If Waylon Jennings is stepping in to do your intervention… it’s safe to say that things have gotten out of control.
It’s no secret that both he and his friend Johnny Cash had severe drug problems in their younger years, and it was compounded by the fact that they lived together, and encouraged those bad habits. I mean, they’ve admitted to spending $1,000 a day on drugs at the peak of their addiction.
And he wasn’t the only one… even fellow Highwaymen member, the late great Kris Kristofferson (RIP) once had a friend approach Waylon about his own drinking habits. Waylon recalled the conversation on an A&E biography:
“She said ‘he’s hanging out with losers!’ Now, what the hell could I say to him because I was one of the losers he was hanging out with! I was on drugs real bad during those times, and Kris, I guess he drank a lot.”
Waylon finally got clean in 1984, though he went the unique route of quitting cold turkey completely on his own, with no medical or professional help at all. Johnny, on the other hand, went to a facility and did it that way.
But back in his younger years, he was apparently wilder than anyone…
Cash once got arrested in El Paso, Texas, when U.S. customs agents found 1,000 pills (amphetamines) in his guitar case, landing him a night in jail.
In a recent interview musician and YouTuber, Otis Gibbs, did with Jesse Dayton, who is a musician and producer from Austin, Texas and has played on Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, and Willie Nelson albums, and spent a lot of time with them over the years, they dove into some personal stories about Cash, Kris, Waylon and more,
He said that Johnny Cash was so out of control that Waylon was the one who had to do his intervention… who had the reputation as the ultimate outlaw and wild man himself:
“If you want to really about know Johnny Cash, listen to that song on that Kristofferson record, ‘To Beat The Devil’ and it really explains about how Cash kept having to overcome things. They accused him of having an African American wife. He got caught with all that speed, which is pretty hardcore, even by today’s standards, going across the Mexican border.
I mean, he was wild. The fact that he was so wild that Waylon Jennings had to do his intervention. That’s just unbelievable. You’ve got to be pretty messed up to have Waylon, who is… you know… I love all those guys and one thing I’ve learned is there will never be anyone like them.”
Fair enough. I imagine that part of the reason Waylon played such a big role there is because he understand Cash and what he was going through, and considering they were close friends, might’ve been the only person he’d listen to.
For as much as I’ve heard about Waylon and Johnny’s friendship, I never knew this about Johnny’s road to getting clean, so it’s pretty neat to hear that he was really there for him through one of the most difficult battles of his life, too.
You can watch the interview here:
“To Beat The Devil”
Waylon Jennings Says Johnny Cash Got Off Easy When They Lived Together
I can only imagine some of the stories Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash didn’t tell about when they lived together…
The country icons shared an apartment during their early days in Nashville, and Waylon has joked before that Cash lived up to his “Man in Black” nickname, as he’d make breakfast in a full black suit. But in a vintage interview, they discussed living together in more detail, which was fascinating because I’ve never seen them talk about it with each other, it’s usually only been in one-on-one interviews for the most part.
This looks to be from sometime in the late ’80s or early ’90s, where Waylon admits that they “kicked the doors down a lot” and were both doing drugs:
“We kicked the door down a lot… you know what’s fun about me and him, though? In those days, we were both pretty well hooked on pills, but we can honestly say we never gave each other drugs.”
Johnny added:
“Never. We hid it… we thought we were hiding it from each other, but we never did.”
Waylon also joked that they tried to hide the drugs because they were trying to protect each other, but it was really no big secret:
“See I knew he couldn’t handle it, so I had to protect him… I think he thinking about the same thing.”
Waylon and Johnny each had a very bad drug addictions that lasted for many years, and ultimately, both were (thankfully) able to successfully kick the habit as they got older.
Johnny goes onto say in the conversation that he was a very fine biscuit maker, which Waylon agreed with, though he did point out that he got the bad end of the deal in terms of their roles in the apartment. Waylon was supposed to be the maid and clean everything, while Johnny was the chef… but they only ate “about every two weeks”:
“See, my job was cleaning up the apartment, and his job was to cook. Well he got the best deal ‘cuz we didn’t eat but about every two weeks.”
Turn it up: