me like “Feelin’ Better” even more.
February 12, 2021 @ 7:07 pm
Waylon is on ‘Tennessee” as well. Waylon’s unmistakable footprint is all over that album, and IMO its much better for it. The New South has always been one of my favorite Jr. albums for that very reason, Waylon’s voice worked so well with Jr’s.
February 13, 2021 @ 9:14 pm
*they upped me for possession of something that was gone…. long gone*
February 14, 2021 @ 2:57 am
“it’s 20 long years for some dust in the baggie”
July 18, 2022 @ 8:07 pm
Waylon had the cocaine on him in the studio and Waylon was cool and calm, Richie Albright was producing the New South album the package had one kilo of white powder and Waylon threw it under the base board Richie Albright was adjusting the microphone Richie Albright dump the cocaine down toilet flushing it and the D.E.A. couldn’t go into the studio without a warrant if they had the warrant Waylon would have been in prison Thank-God they didn’t have the warrant.
Don’t you think this Outlaw bit’s done got out of hand.