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Waylon Jennings, a Country Legend

Country music star Waylon Jennings died this week at the age of 64. Born in 1937 in Littlefield, Texas, he was a disc jockey at 14, and had already formed his own band at the age of 12, making guest appearances on local station KDAV's Sunday Party, where he met Buddy Holly in 1955. Jennings became Holly's bass player. It was Jennings who gave his seat up to the Big Bopper on the plane that crashed and killed Buddy Holly. In 1975, Waylon was named the Country Music Association's Male Vocalist of the Year, and in 1976, he helped found the "Outlaw Movement." In that year, Waylon, Willie, Jessi Colter (who married Waylon in 1969) and Tompall Glaser teamed up for Wanted: The Outlaws that became the first platinum (one million units) album ever recorded in Nashville. Waylon, the authorized autobiography, was written with writer-musician Lenny Kaye in 1996.

Copyright 2002 Fresh Air