Could you bring together four different country stars for a modern day version of the Highwaymen? Country music fans certainly had a fun time entertaining the question.
As you likely already know, the country supergroup that was together from 1985 to 1995 consisted of the genres most well-known outlaws, including Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash and Kris Kristofferson. It’s easily considered to be one of the best ensemble bands that’s ever played together, and the formula for the band was rather simple.
What if we took four all-time-greats and had them share the stage?
Jennings, Nelson, Cash and Kristofferson offered up their own songs for the group to play, and the four country artists also came together to create original music for the Highwaymen. And they obviously provided some incredible moments throughout their run, like in 1990 when they held a special concert called American Outlaws: Live at Nassau Coliseum where they joined forces to sing some of their biggest hits and most iconic songs.
When you think back on the group’s incredible run, you can’t help but ask the question, “Could this work in the modern day?” Could you take some of country music’s biggest stars – who may or may not be considered modern outlaws – and put them together and have it work as well as the original Highwaymen?
That’s what we asked our followers recently, and the Whiskey Riff faithful didn’t disappoint.
They flooded the comment section with plenty of great shouts, and I do have to point out… Sturgill Simpson/Johnny Blue Skies popped up a whole lot (one person even included both in their answer). As did Tyler Childers, and funny enough, an original member of the Highwaymen that’s still out there doing it: Willie Nelson.
Below you’ll see a variety of respectable options, and one that brings together every country music Zach you could think of. That one seemed more like a joke than the rest, but it was still worthy of including in the list. So without further ado, take a look at who country music fans think should come together to form the modern day Highwaymen:
“Marcus King, Billy Strings, Johnny Blue Skies, Tyler Childers.”
“Cody Jinks, Ward Davis, Whitey Morgan, Jamey Johnson.”
“Cody Canada, Jason Boland, Randy Rogers, Stoney LaRue.”
“Zac Brown, Zach Bryan, Zach Top, Gavin Adcock… what could go wrong?”
“Eric Church, Chris Stapleton, Luke Combs and Cody Johnson.”
“Sturgill Simpson, Benjamin Tod, Charley Crockett, Colter Wall.”
“Eric Church, Brandon Coleman, Stephen Wilson Jr., Zach Top.”
“Jamey Johnson, Eric Church, Dierks Bentley, and Brad Paisley.”
“Koe Wetzel, Parker McCollum, Zach Top, and Whiskey Myers… I don’t care that one is a whole band, it’s my list not yours.”
“Jason Boland, Cleto Cordero, William Clark Green and Evan Felker.”
“Marcus King, Charles Wesley Godwin, Brent Cobb, and Ryan Bingham.”
“Jamey Johnson, Sturgill Simpson, Colter Wall, and Willie Nelson, since he’s still around.”
“Cody Canada, Cody Jinks, Cody Johnson and Cody Cannon”
While obviously a joke, that last one would actually definitely not suck…
But not half bad, right? Who’d they miss? And who would you go with?
All the quartets listed above are great options, but they’d still have some big shoes to fill trying to live up to this: