Waylon’s Widow Jessi Colter to Release Memoir “An Outlaw and a Lady”
Take my money.
For those who can’t get enough info about legendary country music Outlaw Waylon Jennings and the wild and influential life he lived, you’re about to get one of the most up close and personal accounts of Hoss that’s possible to put in print, while also getting to know the lady who stood by his side in sickness and health, and has plenty of her own stories and wisdom to divulge during a legendary career in country music.
Jessi Colter, the widow of Waylon Jennings, and one of the most important females in country music’s Outlaw movement of the 70’s, is readying the release of a memoir called An Outlaw and a Lady: A Memoir of Music, Life with Waylon, and the Faith That Brought Me Home. It will be released April 11th, 2017. Written with David Ritz—whose known for his collaborative biographies with folks like Willie Nelson and Ray Charles, as well as a regular writer of album liner notes—the book is said to cover Colter’s musical career from singing in church to performing beside Waylon, Willie, and Tompall as part of the Wanted: The Outlaws phenomenon.
Along with Wanted: The Outlaws becoming the first ever platinum selling record in country music history, Jessi Colter achieved success beyond the shadow of the big male-dominated Outlaw names with her #1 hit “I’m Not Lisa,” as well as a Top 10 single with “What Happened to Blue Eyes.”
Waylon Jennings publicly struggled with cocaine addiction throughout his career, and An Outlaw and a Lady is said to tackle the tumultuous condition of their marriage at times. Colter still lives in Arizona where Waylon eventually got clean, and where he was laid to rest in 2002. The daughter of a Pentecostal evangelist and a race-car driver, the book chronicles Jessi’s return to faith, and how Waylon shared that faith with her in the latter stages of his life.
An Outlaw and a Lady is 304 pages long, and is being published by Thomas Nelson. Jessi Colter also released a Greatest Hits record in 2003 called An Outlaw…A Lady. Colter is now 73-years-old, and is also working on a new record.
Pre-Order Jessi Colter’s An Outlaw and a Lady
November 14, 2016 @ 9:31 am
I already preordered that book weeks ago, I can’t wait! Just sucks it’s not coming out any sooner lol now it’s feels like it gonna be approximately 5 billion years until it actually comes out lol. Why must it be April 11 of next year?
November 14, 2016 @ 9:42 am
Right? I read this and thought, “I’ll buy myself an early Christmas present.” So much for that!
November 14, 2016 @ 10:27 am
I can’t give you any specific reasons why it won’t be out until April, but I can tell you that the release dates for books and albums is selected for very specific reasons if the releasing party is smart about it. How are many independently-released records going to #1 these days? Because the labels look for holes in the release cycle when they won’t be overshadowed by bigger names and can grab headlines by hitting #1. Obviously the publisher thinks they need this time to get the stock to distributors and get the news out about the new book. It’s a business decision, though it certainly doesn’t help satiate our anticipation.
November 14, 2016 @ 11:52 am
Here’s hoping the book is good–and in has some success and spurs interest in her and Waylon and Jessi. It’s funny–From the late ’70s to the ’80s “Highwaymen” era–Cash’s solo recording career was commercially dead, but Waylon’s was still thriving. In death, Cash has only grown as a superstar, but Waylon has been largely forgotten. (And the same holds with regard to their wives–June Carter and Jessi Colter.)
November 14, 2016 @ 12:11 pm
Cash held fashionable progressive opinions that endeared him to influential reviewers and other media. He also courted a younger generation of freaks by covering some of their favorite artists. Chances are, if you see a person in a “Cash” shirt, its more likely to be a junkie with blue hair than a country music fan.
November 14, 2016 @ 1:51 pm
This is true.
November 14, 2016 @ 5:19 pm
un uh RD u mite be rite aboyt jonny but thats not why im here I demand u apologize for the awful thangs u sed about townes u here me boy
and I toll yall trump wood win
November 14, 2016 @ 8:58 pm
Type with both hands, son. It’ll be easier on all of us.
November 15, 2016 @ 1:05 am
be evan ezzyer if u shut yur stinkin yap
u dont tell me nuthin boy I tell u
November 15, 2016 @ 6:23 pm
Dale,
I heard you voted for La-Rooooooshhhh… Stands to reason. You always were soft on communism.
November 14, 2016 @ 2:35 pm
Cash’s movie grew his base. it became cool to be a Cash fan. If Jessie and Shooter can get the movie about Waylon finally put into works (as rumored the want to) the same will happen to Waylon. IMHO he was more talented and had a better sound.
November 14, 2016 @ 3:48 pm
Ditto with the American era recordings.
Waylon Jennings never got the chance to take a victory lap like Cash did and Willie is doing now. Even his death was like a footnote in the runup to the Iraq war. We still have a lot of work to do to make sure Waylon’s legacy is put into the proper context.
I wrote about this a few years back:
https://savingcountrymusic.com/giving-waylon-jennings-the-legacy-era-he-never-had/
November 14, 2016 @ 8:34 pm
It’s not as easy–or a sure thing–as you seem to think. Jessie and Shooter also keep putting together Waylon tribute CD’s, but they went nowhere. I don’t think the recent Hank Williams movie with Tom Hiddleston movie was a great success. We’ve also been reading that there’s a George Jones movie in the works, that HIS widow is backing. And it’s a pretty good bet that Haggard’s heirs are negotiating for a movie about HIM.
If I had to guess, the one with the best chance of being a breakout success would be a Haggard project. Merle seemed to have the most cinematic life from his beginnings in Bakersfield, to prison, to singing for the President.
I don’t think.
Personally, I think a Waylon movie would be DOA.
A better idea would be a Waylon and Willie movie. They could be the Butch and Sundance of Nashville/Austin.
November 14, 2016 @ 8:50 pm
Merle Haggard biopic is already in the works:
https://savingcountrymusic.com/a-merle-haggard-biopic-movie-called-done-it-all-is-in-the-works/
TWO George Jones movies are also in the works, one with Josh Brolin as George Jones that is mostly about George and Tammy Wynette, and then another more all encompassing biopic.
https://savingcountrymusic.com/check-that-two-movies-about-the-life-of-george-jones-are-being-made-simultaneously/
Something else that I think has hindered the expansion of the Waylon legacy is the lack of a museum, which cannot just be a tourist destination, but a foundation for a legacy as an archive of memorabilia, and a center for information and gatherings like the Johnny Cash and George Jones museums have become. Unfortunately, some of the most legendary Waylon artifacts are now owned by various individuals after they were sold at auction a couple of years ago.
One of the reasons Johnny Cash has continued to do so well even in recent years is because that’s almost all that John Carter Cash does these days is figure out ways to expand and preserve the musical legacy of his father. It also helps that Cash’s music is appreciated across genre lines because of the tie-ins with Sun Studios, and later with Rick Rubin.
November 14, 2016 @ 10:15 pm
There is that museum thing in Littlefield that’s owned by his brother I think, but I’m assuming that’s what you meant by tourist attraction? I wouldn’t mind visiting it sometime or if nothing else let me go take a trip down to Mesa just to see his grave sometime in the future.
I would really like a Waylon Jennings biopic to come out, I guess I’m just optimistic here, but who knows maybe there’ll be one in 5 years or 10. And even if it doesn’t do so well in the box office I’ll still watch it and buy the dvd just like I did with the I Saw The Light movie(well I bought the movie online but you get what I mean lol)
I also wouldn’t mind reading a novel with a fictionalized Waylon as a main character like how Hank Williams was in the book Hank and Muddy. I would so totally buy that novel. I’m also kinda wondering if he was worried about messing up Hank’s characterization in his book lol, it’s understandable if he was imo.
November 15, 2016 @ 9:29 am
Not to sound cold w/what I’m about to quote (because Hoss Boss & John R. were both dear friends to me & band mates whom I loved) from someone who worked for the estate of a Superstar who had passed that said, “You know as much as I hate to think this way, there are times when I must realize that there’s so much a business side to their (Superstar’s) legacy. A portion is business.” I had never considered that before. As Waylon was loved all over the world, he didn’t tour that much in Europe & other countries, where Cash did a lot. And like you said w/Sun Records ties, John R. was huge internationally & toured pretty regular. I believe John’s manager he had for years is still very much involved in all things Cash. Waylon chose to manage his own career for the last several years. Just my thoughts…..
November 15, 2016 @ 11:26 am
A movie needs a focus that’s explainable, in terms of a plot. We’re not going to have a half-dozen or more movies on individual late 20th Century country stars and have them all work out. Haggard’s life strikes me as a movie, him being sort of a latter-day Woody Guthrie.
Two movies on George Jones? Brings to mind a line I read from a football writer quoting some anonymous GM. (It might have been when Rex Ryan was coaching the Jets and claimed he had two quarterbacks–Mark Sanchez and Geno Smith.) The unnamed savant said “When you have two QB’s, you have no QB.”
November 14, 2016 @ 1:13 pm
Jessi wrote a helluva song here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOgTVJOdFVU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SguAT0nD8es
November 14, 2016 @ 1:57 pm
This would be a great book to read during the holidays. Too bad it’s coming out in April. One of my favorite things to do is walk into a biker bar/dive bar and play several Waylon Jenning songs in sequence on the juke box right before I walk in. Makes me look like one bad hombre.
November 14, 2016 @ 1:57 pm
Jessi’s underrated. “I’m Not Lisa” is a great song.
November 14, 2016 @ 2:36 pm
Off topic, but I recently read through “Born to Run” by Bruce Springsteen awhile back and in my opinion, it’s one of those autobiographies where you can read through multiple times and still find it enjoyable. I still read it at times and visualize myself in the same room that he is and telling his story. He even put in some tidbits about being in the same room with Jerry Jeff Walker at the beginning of his career.
November 15, 2016 @ 2:18 pm
“You Hung The Moon Didn’t You Waylon”
“You take so many words and bring them all home with one
You walk into my room and it lights up like the sun
Every way step you take makes a way for someone
And I know you’d never do love wrong”
Jessi Colter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlZInLFboHY
November 15, 2016 @ 4:13 pm
I saw this video before but I gave it another listen through and it’s such a pretty song! When I first discovered this song I kinda thought from the title that she wrote it as a tribute to Waylon after he passed, only to discover via google that it was released when he was very much alive.
I like it!
November 16, 2016 @ 10:50 am
Yes it’s a nice nice little tune from her album “Diamond In The Rough” , 1976, my favorite album of her
It has five songs written by her and five covers.
But the song i like most on the album is “Dioamond In The Rough”, (Donnie Fritts/Spooner Oldham), she both plays the piano and sings it beautifully…
But to be honest she doesn’t have that much of a singing voice. But she does sing well.
And if Waylon is to belive he’s the one who taught her to sing… 🙂
“She tells me just how smart I am, so I’ll teach her how to sing”. 🙂
https://youtu.be/Oh62WgEa_6Q?t=1m28s
November 19, 2016 @ 3:22 pm
Very eager for Jessi’s perspective on that whole amazing era when a relatively small group of maverick musicians gave the finger to the Nashville “establishment” and took control of their own recording and touring careers. These artists were not afraid to source the best musicians and producers from outside Music Row’s “sequins and satin” assembly line, and turn the system on its head.
Jennings certainly paved the way, actually collaborating more with fellow renegade Tompall Glaser than Willie, at least at the outset. But make no mistake: Colter was every bit as rebellious, artistically, as the boys. Another commenter mentioned that she has been underrated, and it’s true.
It was very rare, in that mid-1970s period, for a female (or male) artist on a major label to write all of their own material, and Colter’s first two Capitol albums were entirely self-written –every song. And her success with those records was tremendous; both soared into the Top 5 of the country charts and crossed over to make a big impact on the Billboard 200 album list. Such a rare feat for any country artist, at the time, much less a female. She had three Billboard Hot 100 singles in 1975 alone (I’m Not Lisa, Blue Eyes, You Ain’t Never Been Loved). Huge audience.
Personally, I always liked her rousing, swamp-funk music better than the gothic ballads like ‘Lisa.’ It was on the gritty, poetic, roadhouse anthems that she truly shined, imo. Her second Capitol album, ‘Jessi,’ is one of the quintessential records of Country Rock music, guy or girl. No other female singer was making records quite like her in that brief time period. Highly recommended. It must be said that Ken Mansfield, former Beatles manager and A&M honcho, was key in helping craft Colter’s entirely unique sound. She was always a stylist, first and foremost, when it came to singing.
Not surprising she was lost eventually in the shadow of Waylon; Colter has admitted that, by the end of the 1970s, she did not want to keep chasing the individual stardom her record company desired. She was happy with the big success she achieved, as it had come somewhat late in her own pursuit. Plus, shenhas mentioned that the marriage would not have survived, if she had pressed onward with the kind of team required to uphold a major solo career. Even so, she has indicated that she spent most of the ’80s and ’90s quietly building-up a considerable library of unreleased work. I would hope, at age 73, she might share some of that with the public.
The book is on my list, for sure. A first-person account like this is not going to come around again. There was a heck of a lot of drama, and if Colter is candid (as I hope she’ll be) we’re going to get the inside story and a vision into Waylon’s art that no one else could provide.
As for a Waylon movie –I’m all for it, if they can secure top-flight writers and producers, not to mention actors. But if I were Colter and Shooter, I’d eschew the cineplex and bring it to TV. All the best stuff is being done by these new networks, now. Heck, an original Netflix series based on Waylon’s life would have a greater chance of impacting the public and fortifying his legacy.
November 20, 2016 @ 9:54 pm
Omg a TV show about Waylon would be so awesome! Either way works for me, movie or tv show, would be awesome. And it can be like a miniseries or something. I would totally watch it!